Can You Make A Profit Fighting Misinfo? NewsGuard's Gordon Crovitz

In Reality

Dec 18 2023 • 44 mins

Disinformation is good business. Spreading lies and outrage tends to be profitable, thanks to programmatic advertising, which cares only about traffic, not truth, and funding by state actors like Russia, which pour money into narratives that undermine democracies. Supporting truth is a tougher commercial prospect, but today’s guest is giving it a credible run.

Gordon Crovitz is the co-founder, with Steven Brill, of NewsGuard - a five-year-old for-profit enterprise that rates news sites for editorial integrity helping news consumers and advertisers avoid sites that spread toxic disinformation. Crovitz comes to NewsGuard after a distinguished career as a journalist and media entrepreneur. He was publisher of the Wall Street Journal, as well as an award-winning columnist for that paper.

Before NewsGuard, he founded or cofounded Factiva and Online Journalism—so he’s no stranger to media startups. Gordon and Eric discuss NewsGuard’s business model, his decision to take up the cause of countering disinformation, the role of advertising in funding lies and the explosion of artificial intelligence in the information ecosystem and what seekers of truth can do about it.


Topics

00:00
Introduction and Background
00:23
The Need for Trustworthy Journalism
01:12
The Problem of Identifying News Sources
02:10
The Role of Advertising in Misinformation
03:40
NewsGuard as a For-Profit Model
04:39
NewsGuard's Data and Reports
06:34
Ads Supporting Misinformation on Social Media
08:23
News Reliability Ratings and Misinformation Fingerprints
09:33
Examples of News Ratings
12:15
The Importance of Misinformation Fingerprints
16:55
Trust in Media and Political Bias
20:29
Challenges in Steering Ads to Reliable Sources
24:57
The State of Professional Journalism
29:56
Losing the Battle Against Misinformation
31:39
The Need for Regulation and Disclosure
35:50
Approaching Social Media Regulation
38:59
Gordon Crovitz's News Consumption Habits
44:24
Conclusion


This episode was produced by Tom Platts

Website - free episode transcripts
www.in-reality.fm


Produced by Sound Sapien
soundsapien.com


Alliance for Trust in Media
alliancefortrust.com

You Might Like

The Daily
The Daily
The New York Times
The Dan Bongino Show
The Dan Bongino Show
Cumulus Podcast Network | Dan Bongino
Pod Save America
Pod Save America
Crooked Media
WSJ What’s News
WSJ What’s News
The Wall Street Journal
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Daily Wire
Morning Joe
Morning Joe
Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, MSNBC
The Tucker Carlson Show
The Tucker Carlson Show
Tucker Carlson Network
The Glenn Beck Program
The Glenn Beck Program
Blaze Podcast Network
The Fox News Rundown
The Fox News Rundown
FOX News Radio
Mark Levin Podcast
Mark Levin Podcast
Cumulus Podcast Network
The Rachel Maddow Show
The Rachel Maddow Show
Rachel Maddow, MSNBC
The Headlines
The Headlines
The New York Times
Morning Wire
Morning Wire
The Daily Wire