NewsGuard, the establishment “news-rating” project that presents itself to the public as an impartial authority on the trustworthiness of news publishers, has labeled Fox News an untrustworthy news source, saying it “fails to adhere to basic journalistic standards.”
Despite presenting itself as a fake news watchdog, NewsGuard’s own founders have fueled false claims about major national news stories. At the height of the 2020 presidential election, NewsGuard co-founder Steve Brill stated on national television that he thought there was a “high likelihood” that the Hunter Biden laptop story was a “hoax perpetrated by the Russians.”
NewsGuard advisory board member and Russiagate conspiracy theorist Michael Hayden signed on to an open letter making the same claim — and has yet to retract it. He remains an advisor to NewsGuard.