A real blacklist designed to choke ad profits from conservative and legitimate news organizations
Conservative news outlets blacklisted by Microsoft’s Xandr,
based on advice from GDI
They’re coming for you next: Using American federal funds, a British “disinformation” group called the Global Disinformation Index (GDI) has created a real blacklist of valid and longstanding conservative news organizations and fed that list to internet ad companies to encourage them to cut ad revenue from those news organizations.
A sampling of the blacklisted news companies that have actually been punished financially by this effort is shown to the right
Of the ad companies, a Microsoft company named Xander appears to be the most enthusiastic about using GDI’s blacklist to choke ad sales to conservatives sites.
GDI’s “dynamic exclusion list” includes at least 2,000 domains, many of which are “foreign state-sponsored news and opinion sites, forums that traffic in disinformation, and explicitly sanctioned websites,” according to a second source close to Microsoft. Each month, GDI sends Xandr a list of websites on this blacklist, said the source.
The Washington Examiner revealed on Thursday that it is on GDI’s list and spoke to an ad-buying source who said Breitbart News is also. Separately, GDI has said that the 10 “riskiest” news outlets for purported disinformation are the American Spectator, Newsmax, the Federalist, the American Conservative, One America News Network, the Blaze, the Daily Wire, RealClearPolitics, Reason, and the New York Post.
All those news outlets are legitimate, well established, and reasonable and reliable sources of information. No one should rely solely on them for their news, but to call their reporting “false,” “misleading,” “hate speech,” “reprehensible,” or “offensive” merely because they publish news from a conservative perspective is fundamentally dishonest. To then blacklist them because they have a different perspective is pure censorship by the left against its political opponents.
That the blacklist is definitely partisan is proven by the news outlets GDI has determined are acceptable.
GDI has been open about the 10 websites it determines are the 10 “least risky.” These outlets, which all skew toward the left aside from the Wall Street Journal, are NPR, ProPublica, the Associated Press, Insider, the New York Times, USA Today, the Washington Post, Buzzfeed News, and HuffPost, according to a 27-page GDI memo [pdf].
I would argue that, other than its editorial page, the Wall Street Journal tends to skew left as well.
If GDI was a private organization, then one could say it has the freedom to do whatever it wants, no matter how vile. And we would have the right to publicly call that behavior vile. What makes its actions illegal, however, is that GDI had received almost $700K in funding from a variety of federal agencies and federally-funded non-profits. Thus, our leftist-dominated federal government has decided to endorse GDI’S effort to censor conservatives, in direct violation of the First Amendment.
The first link above is part three of a three part series (parts 1 and 2 can be found here and here) published by the Washington Examiner, one of the news outlets GDI and Xandr have blacklisted. Will its series change anything? I doubt it. The federal bureaucracy is very tightly controlled by the left, and will be under no pressure to change. Congress will certainly do little, even with the Republicans controlling the House of Representatives. Their majority there is razor thin, and includes many fake conservatives who are really captured by the cultural left. And the Senate and Presidency remains controlled by the Democrats.
Worse of all, this censorship effort by these organizations is merely a reflection of our modern culture. Most people today either favor censorship, especially of conservatives, or are too timid and cowardly to protest. If anything, expect these federal agencies to double down on their financing to GDI, and for GDI and Microsoft’s Xandr to then expand their effort to silence conservative voices. A look at the sponsors for GDI and the people who run it only confirms this. These people will only see this story further proof that news outlets like the Washington Examiner must be shut down, forthwith. How dare its reporters question their work?
UPDATE: It appears that Xandr has now suspended its partnership with GDI, as well as removed those flag (shown above in the graphic) for all those conservative sites. The next part of the Washington Examiner’s report, published today, quotes this statement from Microsoft:
“We try to take a principled approach to accuracy and fighting foreign propaganda,” a spokesperson said on Saturday evening. “We’re working quickly to fix the issue and Xandr has stopped using GDI’s services while we are doing a larger review.”
I put this update at the end of my story, not at the beginning, because Microsoft’s actions now does not clear its name. It was all too willing and eager to censor conservatives, and has only “suspended” that censorship now because it got caught. Once the heat dies down do not be surprised if it finds another way to resume that censorship.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
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You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Conservative news outlets blacklisted by Microsoft’s Xandr,
based on advice from GDI
They’re coming for you next: Using American federal funds, a British “disinformation” group called the Global Disinformation Index (GDI) has created a real blacklist of valid and longstanding conservative news organizations and fed that list to internet ad companies to encourage them to cut ad revenue from those news organizations.
