Andrew Ferguson, chairman of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), thinks NewsGuard, a company that rates the transparency and credibility of online news sources, is biased against conservatives. There is not much evidence to support that claim. But even if it were true, NewsGuard argues in a First Amendment lawsuit it filed last Friday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Ferguson would have no business using his regulatory authority to harass the company and discourage advertisers from relying on its ratings.
"Under the guise of a supposed antitrust investigation, the FTC has demanded all documents (memos, emails, texts, reporters' notes, subscriber lists, analyses, financial reports, and more) that NewsGuard has created or received since its founding in 2018," the complaint notes. The FTC also has directly attacked NewsGuard's revenue by conditioning the merger of two advertising agencies on the resulting company's agreement to refrain from subscribing to the rating service.
