FTC issued sweeping records demand to media-rating firm NewsGuard following chairman's public criticism

On May 20, 2025, the Federal Trade Commission under Chairman Andrew Ferguson issued a 21-page, 31-specification Civil Investigative Demand to NewsGuard, a company that publishes journalist-produced credibility ratings for news outlets, demanding internal memos, emails, editorial methodology documents, subscriber lists, financial records, and rated-entity lists dating back to the company's 2018 founding.

The demand followed months of public criticism from Ferguson, who as an FTC commissioner in November 2024 accused NewsGuard of running "collusive ad boycotts" against conservative and independent media, and who returned to the theme after becoming chairman. NewsGuard says it produced more than 40,000 pages of documents in response while the FTC continued pressing for more.

The FTC separately pursued a related but distinct action — barring the Omnicom-IPG advertising-agency merger from using NewsGuard-style ratings as a condition of approval, finalized September 26, 2025 — recorded separately (issue #1967).

Updates

2026-02-06 — NewsGuard sued the FTC and Ferguson over the CID and merger condition [3]

NewsGuard filed suit against the FTC and Chairman Ferguson in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleging the CID and the separate merger condition together amount to unconstitutional retaliation for its editorial judgments; the FTC called the claims "untethered from both law and fact."

2026-04-17 — FTC withdrew the Civil Investigative Demand [4][5]

The FTC withdrew the CID, telling the court its separate settlement with advertising holding companies Dentsu, WPP, and Publicis — which bars those firms from directing ad spending based on "viewpoints as to the veracity of news reporting" — had eliminated its need for the records; NewsGuard called the settlement an expansion of the FTC's "retaliation campaign."

2026-04-22 — Court denied NewsGuard's preliminary injunction motion without prejudice [3]

NewsGuard's motion for a preliminary injunction was denied without prejudice; NewsGuard has appealed to the D.C. Circuit.

2026-05-28 — NewsGuard moved to expedite its D.C. Circuit appeal [6]

NewsGuard asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to expedite the case and oral argument in its appeal of the district court's ruling; the FTC and Ferguson filed a response in opposition.

2026-06-24 — District court stayed proceedings pending the appeal [5]

Judge Dabney L. Friedrich granted NewsGuard's motion to hold the district court case in abeyance pending the D.C. Circuit's resolution of the interlocutory appeal, staying all proceedings until further order.