515 news outlets targeted for blacklist, including WND, Drudge

'Crusade against those who hold unacceptable opinions'


The non-profit journalism group the Poynter Institute published a list of 515 media sites – including WND, Breitbart News and Drudge – that it wants blacklisted and shut down.

Poynter claims on its “About” page that “it champions freedom of expression,” noted Breitbart News Editor-at-Large John Nolte.

But it describes its list as an “index of unreliable news sites” and calls for advertisers to put the sites out of business.

Facebook, as WND reported, commissioned Poynter to approve the organizations it uses to fact check “fake news,” which include the Associated Press, FackCheck.org, PolitiFact and Snopes.

Poynter, in its introduction of its “UnNews index,” hopes the list will be “useful for advertisers that want to stop funding misinformation.”

“Advertisers don’t want to support publishers that might tar their brand with hate speech, falsehoods or some kinds of political messaging – but too often, they have little choice in the matter,” says Poynter.

“Most ad-tech dashboards make it hard for businesses to prevent their ads from appearing on (and funding) disreputable sites. Marketers can create blacklists, but many of those lists have been out-of-date or incomplete.

“Aside from journalists, researchers and news consumers, we hope that the UnNews index will be useful for advertisers that want to stop funding misinformation.”

Nolte called Poynter’s list “straight-up McCarthyism.”

“This is nothing less than the return of the 1950s’ blacklisting crusade against those who hold inappropriate, unacceptable, and unapproved opinions,” he wrote.

Single source

He pointed out that most of the list cites a single source, OpenSources, which is curated by an assistant professor from Merrimack College, Melissa Zimdars.

WND previously reported Zimdars is a 30-something self-identified feminist and activist who has expressed great dislike for President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence.
Merrimack College assistant professor Melissa Zimdars, author of the "fake news" list circulated online (Photo: Twitter)

Merrimack College assistant professor Melissa Zimdars, author of the “fake news” list circulated online (Photo: Twitter)

Nolte noted she’s the author of academic papers such as “Watching Our Weights: The Consequences and Contradictions of Televising Fatness in the ‘Obesity Epidemic'” and “Having It Both Ways: ‘Two and a Half Men,’ ‘Entourage’ and the Televising of Juvenile Postfeminist Masculinity.”

OpenSources has no explanation of her methodology.

In an interview two years ago, she said one of her criteria for blacklisting a site is “hate,” based on the judgment of the discredited, far-left Southern Poverty Law Center.

‘Relentlessly and deliberately misled’

Among the other groups on the Poynter blacklist are Media Research Center, Pajamas Media, Washington Examiner, The Daily Wire, The Blaze, Red State, Project Veritas, Newsmax, Zero Hedge, LifeSite, Judicial Watch, Frontpage, the Washington Free Beacon and the Daily Caller.

Nolte argued it’s outlets such as CNN, the New York Times, the Washington Post, NPR, ABC, CBS, PBS, NBC, MSNBC, Politico and BuzzFeed that should be held accountable for “relentlessly and deliberately misled the American people on the biggest stories of the day.”

Among the big blunders, he said, are coverage of the Trayvon Martin assault, “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot,” Russia collusion, the Brett Kavanaugh serial rapist claim and the charges of racism against the Covington High School boys.

He pointed out it was Breitbart and other news outlets on Poynter’s blacklist that got those stories right, in contrast to establishment media.