NewsGuard, the self-appointed arbiter of media reliability, appears poised to peddle some more of its own misinformation—this time about George Washington University Law School Professor Jonathan Turley.
Turley exposed NewsGuard’s apparent plans in a Saturday column for The Hill. In “The Most Chilling Words Today: I’m from NewsGuard and I Am Here to Rate You,” the chaired professor of law detailed a recent communication he received from the ratings giant. Roughly a week after he had penned an earlier column for The Hill in which he criticized NewsGuard as infected with a “pro-Democrat and left-wing bias,” the for-profit organization “came knocking,” Turley explained.
NewGuard had decided to now review Res Ipsa, the blog the law professor hosts at jonathanturley.org, Turley explained. That alone is curious, because many of the articles posted at Res Ipsa have been published by other NewsGuard-rated outlets, such as The Hill and the Wall Street Journal. Beyond that fact and the suspicious timing of NewsGuard’s decision to evaluate the law professor’s writings, the questions posed were “bizarre,” as Turley explained.
For instance, why would he call his blog “Res Ipsa Liquitur [sic] – the thing itself speaks.” Could you explain the reason to this non-lawyer?” “Res ipsa loquitur is defined in the header as ‘The thing itself speaks,’ which I think speaks for itself,” Turley quipped.
While one might laugh off that ridiculous, typo-infused question, NewsGuard’s outreach to Turley included a much more concerning and, as the law professor stressed, “illuminating” inquiry.
“I cannot find any
