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NewsGuard Academy: Using OpenCorporates to Find Who’s Behind a News Website

NewsGuard's Reality Check · NewsGuard · last updated

Of the thousands of news websites NewsGuard has rated, approximately 30 percent fail our criterion of whether or not they disclose ownership of the site. This means readers are denied potentially important information about the points of view and conflicts the website may have but fail to disclose. In today’s tutorial, we show you how to use the free database OpenCorporates to uncover the owners of news sites that hide their ownership. Using a real-world example, we walk you step-by-step through how to trace a murky LLC to a real person. We also explain how ownership can reveal political agendas, financial interests, and potential biases — all essential context to better evaluate the news and information you consume every day.

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