We don’t often make pleas for donations on the Daily Sceptic, but I thought I’d ask readers to remember us this Christmas.
We’ve suffered a couple of financial setbacks this year.
First, there was PayPal’s decision to close our account in September. That was a blow because about a quarter of our recurring donations at that time were being made via PayPal. We emailed all those people, urging them to switch to a different payment processor, but, inevitably, some of them took the opportunity to cancel their recurring donations and we’d lost them by the time PayPal decided to reopen our account a few weeks later. Incidentally, we’ve decided not to accept any new donations via PayPal and all donations we now receive are routed through Stripe.
Second, an organisation called NewsGuard, which ranks websites according to how ‘safe’ they are for companies to advertise on (among other things), decided to downgrade the Daily Sceptic on the grounds that we frequently publish ‘misinformation’ about the Covid vaccines and climate change. I was sent a long email by an employee of the company, listing all the articles on the site that had been red-flagged by supposedly impartial ‘fact checking’ organisations – as well as NewsGuard’s own employees – and inviting me to mount a defence. Knowing how damaging a poor NewsGuard rating can be to a site’s ability to attract advertising – and this coincided with our decision to start selling ads on the site – I sent back a lengthy response in good faith, rebutting each of the fact-checks in turn, but saying I would link to them beneath the articles in question (as well as to our rebuttals). I duly spent a couple of days sticking ‘postscripts’ beneath the articles, as well as below some additional pieces NewsGuard hadn’t mentioned but which had also fallen foul of fact-checkers – and I let NewsGuard know about that, thinking it would be pleased. After all, I thought, it would be able to tell its big clients – which include Microsoft – how it had prompted a website that publishes ‘misinformation’ to include links to dozens of fact-checking websites.
Instead, NewsGuard wrote back to tell me it had downgraded the Daily Sceptic to 37.5 out of 100, about half the points it had before. The reason was because I hadn’t said beneath the articles that the content that had been identified by the fact-checkers as false was in fact false. My defence is that in every case the fact-checkers hadn’t red-flagged the articles in question because they contained factually inaccurate information; rather, they just disagreed with our interpretation of the data. But – as is common among fact-checkers, who are invariably Left-of-centre – they pretended none of this was up for debate and labelled our interpretation as ‘misinformation’. I explained all this to my NewsGuard correspondent, but it didn’t cut any ice, presumably because he shares the same ideological biases as the fact-checkers. Its website now includes the following note about the Daily Sceptic: “Proceed with caution: This website violates basic journalistic standards.”
The American Institute of Economic Research, which published the Great Barrington Declaration, has had its own difficulties with NewsGuard, which Phil Magness, Director of Research and Education at AIER, labels a “propaganda entity”. Magness’s piece on NewsGuard and how it operates is well worth your time.
We’ve suffered similar problems with various social media platforms in the past year, seeing the Daily Sceptic’s accounts on Facebook and LinkedIn suspended for days, weeks or months at a time because, according to ‘independent fact-checkers’, the articles we were promoting contained ‘misinformation’ or worse. Thankfully, this kind of thing no longer happens on Twitter, but it still happens on Facebook. Indeed, we received a notification from Facebook yesterday that my personal account had been suspended for 30 days because I’d published a “post that goes against our standards on misinformation about vaccines”.
But in spite of these attempts to suppress the Daily Sceptic, its audience just grows and grows. We now average two million page views a month, which is pretty high for a site run out of a garden shed in Acton and which has never spent a penny on marketing or advertising. I like to think that’s not because it violates basic journalistic standards, but because it upholds them – particularly that standard, now seemingly forgotten by the legacy media, that the claims of powerful politicians and multinational corporations to be acting in the public interest should be treated with scepticism. One of the main reasons the site gets such a lot of traffic is that we run stories that mainstream media companies like the New York Times and the BBC aren’t interested in – not because they’re false or misleading, but because they run counter to the conventional wisdom on subjects like public health and climate change. Something changed in the attitude of professional journalists in the last 25 years or so and they now see it as their responsibility to defend the conventional wisdom in these and other areas where dissent supposedly causes ‘harm’. I like to think that if a Deep Throat in the U.S. Government wanted to expose Presidential malfeasance today, he would reach out to the Daily Sceptic, not the Washington Post. These days, the words “Democracy dies in darkness” would sit more comfortably beneath our masthead than theirs.
On the plus side, we have launched the Weekly Sceptic podcast with Nick Dixon and, who knows, one day we may persuade more than one person to advertise on it.
