Neocon-Backed NewsGuard, Microsoft’s “Fake News” Nanny, Linked To Pro-Saudi Media Blitz
by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
Mon, 01/28/2019
NewsGuard – the neocon-backed browser extension claiming to be the latest arbiter of “fake news,” has some interesting forces behind it.
Included automatically with the mobile version of Microsoft’s edge browser, NewsGuard has recently come under fire for giving a “red” rating to a number of conservative news outlets, while giving a “green” rating to several sites notorious for uncorrected falsehoods.
Reporting extensively on this topic, Breitbart’s Allum Bokhari and John Nolte have catalogued NewsGuard’s neocon-packed board, its promotion by Fox News and the plugin’s selective and rampant bias. Now – Bokhari reports that NewsGuard is linked to a Paris-based advertising multinational that has made millions of dollars whitewashing Saudi Arabia’s image following the 9/11 attacks.
Navigate to Newsguard’s website and you’ll be greeted with a slogan that proudly proclaims “restoring trust and accountability.”
Yet do a little digging on that same website, and you’ll discover that Newsguard’s third-largest investor is Publicis Groupe, a Paris-based advertising multinational whose subsidiaries include a vast range of P.R. firms whose sole purpose is to spin the news and influence the public on behalf of corporate clients.
Among these P.R. firms is Qorvis Group, a Washington, D.C.-based outfit whose clients include Saudi Arabia and the Kingdom of Bahrain. The firm has represented Saudi Arabia since the aftermath of the September 11 attacks when the Sharia-run country was desperate to protect its image amidst revelations that 15 of the 19 attacking terrorists were Saudi nationals.
The Saudis were serious about too: in a seven-month period between March and September 2002, the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia spent an eye-popping $14.7 million on Qorvis’ services. -Breitbart
The Rest…HERE
