- A federal judge has dismissed Consortium News’ $13 million defamation lawsuit against NewsGuard, ruling that the site failed to prove actual malice. The lawsuit stemmed from NewsGuard’s low-reliability rating of Consortium News’ Ukraine-Russia war coverage.
- The judge compared the case to a restaurant critic reviewing a menu without sampling every dish, reinforcing that actual malice requires a higher legal standard.
- NewsGuard welcomed the ruling, maintaining that its rating system is a protected opinion under the First Amendment.
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A federal judge has dismissed a $13 million defamation lawsuit filed by Consortium News against NewsGuard, a media rating firm that tracks online misinformation.
The lawsuit originated from NewsGuard’s assessment of Consortium News’ reporting on the Ukraine-Russia war. NewsGuard assigned the website a low-reliability score and flagged it with a warning, stating that it failed to meet basic journalistic standards. The site was also labeled as having a “left-wing, anti-U.S. perspective.”
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Consortium News claimed the rating was defamatory and harmed its reputation. The nonprofit news site argued that NewsGuard did not review enough of its content before issuing the low score.
According to the lawsuit, NewsGuard examined only five articles, while more than 20,000 videos and articles were included in the same assessment.
Judge rules against Consortium News
On Wednesday, March 26, a federal judge ruled that Consortium News failed to provide evidence of actual malice, a key standard in defamation cases.
“Plaintiff’s argument sounds in negligence,” the judge wrote in the ruling. “To accept this theory would be akin to finding actual malice on the part of a restaurant critic who, without trying every dish on a restaurant’s menu, gives the restaurant a negative review based on a few bad meals. Actual malice is a subjective standard.”
Consortium News, founded by investigative journalist Robert Parry, has not yet commented on the decision.
According to Courthouse News Service, NewsGuard co-CEO Gordon Crovitz said Wednesday that the company is “gratified but not surprised” by the court’s ruling.
NewsGuard’s ratings
NewsGuard’s website explains that it “combines human expertise and technology to provide data, analysis and journalism that helps enterprises and consumers identify reliable information online.”
The firm has given Straight Arrow News a 100 out of 100 reliability rating, affirming its commitment to delivering unbiased and fact-based news.