So, if you value what we do, please think about making a donation this Christmas. We’re only able to continue producing such high-quality journalism because Will Jones, Ian Rons, Noah Carl, Chris Morrison and the rest of the team devote so much time to it and we can’t continue doing that without the generous support of our readers. Remember, you only have to donate £5 a month to be able to comment (or £50 to comment for a year).
A big thank you to all those people who have donated in 2022. It’s hugely appreciated.
Merry Christmas.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
Come on Toby, don’t be downbeat. You know it’s a waste of time dealing with ‘fact checkers’, because they’re simply not interested in facts. To tell the truth, if they’re against you then you can be confident that you’re on the right track.
I don’t know how the finances are going, but in terms of wider public opinion the DS is on a winning wicket now and ready to enjoy the kudos that entails. It’s a focal point of alternative journalism (i.e. real journalism) and that can only hold out good promise for the future.
I’d imagined that the DS has a plush office somewhere by now, instead of the garden shed where it all started … but there we are. I’m sure if you put out an appeal we can raise enough to put up a ‘Daily Sceptic HQ’ sign above the shed.
PS: regarding the shed. This is what I wrote on here back in about May 2020:
Apparently he writes it all in the shed at the bottom of his garden, rarely stepping out into the sunlight. In a few decades’ time someone will put one of those plaques on the decaying timbers, saying something along the lines of: ‘From this humble shed, in 2020, Toby Young, ran his anti-lockdown website, and kept the flames of liberty and free-thinking alive when all seemed lost.’
People will come from around the world to visit, as a sort of pilgrimage. Appeals will be set up to maintain and to restore the hallowed structure to its former glory – sort of mini Chartwell, as it were. Books containing each days postings will be on sale outside, and probably there’ll be a cafe selling teas and coffees in replica Lockdown Sceptics mugs.
And people will like to think that had they been lockdown, back in 2020, they too would have had the wit and gumption to see through the fraud for what it was, and that they too would have made their stand. The vast majority wouldn’t, of course: they would have followed the herd, like almost everyone else.
I remember you writing this!
I used to enjoy doing the tongue-in-cheek piss-take posts. But I guess the ambience on here has changed a bit since those days.
Best post I ever out up on here, a piss-take on the stabs back in earliesh 2021, had a net -35 downvotes last time I saw it, and that was in the days when only net votes were recorded, so heaven only knows how many downvotes it actually had.
And my favourite ever post on here was by Biker on the day of the England muzzle mandates:
‘Fuck the government. And fuck anyone who wears a facemask.’
Nah! I like the jokey posts: they’re important. For all the outrage many of us feel for what has happened and is happening, we need to keep on laughing, because that’s what the postmodern cult hates the most.
The major reason, I suspect, the progressivists hate Ayn Rand so much, for example – and continue to attack her 40 years after she died – isn’t so much the philosophy or John Galt’s speech: it’s that she laughed at them. Atlas Shrugged, contrary to many people’s beliefs – is often a very funny book, especially where the literati characters and their pretensions are concerned. The same goes for The Fountainhead when when the literati promote an appalling poet whose poems are along the lines of ‘Bubble bubble/ bubbling bubble’, which is still better than much postmodern poetry!!!
It’s essential we continue to crack jokes and make ourselves laugh, because the sociopathic, steely, humourless faces of the modern generation of Neo-Red Guards, devoid of any emotion other than rage, can’t handle being accurately skewered by a joke. The best way to take control of our lives again is to laugh at those who would take our liberty.
Indeed humour is a very important part of our defence mechanism along with a smile.
They’ve installed an electric heater…
On the contrary, keep engaging with these muppets and give them every opportunity to justify their actions so that the (cumulatively probably) millions who view this site can watch them make fools of themselves. Muppets! I’ve never been keen on malicious humbug, and this is one of the worst cases I’ve seen!
I have twice tried to donate to the Daily Sceptic but on both occasions I failed to progress through the payment screens, I have no idea why. It was so much easier with Pay-Pal.
I’ve just made a donation via card. Took less than a minute. Maybe it’s Devon – bit out on a limb you know. Jo (Orkney)
I’m in Deepest Darkest Devon, probably more remote than Steve – I just pay monthly via direct debit – works fine.
Only just getting light here (just gone 8 o’clock). I guess you have another couple of hours of darkness left up in Orkney.
We arrived in Bideford last night for our annual Christmas/ New Year break !
You were there last year weren’t you? I’ll be up there (from SW Dartmoor) later next week for the day.
Yes this is our eighth year
& sadly passed away .
