Newsguard Transparent Reliability Ratings For News And Information

Bonisiwe Shabane

-Nov 30, 2025, 8:58 PM

newsguard transparent reliability ratings for news and information

How foreign powers are gaslighting Americans Exclusive: Popular chatbots amplify misinformation Leading AI chatbots are now twice as likely to spread false information as last year, study finds NewsGuard is a rating system for news and information websites. It is accessible via browser extensions and mobile apps. It rates publishers based on whether they have transparent finances or publish many errors, among other criteria.[2] NewsGuard Technologies Inc., the company behind the tool, also provides services such as misinformation tracking and brand...

NewsGuard Technologies was founded in 2018 by Steven Brill and L. Gordon Crovitz, who serve as co-CEOs.[5] Crovitz was a former publisher of The Wall Street Journal.[2] In 2018, Joyce Purnick, former bureau chief and editor at The New York Times, and Amy Westfeldt, an... In April 2019, the co-founders of NewsGuard announced that they had entered talks with British internet service providers to incorporate their credibility scoring system into consumer internet packages. Under the plans, a user would see a warning message before visiting a misleading site without needing to have the NewsGuard extension installed. Users would also have the ability to disable the feature.[7] In January 2020, NewsGuard began notifying users that it would become a paid, member-supported browser extension in early 2020, while remaining free for libraries and schools.

Early adopters received a 33% discount on the price, paying $1.95/month (USD) or £1.95/month (UK). They plan to roll out new premium features, including a reliability score, and offer new mobile apps for Android and iOS.[8][needs update] NewsGuard launched in Australia and New Zealand in March 2023.[9] (Image by Tero Vesalainen on Shutterstock) VIENNA — In today’s digital world, determining what information to trust online has become increasingly challenging. According to researchers, the total volume of false news remains relatively small—accounting for just 0.15% of all news consumption.

Still, its impact on public discourse and social division continues to raise concerns. A new study published in the Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media examines one of the most prominent tools researchers use to identify untrustworthy news sources: NewsGuard. Since its launch in 2019, NewsGuard has emerged as a widely used database for researchers studying online misinformation, with more than 12,000 websites having been evaluated by the company. The service employs professional journalists and editors who rate news sources based on nine journalistic criteria, generating trustworthiness scores from 0 to 100. While initially focused on U.S. media outlets, NewsGuard has expanded to evaluate sources across multiple countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Canada, Austria, Australia, and New Zealand.

A team of researchers led by Jula Luehring at the University of Vienna and the Complexity Science Hub conducted an extensive analysis of NewsGuard’s database from 2019 to 2024, examining how its ratings have... Their findings reveal both NewsGuard’s reliability and the potential pitfalls of oversimplifying its nuanced ratings system. NewsGuard deploys a team of expert journalists to rate and review the reliability of news sources across the open web, social media, and content platforms based on a set of apolitical criteria of journalistic... Accessible via web dashboard, API or cloud datastream, our ratings have become the trusted source for understanding media reliability for research institutions, technology platforms, news aggregators, artificial intelligence providers, advertising companies, and news consumers... Want more information about NewsGuard? Please fill out this form and someone from our staff will be in touch with you shortly.

NewsGuard’s ratings cover more than 35,000 online sources across the web, social media and content platforms, TV and CTV networks, and podcasting platforms. The ratings cover publishers accounting for 95%+ of online engagement with news. Each rated publisher receives a rating on each of NewsGuard’s criteria, a total reliability score of 0-100, an overall rating level, and more than 30 descriptive metadata fields with data about the site’s ownership,... I an an unapologetic liberal. I am also a news junky who hates media for putting profits above honesty. This behavior causes me to be skeptical of ALL for-profit news sources.

I spend countless hours researching news that is questionable. I AM YOUR DREAM CUSTOMER. I would gladly pay you to provide reliable evaluations of content. BUT, I DELETED YOUR APP AFTER DOWNLOADING IT BECAUSE YOU WON’t ALLOW ME TO ASSESS YOUR SERVICE WITHOUT SEEING WHAT I’M BUYING) I don’t commit my time or money blindly. (your signup procedure takes my time, more so if I have to cancel in 2 weeks) It’s a shame that an honest company trying to stay in business while providing a valuable service may... Trust your customers (I have never seen evaluations so bifurcated, only 1s and 5s) your market is already cynical don’t give us a silly reason to avoid you

I an an unapologetic liberal. I am also a news junky who hates media for putting profits above honesty. This behavior causes me to be skeptical of ALL for-profit news sources. I spend countless hours researching news that is questionable. I AM YOUR DREAM CUSTOMER. I would gladly pay you to provide reliable evaluations of content.