A sampling of the blacklisted news companies that have actually been punished financially by this effort is shown to the right
Of the ad companies, a Microsoft company named Xander appears to be the most enthusiastic about using GDI’s blacklist to choke ad sales to conservatives sites.
GDI’s “dynamic exclusion list” includes at least 2,000 domains, many of which are “foreign state-sponsored news and opinion sites, forums that traffic in disinformation, and explicitly sanctioned websites,” according to a second source close to Microsoft. Each month, GDI sends Xandr a list of websites on this blacklist, said the source.
The Washington Examiner revealed on Thursday that it is on GDI’s list and spoke to an ad-buying source who said Breitbart News is also. Separately, GDI has said that the 10 “riskiest” news outlets for purported disinformation are the American Spectator, Newsmax, the Federalist, the American Conservative, One America News Network, the Blaze, the Daily Wire, RealClearPolitics, Reason, and the New York Post.
All those news outlets are legitimate, well established, and reasonable and reliable sources of information. No one should rely solely on them for their news, but to call their reporting “false,” “misleading,” “hate speech,” “reprehensible,” or “offensive” merely because they publish news from a conservative perspective is fundamentally dishonest. To then blacklist them because they have a different perspective is pure censorship by the left against its political opponents.
That the blacklist is definitely partisan is proven by the news outlets GDI has determined are acceptable.
GDI has been open about the 10 websites it determines are the 10 “least risky.” These outlets, which all skew toward the left aside from the Wall Street Journal, are NPR, ProPublica, the Associated Press, Insider, the New York Times, USA Today, the Washington Post, Buzzfeed News, and HuffPost, according to a 27-page GDI memo [pdf].
I would argue that, other than its editorial page, the Wall Street Journal tends to skew left as well.
If GDI was a private organization, then one could say it has the freedom to do whatever it wants, no matter how vile. And we would have the right to publicly call that behavior vile. What makes its actions illegal, however, is that GDI had received almost $700K in funding from a variety of federal agencies and federally-funded non-profits. Thus, our leftist-dominated federal government has decided to endorse GDI’S effort to censor conservatives, in direct violation of the First Amendment.
The first link above is part three of a three part series (parts 1 and 2 can be found here and here) published by the Washington Examiner, one of the news outlets GDI and Xandr have blacklisted. Will its series change anything? I doubt it. The federal bureaucracy is very tightly controlled by the left, and will be under no pressure to change. Congress will certainly do little, even with the Republicans controlling the House of Representatives. Their majority there is razor thin, and includes many fake conservatives who are really captured by the cultural left. And the Senate and Presidency remains controlled by the Democrats.
Worse of all, this censorship effort by these organizations is merely a reflection of our modern culture. Most people today either favor censorship, especially of conservatives, or are too timid and cowardly to protest. If anything, expect these federal agencies to double down on their financing to GDI, and for GDI and Microsoft’s Xandr to then expand their effort to silence conservative voices. A look at the sponsors for GDI and the people who run it only confirms this. These people will only see this story further proof that news outlets like the Washington Examiner must be shut down, forthwith. How dare its reporters question their work?
UPDATE: It appears that Xandr has now suspended its partnership with GDI, as well as removed those flag (shown above in the graphic) for all those conservative sites. The next part of the Washington Examiner’s report, published today, quotes this statement from Microsoft:
“We try to take a principled approach to accuracy and fighting foreign propaganda,” a spokesperson said on Saturday evening. “We’re working quickly to fix the issue and Xandr has stopped using GDI’s services while we are doing a larger review.”
I put this update at the end of my story, not at the beginning, because Microsoft’s actions now does not clear its name. It was all too willing and eager to censor conservatives, and has only “suspended” that censorship now because it got caught. Once the heat dies down do not be surprised if it finds another way to resume that censorship.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
I consider this a massive failure on your, the Zmans part.
Why is BTB not listed? What an insult.
And along with BTB, where is Gateway?
As the people of America and in the world become more and more familiar with the treachery and proforma lying and censorship that the, government and big tech media in all of its forms does they are going to have to raise the stakes to the next level.
Prepare.
Is this their next collective Strategic move?