I had trouble like that a while back, and had to temporarily suspend “enhances protection” in Firefox, which I use, to allow Donor Box to work. Displaying a group of images to validate payments was where it crashed, and just froze and would not continue.
I’ve just tried – card initially declined, then ‘forbidden’ – call to the fraud people at the bank, ‘forbidden’ is not from them! Have had issues with payments through Stripe being declined before, wonder if its that?
I tried to donate from the thing on the right, but it didn’t seem to be working quite right, so I logged in and used the “donate” link at the very top of the page and it seemed to work ok then!
Microsoft Edge (and I assume Chrome) had problem pasting in my saved card number but otherwise it went smoothly. I realised afterwards that I wasn’t logged in but after logging in, my ability to comment was re-instated anyway
Handy hint: I use a VPN (TunnelBear) and this causes the DonorBox widget not to display at all. In order to see and be able to donate you have to know to turn it off.
you Lost me at tunnelbear
I’m on ExpressVPN. If I get stuck, I turn it off for a few seconds in order to get through. Forunately, I haven’t had any problems here.
Have you complained to them, one of the main points of using vpns is to safeguard payments…
I have the same problem subscribing to Expressvpn if I don’t pay more and subscribe via the Apple App Store instead >(
Maybe the VPN’s are closet Toby / DS deniers too?
I did subscribe for the whole year, after trying out this site for a month. It is important to me to have the opportunity to give opinion on the climate issue, and most of what I say in comments is NOT plucked out of thin air. It is based on the work of professional people who might not subscribe to the group think but have valid points of view and who will ask the questions and point out the uncertainties and the political interference that leads to climate science turning into a dictatorship rather than a genuine search for truth. Climate Change is NOT a black and white issue. It is not a case of (1) There is climate change or (2) There isn’t climate change. When mainstream media abandon investigative journalism in favour of climate activism then that is where the real problem lies. Or as someone once pointed out “In science, scepticism is the highest calling and blind faith the one unpardonable sin”———-Thankyou to Toby Young and The Daily Sceptic for encouraging debate rather than silencing it.
Yes , All Hail “Sir Toby Young” which unfortunately won’t happen in this ridiculous parallel world we find our selves in , where a fair few of the covidmania protagonists have been unjustly elevated . In fact they were handing out honours left right & centre without a hint of irony!
Following on ! Astra Zeneca d-ath jab boss Pascal Knobrot just got Knighted for services killing & maiming people , how F IN long can this SH1T continue ???
With any luck, there may be a New Year bonus, at least from here. It’s been a good job, well done – all the more so given the attitude of the organisations described in this article.
It’s been good to see you from time to time on GBN programmes. They seem to be selling quite a few adverts now, even the odd private medical firm these days.
The Newsguard “website now includes the following note about the Daily Sceptic: “Proceed with caution: This website violates basic journalistic standards.”
I remember something very similar occurring a couple of years ago in my early days as a member of UK Column News and I thought – “yep, I’m definitely in the right place.”
That for me would be just the accolade I was looking for. The supporters required by DS are those who can identify half-baked and obvious propoganda masquerading as journalism. Those who cannot will not stick around long even if they sIgn up.
Let’s be blunt, anybody relying on alleged fact checkers to identify reliable sources of new is in reality saying to the rest of the world:
“I’m fik me. I need fact checkers
”
In short, The Daily Sceptic needs Sceptics. Anybody believing the mainstream narrative will accept the nonsense statement from Newsguard.
At the risk of blowing our own trumpet Daily Sceptic thrives on independent thinkers who have seen through the daily dross of the MSM.
And finally in this unfunded puff piece –
we are a pretty convivial lot by and large.
Let’s keep it going.
we are a pretty convivial lot by and large
It’s had its ups and downs, over the last nearly three years.
Since the donation system came in, it’s got a lot better.
Well yes and no. Most of the childish BTL stuff has gone, but so did Swedenborg and Kate and Victoria and others.
I have to agree. Some of the trolls and 77ers were awful.
Entirely agree Hux. I got wise to ‘factcheckers’ in early Jan 2020 when I spotted an outright fabrication on a bog standard medical issue which even Uncle Tom Cobbley would have spotted, and it’s only got worse. Factcheckers are nothing more than paid propagandists, and tbh am surprised that Tobes spent so much time being so diligent with them.
Info on Newsguard’s funders – with no surprises to DS readers:
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2020/01/joseph-mercola/new-thought-police-newsguard-is-owned-by-big-pharma/
“NewsGuard issued a notice to subscribers in the U.S. with an offer to sign up early for $1.95 a month to “help keep NewsGuard free for the hundreds of libraries and schools that use NewsGuard.”
