(RightWing.org) – It’s a sad fact that people just don’t trust the news anymore. It’s easy to understand why; too often, journalists push their agenda instead of telling us what’s actually happening in the world. Now, a new project aims to tell us what news we can rely on. Don’t get too excited, though — the project’s backers are bringing their own biases to the party.
Meet The Trust Project
Last September, Craig Newmark, who has donated to a range of far-left media outlets, helped to fund and launch The Trust Project. Other initial funders include three of the largest tech companies — Microsoft, Google, and Facebook — and the Democracy Fund, which has donated $1.2 billion to left-wing groups. The Trust Project claims to be a collaboration that includes the Radio Television Digital News Association, the University of Washington’s Accelerating Social Transformation program and the same university’s Center for an Informed Public.
According to the project’s website, its goal is to tell the public what news sources to trust by using eight “Trust Indicators.” These are:
- Best Practices
- Journalist Expertise
- Type of work
- Citations and references
- Methods
- Locally sourced
- Diverse voices
- Actionable feedback
The site says the project “asked people what they look for in trusted media” and created the indicators from their responses. However, the fact “diverse voices” made it onto the list might indicate what sort of people they asked; the idea that “diverse perspectives across social and demographic differences” create different versions of the truth is solidly embedded in woke liberal ideologies.
Is The Project Biased?
The problem with The Trust Project is that, while its goal is to help the public find unbiased news sources, the people behind it have some biases of their own. The Democracy Fund is run by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, who spent $45 million financing attack ads against President Trump in 2020.
Microsoft has been criticized for censoring web searches to exclude results the Chinese Communist Party doesn’t like, which seriously undermines its claim to support truth in the media. It’s also been accused of censoring conservative opinions; in 2021, Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) called for the company to be subjected to antitrust laws over the issue. Newmark himself has donated to Mother Jones, a notoriously left-wing magazine that has faced frequent criticism for biased journalism and allegedly exploiting interns. With The Trust Project’s backers leaning in the same political direction, many Conservatives will wonder exactly how much we should trust the project.
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