Self-Anointed Media Gatekeeper Lowers ‘Free Beacon’ Quality Rating After Critical News Coverage

Three months after the Washington Free Beacon revealed the Democratic leanings of NewsGuard employees—several of whom have worked in Democratic politics and contributed to Democratic candidates—the self-anointed arbiter of media credibility docked the Free Beacon‘s score on its trust ratings.

The company, which claims to "have no political axes to grind," on Wednesday lowered the pro-freedom website's score to 80 from 87.5 out of a possible 100 points, citing an alleged failure to disclose the company's ownership in a "user-friendly" way. The Free Beacon‘s disclosure of its ownership by FreeBeacon LLC on its "Terms of Use" page is apparently insufficient.

The revision came after NewsGuard analyst Macrina Wang, who as a student at Yale told a student publication the Brett Kavanaugh saga taught her that if she is ever sexually assaulted, "I won't get the justice that I deserve," asked the Free Beacon questions about its founding editor "David Continetti [sic]" and its "practices regarding distinguishing between news and opinion." Free Beacon founding editor Matthew Continetti did not respond to a request for comment.