From the above excellent article.
Is it not worrying that the people who should be responsible for ensuring full access to as many news outlets as possible – schools and libraries – are in fact defaulting on their responsibilities by relying on the directions of fake and dishonest ” fact checkers?
Newsguard funded by big pharma!
What a shocker.
Thanks WyrdWoman.
I subscribe for more than the minimum, but I’ll likely increase my monthly donation in 2023. I dumped my Telegraph subscription to pay for the Daily Sceptic. Toby and the gang kept me going during the lockdowns and I’m glad they’ve gone further into the culture wars.
The current Tory government has no interest in battling the rot in our society and – indeed – are on the wrong side of the cultural divide almost all the time now. I suspect Roger Scruton was right that it’s too late to save the UK, but I live in hope that there will be some kind of ‘Great Sort’ similar to that in America in time, where people are moving to states that better suit their values.
Reason matters in our society: the acceptance of facts, no matter how ‘unkind’ they are (facts don’t have feelings), and objective reality has been annihilated by a weird postmodernist, post-truth relativism.
We need the likes of the Daily Sceptic and the Free Speech Union. I’m proud to be associated with them.
Merry Christmas Toby and crew!
Hear, hear.
Well put
The Catholic Church not really so long ago, excommunicated (cancelled) and persecuted those who spread ‘misinformation’, like Galileo for example, anyone who translated, printed, published or preached the Bible and other texts in any other language but Latin, or who challenged Church dogma.
Ultimately the Church failed, and the Church was very rich, powerful, influential and hand in glove with the secular authorities.
So it’s only a matter of time until the ‘fact-checkers’ and the rest of the Establishment pond-life get their due.
Hmm. The trouble with Galileo is that he proclaimed heliocentrism as “truth”, at a time when it was only a theory on the evidence available (rather like people today proclaiming “vaccines” being safe and effective as a truth rather than just their opinion);. Galileo also believed that the sun was the centre of the universe. He then pronounced on interpretation of scripture, which he was not qualified to do, and which was a sensitive issue at the time.
I’m one of the original members who joined in April 2020. This site has SAVED MY SANITY! I cannot express how much this website, and the comments section, protected my mental health during that dark period of lockdown one.
Thank you for everything you guys do, and the flack you take for publishing the inconvenient truth.
We must never give up. “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.”
Ditto! This site meant I knew I wasn’t alone in the UK. The fight for liberty between states would always go on in the USA, but the rest of the Anglosphere countries seemed determined to outdo each other for restrictions. I was terrified and angry. I remain angry and increasingly determined to stand against tyranny.
I remain wedded to the idea that a diaspora might happen in this century. It’s reached a point where many people have such polarised views that they simply can’t live together, yet we’re trapped in 51%-49% countries where at least half the country hates the radicalism of the politicians.
I hate the Tories for what they’ve done to us and I won’t vote for them. But Keir Starmer’s ‘New Britain’ will be Hell on Earth and I dread the inevitable Labour victory like a tsunami on the horizon. Will we reach the point where people up sticks and are allowed to move to newly established countries. I can see it being in the realm of possibilities, given the events of the last couple of years seemed impossible.
A bit of information: As far as I could determine, NewsGuard is in the business of selling its ratings to people who believe they need them. They’re not available from their web site, at least not in an easily accessible way. The only thing one can get there is loads and loads of NewsGuard marketing.
‘ I explained all this to my NewsGuard correspondent, but it didn’t cut any ice, presumably because he shares the same ideological biases as the fact-checkers. Its website now includes the following note about the Daily Sceptic: “Proceed with caution: This website violates basic journalistic standards.” ‘
Well if that doesn’t beat all! Toby is the very epitome of a reasonable centre right journalist (and has indeed helped many on the left who have had free speech issues). I have never seen publication more scrupulous about upholding good journalistic standards. I trust that “NewsGuard” have raised concerns about the anti-truther Times muppets who despite employing a journalist Oliver Wright who has previously written on big pharma corruption, apparently refuse to instruct him or any of their journalists to even consider if such issues (described in Wright’s previous articles) as medication not in the best interest of patients being prescribed – even experimental, emergency use (and highly lucrative) medication – may be ongoing. But then again, I rather suspect that NewsGuard are not in the business of truth either. Just as a result of the flagrant misrepresentation represented by the above quote from them, I have doubled the donation I was going to make. What a bunch of muppets. And thanks to Toby and the others for continuing to do such a good job with this site.