Shooting down “Unidentified Objects”? Not shooting down balloons, but “Unidentified Objects”.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/us-shoots-high-altitude-object-alaska-white-house/story?id=97040022
Keep them confused, keep them dumb, keep them scared.
As they lose their hold on what reality actually is how far will they go to retain their power.
Media and communication in the growing AI / 2023 internet environment is a very sharp double-edged sword when you lose total control of the asset.
Cotour: Heh. My thoughts entirely, except that I couldn’t be on this list as I do not take ads, and this is a list of websites that Xandr was blacklisting from ad revenue.
Related: Here is a little bit of news for everyone. You decide what is what.
2005: CHINA AND THE TAKING OVER AMERICA PLAN ?
While American politicians on the Left / Democrats / RINO’s pander to really the stupidest Orwellian radical Leftist race baiting chaos promoting agendas, the CCP / Chinese are executing their long-imagined plan for planet domination.
A well-known speech by Comrade General Chi Haotian, Vice-Chairman Of China’s Military Commission, in December, 2005 gives the world insight into the truth.
“Only countries like the United States, Canada and Australia have the vast land to serve our need for mass colonization. Therefore, solving the ‘issue of America’ is the key to solving all other issues.”
Read it, inform yourself, this is not play time, the Chinese are serious as a heart attack. Pure Sun Tzu.
China Defense Minister Speech 2005 Speech Bio-Weapons Will be used to prepare America for A Chinese Invasion (rense.com)
COVID19 was the beginning: “Only by using special means to ‘clean up’ America will we be able to lead the Chinese people there. Only by using non-destructive weapons that can kill many people will we be able to reserve America for ourselves.”
Testing their low-cost balloon delivery systems? Are you paying attention yet America?
https://wallup.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/29/173606-chinese_dragon-dragon-statue-culture.jpg
Read it here:
https://rense.com/general96/china-bio-weapons.php
Interesting to see Drudge on the list. I guess they haven’t kept up with reality.
Microsoft has already said it is dropping this source.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/02/13/microsoft-suspends-foreign-disinformation-experts-that-blacklist-conservative-media/
That was quick.
pzatchok: Once again it is clear you didn’t bother to read the post to the end before commenting.
This is GREAT! I have been looking for a tabulation of news sources that are good. They have given me that info!
Of course, this is a key to companies who want to reach conservatives!
A 2 edged sword!
GDI and those like them view the cultural divide as Normal vs. The Evil Others. That self-assurance is what allows them to denigrate other viewpoints with a clear conscience ,… they can’t process that others can legitimately think differently than themselves.
That is also the attitude that enabled the various flavors of ethnic cleansing in the previous century … and will lead to a comeback if not confronted and exposed as the manifestation of self-righteous bigotry that it is.
Normal vs. The Evil Others. – Right out of Rules for Radicals
Interesting that some of the Federal funding looks like it came during the Trump administration’s period of responsibility. That’s pretty amusing…
On a more serious note, agree taxpayers shouldn’t be funding this type of organization given its ties on the advertising front.
Am curious what thoughts folks have on the methodology used by GDI. I skimmed through the 27 page Dec. report but haven’t studied the framework basis they used to compile the report and their top/bottom groups. Am going to look at it when time allows.
Regarding Microsoft, seems to me they handled it quickly and correctly. Not that it would matter in our host’s eyes as evidenced above. *$#@%* if you do and *$#@%* if you don’t as the saying goes!
Anyway, thank you Mr. Zimmerman for writing about this. GDI looks like an interesting site from a curiosity standpoint. I wasn’t familiar with them before.
I would be quite interested in contributing to a fund for a class action lawsuit. Not sure if anyone looked at the link to the GDI webpage that lists their supporters/members but Open Society Foundation was one of them. No conflict there. Vigilance is needed because there is a concerted effort on all fronts to shut down and demonetize conservative speech. It’s part and parcel with Direct TV (AT&T) dropping their coverage of Newsmax.
Jester Naybor wrote: “… they can’t process that others can legitimately think differently than themselves.” [ellipsis in original]
I’ll say! I was told by my nephew that anyone who didn’t have his particular opinion was dumb. When I pointed out that he just called me dumb, he got “so mad, you don’t even know.” Not only are they not teaching this generation how to think, they don’t even know how to discuss a differing opinion or how to let us have a differing opinion. It is no wonder they want to blackball anyone who disagrees with them. They just cannot handle the concept, and they do not know how to defend their own opinions. They only feel safe in spaces where alternate opinions are banned.
