by Susan Duclos, All News Pipeline:

Directly after the 2016 presidential elections the liberal media went on a rampage, infuriated that Independent Media helped balance the scales of liberal reporting which basically declared Hillary Clinton the winner before the election even happened. We all know how that worked out for them.

Washington Post cited “experts,” including a shadowy group called PropOrNot, in labeling over 200 Independent Media websites as “Russian Propaganda,” listing outright hoax sites along with conservative Independent Media websites. After extreme backlash, (See: Rolling Stones and The Intercept) Wapo added an editor’s note trying to disassociate themselves from the shadowy group, claiming they cannot “vouch,” for the anonymous group, even as they called them “experts” in their headline.

Also in November 2019, the LA Times promoted Google document that purported to be a list, created by Melissa Zimdars, an assistant professor of communication at Merrimack College, of websites that supposedly pushed “False, misleading, clickbait-y and satirical ‘news’ sources.” That document was subsequently removed from Google documents as a supposed “safety measure in response to threats and harassment.” with the vow that she would republish her list in a different format.

Keep that name, Melissa Zimdars in mind as you read further because she plays a huge part in the newest “fake news” list being touted by the Soros-linked group, Poynter Institute.

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WHO FUNDS POYNTER INSTITUTE & WHAT ‘SOURCES’ DO THEY USE?

All one really needs to know about Poynter is who funds them and who they use as their “sources” to create the list, which includes Open Sources, who provided the majority of the names on the list, which is curated by the associate professor highlighted above.

A little more about Zimdar, via Breitbart (who also made the list!!):

What is Zimdars’s methodology? Can’t say, exactly, as the OpenSources official site is totally blank. About two years ago, she gave an interview where she said that one of her criteria for blacklisting a site is “hate” — that is, she still believes the far-left SPLC is a credible organization whose “hate” labels should get you kicked out of public discourse.

Other “sources” Poynter used to curate their list include the far-left leaning”fact-checkers,” at Snopes, Politifact and FactCheck.org.

Even more interesting is who actually funds Poynter’s International Fact-Checking Network, which can be found on their “transparency statement.”

From its launch in 2015, the IFCN has received funding from the following organizations: Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, the Duke Reporters’ Lab, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Google, the National Endowment for Democracy, the Omidyar Network, the Open Society Foundations and the Park Foundation.

A cornucopia of leftist groups and organizations, and if the name “Open Society Foundation” sounds familiar, it should, it was founded by George Soros.

WE MADE THE LIST! SO DID ALMOST ALL OTHER INDEPENDENT MEDIA WEBSITES

The new list has 515 websites listed, using a variety of tags, including “fake,” “bias,” “unreliable,” “clickbait,” “satire,”  and “conspiracy.”

The names on the list include the same names on Zimdar’s previous list and more, including Drudge Report, Breitbart, PJ Media, RedState, Zero Hedge,  American Thinker, Ammoland, Anti-War, Bare Naked Islam, Pamella Geller, Daily Caller, LifeSite News, Lifezette, Washington Free Beacon, Natural News, Twitchy and of course, yours truly, ANP, and a whole lot more.

Unfortunately ANP didn’t earn the “clickbait” tag, we must be slacking off in our headlining…….we will try harder in the future