Congress is on the verge of dealing a potential blow to the so-called Censorship-Industrial Complex – assuming the National Defense Authorization Act isn't sunk by its extension of warrantless surveillance powers and other bones of contention among some Republicans.
The conference report included a provision that would prohibit contracts for "military recruitment advertisements" with entities that place ads "in news sources based on personal or institutional political preferences or biases, or determinations of misinformation."
The compromise bill between House and Senate negotiators for the $886 billion funding measure was presented to the Senate and passed by the chamber Wednesday night.
The provision in the 3,000-plus page report specifically names NewsGuard and the U.K.-based Global Disinformation Index, which appear to try to starve primarily conservative media of ad revenue through NewsGuard's subscription "trust" ratings and GDI's secret blacklists.