No wonder so many of this generation are afraid to drive a car. They don’t know how to think well enough to make decisions, much less life and death decisions behind the wheel. If they are living their lives in fear (driving, Wuhan flu, global warming, crazy people let out or kept out of insane asylums who shoot up schools, malls, and movie theaters), then it is no wonder that they live with their parents, too afraid to be responsible for their own lives, turning also to various levels of government to be ersatz parents.
@Cotour: It’s worth pointing out that if the Chinese haven’t run out of space now, they won’t this century. This was probably irreversible, near term, by the time he made the speech. The Chinese population crash is an inevitable result of the One Child policy; who’d’ve thunk that a policy explicitly designed to halve the population every generation would have an effect on available manpower?
Re: Microsoft
It’s not as if GDI/Xandr went rogue; M$ also owns such wonderful organizations as NewsGuard, ostensibly a site that rates the accuracy of news sites. On the one hand, they gave MSNBC a 100% rating for years (one of the ways to, theoretically, earn a demerit is ‘not clearly distinguishing between news and opinion;’ this despite the discovery in court that Rachel Maddow doesn’t run a news program) and has dinged other outlets for failing to editorialize when quoting politicians (which seems like an excellent way to mix news and opinion; TimCast News was dinged for failing to add the nigh-ubiquitous ‘baselessly’ or ‘without evidence’ to a quote.)
Looking at the website, it is full of unbelievable Orwellian double speak. To claim to be neutral, I think of Switzerland.
But in the same sentence as claiming neutrality, it says it’s at war with disinformation! (that’s you and me and anyone who points out the fallacies in their concepts and actions… if you dare tell the emperor he has no clothes, you will be dealt with as a conspiracy theorist, a heretic and nonbeliever)
Even as I write this, the people who took Rush Limbaugh‘s place are devoting a segment of their show to the disinformation wrote about them from the Washington post. They challenge them to explain and prove their allegations… they have received nothing back in return. They hold all organizations they claim to be disinformation sources in “contempt” and will not respond to the faulty information (lies) printed about them.
In truth, “they are” what they claim everyone else “is”… A disinformation propaganda organization. (right out of the third Reich‘s playbook)
(And to think they name themselves “fact checkers”… They are as truthful as a man who put a dress on and claims to be a woman, delusional to the point of insanity)
(I wrote that this morning as my two-year-old grandson arrived eight hours ago… now to finish it)
From the link provided above;
“GDI is non-political, nonpartisan, and global in nature. We operate and partner in dozens of countries and with a variety of organisations, all united in combating disinformation and its harms”
Harm to who? The great society? The deep state is all in, and brags about the responsibility for the overthrowing of governments and the assassination of leaders who do not comply.
Funded by George Soros open society, in all his shareholders (Stakeholders!… which do not include you unless you have big pockets and agree with their Nazi ideals) A global racketeering mafia buddies in crime.
“Stakeholders also need strong and consistent leadership to help navigate the ever changing disinformation landscape.”
Translation; plug the leaks in the dam before it breaks… Their house is built on sand…
They must hang together or hang separately. Their rule is a sham and a lie, so they must maintain the illusion of power or lose everything in the backlash of the righteous revolution.
It’s all part of their “build back better” plan. After destroying all of society and laws, as we know it, to rebuild it in their own image. A utopia without the “useless eaters” (also known as “carbon consumers” in which they used mass media fear campaign to fool nearly everyone into volunteering for eugenics program to self eliminate)
A Zero carbon economy were power and food is rationed to control the masses. The herd will be reduced to “sustainable” levels, and will be “equal” in their misery… you own nothing and be happy.
These are the methods they use to achieve this, lying, stealing, (asset forfeiture without litigation) bearing false witness (Blacklisting) and even murder to obtain their ultimate goals. Their ends justify the means regardless of who gets hurt. Apparently, it’s necessary to destroy the planet to save it…
Say Bob, do you have a spreadsheet with this list?
Sure would like to spread it around.
Have already put this link to friends.
Phill O: Nope, no spreadsheet. Many of these news links are in my links section in the right column. All should be standard news sources for anyone that wants to get a wide variety of information, rather than living in the leftwing bubble of the mainstream press.