Last January, NewsGuard caught up with GraniteGrok to ask some questions about articles we had published, with which we can only assume they took umbrage—things about COVID, Masks, J6, 9/11, that sort of thing. We got a rating (in the mid-30s), and I used it the same way we do all assaults on our platform.
We share it, amplify it, and even maybe fundraise from it (Steve’s gotta eat). I then “updated” their logo.

NewsGaurd’s job is to protect the world and everyone in it by making it difficult to find content from any of the six conglomerates that control most of what we call mainstream messaging. They guard the Handmaiden media. The deep state cipher. The institutions where truth is the enemy of “progress.” And they’ve lost their government funding, so they’ll need their pimps to prop them up so they can keep telling Google to push our content to page four of five if we ever get that close.
Being disregarded by Google ‘cuz NewsGuard comes with a cost. People miss out on local granular content relevant to their search, and we lose views, which costs ad revenue, and we’re already running fewer ads to keep things cleaner. Sorry, it’s a river I need to cry to keep this thing funded. Our decision to hold anyone accountable (time and attention permitting), to free speech, independence, and user experience could cost us our operating budget without reader support.
I’d rather not turn the website into an ad circus to keep it upright.
But stooges like NewsGaurd still have their use. Much like getting besmirched by the partisan bootlickers at the Southern Poverty Law Center (which we were), this sort of thing is good for our street cred, especially since the ‘Grok has been on that street longer than almost anybody in the political digital space.
Still rabble-rousing after all those years. We should be the aged madam, I suppose, but we’re still aggravating people in power without regard to party because the principle is more important, which means this thing still got some leg on it. Guardians of the flame, not keepers of the ashes. That’s our conservatarian core.
NewsGuard reached out like clockwork yesterday (new year, new everything – giggle!) to ask the same question. Do you repent? It was a very nearly identical form letter to the one in January 2024 and as the headline teased, I responded politely and correctly.
Good Day, John. I hope you are well and had a great holiday season and joyous New Year.
And Happy Inauguration day!
I’m sure you’re just doing your job, but we do not recognize NewsGaurd as an unbiased agent or authoritative resource so we will not be answering questions about the constitutionally protected opinions of our authors.
They have a right to express ideas outside the “approved” mainstream or any stream and we are not in the business of grading them for that except through our own speech. It would be inappropriate to prostitute ourselves to NewsGuard’s alternative measure.
I am, however grateful for the opportunity to report on the request, my response, and perhaps do a little more fundraising with it. We’ve had some success with this in the past and would not want the organization to feel as if it had wasted it’s valuable resources – if that were ever even a consideration.
Best Regards,
They likely get a bit of that thing from the new media and will proceed as they will. They rate us how they choose, and we don’t care. We are here for you, not them or anyone who panders to them – most of whom lie daily to the detriment of individuals and the nation and defend each other for it.
We choose Club Liberty even when it gets it wrong because the path to the truth isn’t through some cucked-up institutional circle-jerk front like NewsGuard.
We’ve got your back when it’s got the Constitution, core principles of liberty, and individual rights. Otherwise, we’ll have words. That doesn’t mean we can’t agree where we agree and disagree where we don’t.
Check back in late January 2026 for another one of these unless someone stops funding NewsGaurd.
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