The "counter-misinformation" service NewsGuard fact-checks most major independent outlets, including Racket. They even bless us with a "reliability rating," based on factors like my willingness to answer questions about funding sources (there are none, the site is 100% reader-financed), the lack of a formal masthead (calling myself editor isn't good enough, apparently), and incidents like reporting issues disputed by Stanford's not-always-forthcoming Election Integrity Partnership.

I told NewsGuard I believe its business model is illegitimate, because "media outlets should gain and lose trust based on how they are evaluated by audiences, not paid services." Since they're continuing to score sites like mine, I've decided to regularly fact-check their content, on a scale of 0-to-4 Marks of Satan. The first entries:

"China's Defense Ministry Falsely Claims U.S. is Expanding its Nuclear Arsenal," State-Sponsored Disinformation Risk Briefing, November 16, 2023:

NewsGuard tends to opt for layup fact-checks (do Israelis really drink the blood of Palestinians? Is Ukraine forcing pregnant women to fight?), but on November 16th, they took on the Chinese in a nuanced battle, after Chinese defense spokesperson Wu Qian reacted to a Pentagon annual report to Congress that claimed current Chinese nuclear efforts "dwarf previous attempts in both scale and complexity." Wu answered by saying the Defense Department was "sensationalizing" a "nonexistent China military threat," adding the U.S. was making "excuses for itself as it expands its nuclear arsenal to maintain military dominance."

NewsGuard took issue with Wu's claim that the U.S. is expanding its nuclear arsenal. Disinformation, NewsGuard wrote!