Silicon Valley had help censoring conservatives – and most Americans never saw who was providing it.
A little-known company was sitting at the center of the operation.
Who was funding that company, and how much, is the part of this story South Carolina refused to ignore.
How the NewsGuard Blacklist Drained Ad Revenue From Conservative News Outlets
NewsGuard has operated since 2018 as a for-profit media rating company, selling credibility scores to advertisers and tech platforms that use them to decide which outlets get ad revenue and which get cut off.
The Media Research Center analyzed those scores and found NewsGuard rated left-wing outlets an average of 27 points higher than conservative ones. The New York Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, and TIME all received perfect or near-perfect scores. Breitbart, The Gateway Pundit, The Federalist, and Newsmax landed in the red zone – branded unreliable for millions of Americans.
The Pentagon handed NewsGuard $749,387 in taxpayer funds in September 2021. The Biden State Department's Global Engagement Center, later described by constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley as part of "a massive censorship system," extended additional contracts and grants.
Turley, the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University, wrote that NewsGuard functions as one of the most sophisticated operations being used to "white list" and "black list" sites – warning advertisers, educators, and funders away from outlets it deems insufficiently credible.
The Daily Wire, The Federalist, and the state of Texas filed suit against the State Department in 2023, calling the government's coordination with NewsGuard "one of the most egregious government operations to censor the American press in the history of the nation."
South Carolina Joins Florida and West Virginia in Banning NewsGuard Government Contracts
Gov. Henry McMaster signed South Carolina's 2026-27 state budget this week, which includes Section 117.211, a provision barring state agencies from using state funds to contract with any advertising firm that acts as or uses a "media reliability monitor" when placing government advertising.
The provision covers organizations like NewsGuard, Ad Fontes Media, and the Global Disinformation Index – all of which score news outlets on credibility and sell those ratings to advertisers who use them to decide where ad dollars go.
"Taxpayer-funded advertising should not be filtered through ideological gatekeepers masquerading as neutral watchdogs," said Christine Czernejewski, spokesperson for the Independent Media Council, which represents more than a dozen independent and conservative media organizations reaching more than 70 million Americans.
"South Carolina's action sends a clear message that government should not subsidize private censorship schemes."
South Carolina follows Florida, which enacted similar restrictions for the second consecutive year, and West Virginia, where Gov. Patrick Morrisey signed the First Amendment Preservation Act in April.
Congress also restricted Pentagon advertising contracts through the most recent National Defense Authorization Act, targeting firms that use misinformation-monitoring systems to place military recruitment ads.
The FTC went further. As a condition of approving the merger of two of the world's largest advertising conglomerates, the commission forced the combined company to stop using NewsGuard's scores entirely when placing ads. Three other major ad firms – WPP, Publicis, and Dentsu – faced similar restrictions on coordinated blacklisting practices. NewsGuard's blacklist just got blacklisted.
NewsGuard Gave Chinese Communist Propaganda a Higher Rating Than Newsmax
NewsGuard gave China Daily – a newspaper run by the Chinese Communist Party and operating under direct government control – a reliability score of 44.5.
Newsmax received a 20.
The Federalist received a 17.5. One America News received a 22.5.
"When state-sponsored media operating under the authority of the Chinese Communist Party can receive more favorable treatment than legitimate U.S. news organizations, it exposes the fundamental flaws in these blacklisting systems," Czernejewski said.
What started as a Pentagon contract and a Microsoft partnership has turned into a full retreat. Congress moved first, Florida followed, West Virginia came next, and now South Carolina – while the FTC squeezed the ad industry from the opposite direction.
Every institution NewsGuard used to launder its ratings into revenue is getting shut down by the people voters actually elected – and the political movement doing it is not slowing down.
NewsGuard co-founder Steven Brill, a longtime Democrat donor, has denied the organization engages in censorship. His company is now watching state after state reach a different conclusion.
Sources:
- Newsmax Wires, "S.C. Bans Funds for Ad Agencies Using NewsGuard, Censorship Programs," Newsmax, August 17, 2026.
- Christine Czernejewski, "South Carolina Fights Back Against Media Blacklists," The Daily Signal, August 19, 2026.
- Allum Bokhari, "Financial Blacklisting: NewsGuard Advises Advertisers to Avoid Pro-Trump Media," Breitbart, January 31, 2019.
- Jonathan Turley, "The Most Chilling Words Today: I'm From NewsGuard and I Am Here to Rate You," The Hill, July 29, 2024.
- Staff, "NDAA Aims to Block DOD Contracts With Groups That 'Blacklist Conservative News Sources,'" The Daily Signal, December 10, 2025.
- Staff, "West Virginia Gov. Morrisey Signs Bill Targeting Censorship," Newsmax, April 6, 2026.