BUT, I DELETED YOUR APP AFTER DOWNLOADING IT BECAUSE YOU WON’t ALLOW ME TO ASSESS YOUR SERVICE WITHOUT SEEING WHAT I’M BUYING) I don’t commit my time or money blindly. (your signup procedure takes my time, more so if I have to cancel in 2 weeks) It’s a shame that an honest company trying to stay in business while providing a valuable service may... Trust your customers (I have never seen evaluations so bifurcated, only 1s and 5s) your market is already cynical don’t give us a silly reason to avoid you I learned about this app from an article on the Democratic National Committee website about combating disinformation. I don’t normally pay for apps but I checked this out because the DNC recommended it. Otherwise I’d probably never have considered it because I don’t really look at much disinformation online because almost all of my information sources are quite reputable and reliable.

But when NewsGuard presents you with its assessment of a news site you get as many examples as needed to solidly validate the evaluation of various journalistic practices, information about ownership, investors, management structure,... Every piece of information is backed up with a link to its source I learned about this app from an article on the Democratic National Committee website about combating disinformation. I don’t normally pay for apps but I checked this out because the DNC recommended it. Otherwise I’d probably never have considered it because I don’t really look at much disinformation online because almost all of my information sources are quite reputable and reliable. But when NewsGuard presents you with its assessment of a news site you get as many examples as needed to solidly validate the evaluation of various journalistic practices, information about ownership, investors, management structure,...

Every piece of information is backed up with a link to its source The app does a great job of detailing each news site, states current examples of stories from the site and if they are accurate or not with linked sources to back it all up. Those complaining that this is an anti conservative app are just mad that the places they get their news are filled with false or altered stories and stay away from the truth. The app is great at debunking sites on both the left and the right, it’s just a fact that the sites to right are more often spreading false information. The app is fair, transparent and factual and they back it all up with sources and repeated requests to sites for clarification on their stories. NewsGuard is a service designed to help users determine the reliability of news and information websites.

It provides trust ratings for over 7,500 news sources, allowing individuals to make informed decisions about which outlets to trust and which to avoid. Here are some key insights about NewsGuard: 1. **Rating System**: NewsGuard employs a transparent rating system that evaluates news sources based on 30+ criteria. These criteria assess aspects such as the source's credibility, transparency, and adherence to journalistic standards [1]. 2.

**Accessibility**: Users can access NewsGuard through browser extensions and mobile applications. This means that ratings are readily available while browsing the internet, making it easier to identify trustworthy sources in real-time [2]. 3. **Misinformation Countermeasures**: By providing these ratings, NewsGuard aims to combat misinformation. It serves as a tool for readers, brands, and democracies to ensure that the information they consume or share is reliable [1]. 4.

**Nonpartisan Approach**: NewsGuard prides itself on its nonpartisan criteria, which has made it a target in the political arena, particularly among groups concerned about perceived censorship and free speech issues [5]. Major media-watch organizations that rank outlets for accuracy include Ad Fontes Media, NewsGuard, Media Bias/Fact Check (MBFC), AllSides and Ground News — each uses different methods (e.g., Ad Fontes’ analyst panels, NewsGuard’s journalist reviewers,... Independent polls of public trust — such as YouGov’s 2025 trust survey — show different “most trusted” names (e.g., The Weather Channel ranked highest in that poll), underscoring that watchdog ratings and public trust... 1. Who the watchdogs are and what they measure Several groups dominate the landscape: Ad Fontes Media produces an “Interactive Media Bias Chart” that rates bias and reliability across 1,200+ sources using a politically balanced analyst team and a reproducible methodology [1] [2].

NewsGuard employs teams of professional journalists who rate sources against apolitical journalistic criteria and says its ratings cover more than 35,000 online sources, with use cases for platforms, researchers and advertisers [3]. Media Bias/Fact Check (MBFC) maintains a large searchable database and publishes bias and factuality judgments for thousands of outlets [7] [8]. AllSides focuses on political bias using blind surveys and mixed methods to rate 800+ sources and emphasizes that bias ratings differ from reliability assessments [4]. Ground News aggregates ratings (including Ad Fontes and MBFC) to compute its own Factuality Score and evaluates outlets’ sourcing, corrections and context [5]. 2. How “accuracy” is defined — competing approaches

Watchdogs define accuracy/reliability differently: Ad Fontes blends bias and reliability scoring based on human analysts and exemplars [1] [2]. NewsGuard’s approach centers on journalistic practices and accountability — e.g., clarity about corrections, authoritative sourcing and transparency [3]. MBFC provides categorical factuality ratings (e.g., “High for factual reporting”) alongside bias labels, applying its own editorial judgments [7] [8]. AllSides concentrates on perceived political bias via blind reader surveys, explicitly noting bias is only one axis and urging attention to reporting quality as well [4]. Ground News averages trusted rating systems to produce a quick factuality score [5]. These methodological differences explain why the “top” outlets differ between lists.

Newsguard Transparent Reliability Ratings For News And Information

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