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West Virginia bill limiting state agency use of media monitoring organizations heads to House

Michael Martin, representing both Newsmax and the Independent Media Council, testified in favor of Senate Bill 531, prohibiting West Virginia state agencies and political subdivisions from utilizing “media reliability and bias monitors” when placing state-funded advertisements. (Photo by Steven Allen Adams)

CHARLESTON — A bill that would limit state contracting with advertising agencies that use companies that rank media outlets by accuracy and bias is on its way to the full West Virginia House of Delegates after being amended.

The House Judiciary Committee amended and recommended Senate Bill 531, the “First Amendment Preservation Act,” for passage Tuesday morning.

SB 531 would prohibit West Virginia state agencies and political subdivisions from utilizing “media reliability and bias monitors” when placing state-funded advertisements.

The bill prohibits several entities from contracting with media reliability and bias monitors or advertising agencies that use such monitors, including state departments, boards, and commissions; public colleges and universities; and local governments.

Companies bidding for state advertising or marketing contracts would be required to certify in writing that they are not a media reliability and bias monitor. Bidders would also have to certify they will not use the services of a monitor for the duration of the contract.

SB 531 is primarily being pushed by lobbyists on behalf of conservative media outlet Newsmax, which has waged war against NewsGuard, a nonpartisan organization that provides ratings of news organizations and media outlets based on a “trust score” that looks at credibility, accuracy and reliability.

Newsmax — which has been accused of spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories — has a lower trust rating on NewsGuard than other conservative media outlets, including Fox News. Newsmax reached a $67 million settlement in 2025 in a defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems. The company accused Newsmax of making false statements after Newsmax claimed falsely that Dominion rigged its voting machines in the 2020 presidential election in favor of former president Joe Biden.

Michael Martin, representing both Newsmax and the Independent Media Council, told committee members during the hearing phase of SB 531 Monday that NewsGuard’s trust scores harm some conservative and right-wing media outlets.

“Many conservative and other media have seen their revenues hindered or crippled by a bad rating or ranking,” Martin said. “Even if a conservative media outlet has been one of the few to receive a good rating, these groups can change their rating without notice immediately cutting off significant revenues for these companies.”

“Ratings masquerade as neutral but reflect an ideological filter, not true journalistic standards,” Martin continued. “What this bill does is it makes sure that taxpayer funds used for advertising as well as marketing materials hit their whole audience and are not put through advertising agencies or programmatic advertisers that partner with these agencies where you’re going to lose 50% of the people you’re trying to reach.”

NewsGuard was founded in 2018 by Court TV founder and veteran journalist Steven Brill and former Wall Street Journal publisher Gordon Crovitz. The company filed a lawsuit recently against the Federal Trade Commission after the federal agency launched an investigation of NewsGuard last May and began pressuring companies to stop doing business with NewsGuard.

In a recent op-ed, NewsGuard Chief Operating Officer Matt Skibinski said that NewsGuard has not done work directly for state agencies. He also said that other conservative outlets, such as the Daily Caller and National Review often score higher than their left-leaning ideological counterparts.

“The principal beneficiary of laws like SB 531 isn’t West Virginia — it’s Florida’s Chris Ruddy, the billionaire CEO of Newsmax, who has been lobbying for legislation like this across the country,” Skibinski wrote.

“Newsmax receives a lower NewsGuard score for its credibility than its closest competitor, Fox News, with whom Newsmax competes for eyeballs and advertising,” Skibinisky continued. “Ruddy doesn’t want advertisers to choose Fox News over Newsmax, so he and his allies have pushed state legislators to interfere with the free market.”

Skibinisky argued in his op-ed that NewsGuard and other media monitoring services also help shield advertisers from spending money with foreign countries posing as fake media outlets

“Hostile foreign governments operate extensive networks of websites — sometimes hundreds or thousands of them — designed to look like ordinary American local news outlets. Names like “The Miami Chronicle” or “The Georgia Gazette,'” Skibinisky wrote. “These sites target U.S. audiences with propaganda and disinformation, and they run advertisements to fund those campaigns.”

The House Judiciary Committee amended SB 531 to include the provisions of another bill, Senate Bill 506, which would prohibit state agencies from contracting with foreign adversaries or terrorists as defined by federal law. But speaking against the bill Tuesday, Del. Evan Hansen, D-Monongalia, said he was still not happy with the bill.

“These bias monitors had apparently been flagging Newsmax as not providing facts and unbiased reporting,” Hansen said. “I think that this is what this bill is about. It’s about an organization, Newsmax, that’s not getting the advertising revenue that they want. And one way to go about that is to lobby for changes in state code, which they have a lot of money and resources to do.”

“Another way to accomplish that same goal is to report unbiased news and not be flagged by these organizations. And then there wouldn’t be any issue to begin with,” Hansen continued.

Steven Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com.

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