The National Defense Authorization Act includes a provision aimed at defending conservative media.
The NDAA prohibits the Department of War from forming contracts for the purpose of advertising for military recruitment with “advertising firms like NewsGuard that blacklist conservative news sources,” according to the House Armed Services Committee summary of the bill.
“Major advertising agencies have been effectively censoring conservative media by blocking ads and their revenues. We applaud Congress for taking the stand to oppose such censorship when it comes military recruitment advertising,” Christine Czernejewski, membership director of The Independent Media Council, told The Daily Signal.
“The Congress acted to make sure all Americans see these ads—and stopping leftwing ratings groups like NewsGuard from targeting conservative media,” Czernejewski said, thanking members of Congress, such as Sens. Tommy Tuberville, R- Ala., Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Reps. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., Mike Rogers, R-Ala., for their leadership on the issue.
NewsGuard collects data on thousands of news sources and rates the credibility of the platforms.
Some conservatives, including member of Congress, have previously raised concern over NewsGuard using its platform as a tool of censorship in the name of “combating misinformation.”
In 2024, the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability conducted an investigation into the “impact of NewsGuard on protected First Amendment speech and its potential to serve as a nontransparent agent of censorship campaigns,” Committee Chairman James Comer said last October.
Last December, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, criticized NewsGuard as an organization “under increasing scrutiny for its bias against conservative viewpoints.”
“NewsGuard rates many top conservative outlets as reliable, including for advertisers—the opposite of ‘blacklisting’ them,” NewsGuard COO Matt Skibinski told The Daily Signal.
“Conservative brands rated ‘credible’ by NewsGuard include: Fox News, The Free Beacon, The Washington Examiner, The Daily Caller, The New York Post, The National Review, Western Journal, Commentary, The Heritage Foundation, The Daily Signal, and many others,” Skibinski said, adding that “NewsGuard has never had any U.S. government contracts for placing military recruitment advertisements—nor do we have any plans to do so.”
The 2026 NDAA is over 3,000 pages and includes $900 billion in funding for the Department of War and U.S. defense priorities.
The House is expected to vote Wednesday on the bill that includes a number of President Donald Trump’s key policy priorities, including codifying some of Trump’s executive orders into law.
“This year’s National Defense Authorization Act helps advance President Trump and Republicans’ Peace Through Strength Agenda by codifying 15 of President Trump’s executive orders, ending woke ideology at the Pentagon, securing the border, revitalizing the defense industrial base, and restoring the warrior ethos,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said.
Because the NDAA includes critical funding for American defense, it is considered a “must pass” bill and is expected to pass in the House and Senate before lawmakers leave Washington for the Christmas holiday.
