‘Nutrition Labels’ for TV News? Some Advertisers Might Review News Grades in Spring
variety.comBrian Steinberg Senior TV EditorAnchors like Don Lemon, Joy Reid and Sean Hannity have long looked at Nielsen ratings as one of the primary measures of their performance on air.
Soon, they may have another.Magna, the large media-buying firm owned by Interpublic Group, has enlisted NewsGuard, a company that examines the veracity of news content and the ways in which it is produced, to grade news programing on TV for the parent company’s media clients, which include Johnson & Johnson, Grubhub and Merck, among others.
NewsGuard, which enlists journalists to determine whether a news outlet is accurate and transparent about the information it provides, will devise “nutrition labels” for more than 20 networks and more than 100 programs, says Allie Kalish, executive vice president and managing director of strategic investment and accountability at Magna. “I think this is holding the networks to a new level,” says Kalish, in an interview.
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