See here for Oliver Wright’s articles referred to above (refresh page to reveal whole article?).
Revealed: Big Pharma’s hidden links to NHS policy, with senior MPs saying medical industry uses ‘wealth to influence government’ | The Independent | The Independent
Big Pharma lobbyists exploit patients and doctors | The Independent | The Independent
Took 5 goes to get donation process through yesterday, almost gave up.
Thanks for all your hard work, Toby, Will and the team. I keep checking the BBC and even the Torygraph websites each morning to see if they are going to break the huge news about the poor vaccine safety record, but still nothing. So it’s back to the DS for an real-world update. I don’t know where I’d look if you guys weren’t here.
Keep checking:
UKCOLUMN.ORG (UK Column News)
TCW – Defending Freedom
Off -Guardian.
Add those three to DS and you are pretty well sorted.
Just donated. DS and London Calling have kept me sane over the last couple of years. You are fighting the good fight, sirs!
Badge of Honour, Toby. As with GB News advertisers will not hold out forever because of the viewing figures and they want to sell us stuff
I wonder if GB News would be a DS / podcast advertiser?
Who guards NewsGuard?
It’s the age old dilemma, “who watches the watchers”.
Ultimately it’s Billy.
Yeah, Happy Christmas Toby to you and yours.
What we really need is a person or organisation, slated by NewsGuard (or others) to take them to court for defamation, but then I suppose a favourable result would depend on the bias of the Judges (not that they should be, of course).
Why don’t you name-shame this group? Expose them on Gb News or other outlets? It’s time we fought back, HARD! Trump is hated for the strategy that you fight fire with fire. But the modern times call for modern and aggressive strategies. If they play ugly, so would we.
Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, daß er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. Und wenn du lange in einen Abgrund blickst, blickt der Abgrund auch in dich hinein.
[Nietzsche, He who battles monsters should beware of becoming a monster himself in the course of it. And if you stare into an abyss, the abyss also stares into you.]
If we have to become like our enemies in order to fight them, we can spare ourselves the effort and just join them instead. Which is exactly what the woke hucksters did, by the way. The people who claimed to be fighting for a revolution against an inhuman system 40 – 50 years ago control the same system nowadays. Which means that they’re now sending the police to beat up protestors because no cause other than their own can ever be just. The current German minister of justice, a woman from the SPD named Christine Lambrecht, is on record for stating this pretty verbatim: Peaceful political protest is antidemocratic violence. Hence, the state ought to employ violent means in order defend itself against such attacks.
The SPD has – of course – form in this respect, first employing the the USPD and organized Marxists from the German armament industry for a coup against the legitmate government in November 1918 which forced the Germans to surrender unconditionally and then, using volunteer formations of returned soldiers to crush the Marxist revolution to ensure that it would remain the party in power.
I am inclined to agree. Pussy footing around gets nowhere.
Money donated because whilst you don’t always get it right, you have the courage to admit it. Fact checkers – completely useless addition to the online world and often biased. Somebody on Twitter when asked for data to support their denial (that vaccine effectiveness against infection goes negative after 2-3 months) could only respond with a fact checker article. Gave up…
I wish I could contribute more but I consider every penny I’ve spent an investment and value for money – what you’re producing has genuine value. Those trying to do the right thing will, when all is said and done, be remembered, I’m certain of that. Those that stood up to be counted when it was imperative we weren’t flung into a hellscape without at least a bit.. “are you sure you know what you’re doing?”.
I wonder if anyone in control really understands what they’re asking, the fact we’ve now crossed that rubicon, that which purposefully misrepresents the situation, how is anyone supposed to make valid conclusions when in all seriousness the situation requires as many minds on the job as possible. It suggests, if nothing else.. they’re adamant in their position and consider us, the people a threat to their plans (and by extension their power), so we must be censored. What other conclusion can we come to?
The internet is supposed to be open. What use is it without this fundamental philosophy? Those that have utilised the internet, created the tools (and gotten rich off of it I might add which has placed them in this position) the things we need to help us all share and learn our perspectives, yet now arbitrarily (not arbitrary) decide it’s best only with specific voices singing a certain tune across the whole of the public square? How can anyone justify an approach like that? Manipulation of the knowledge base only leads to one conclusion. No one knows what’s invaluable until you do – even then there’s always something else to learn or our “progress” is going to be nothing but repeated mistakes.
It’s incredibly sad that the very invention & utility we use to commune and grow is the same being used for purposes not envisaged in its creation. Since big tech (or more accurately, those sending them the memos) really go down this road the future is bleak for everyone, including them – there’s no other way to say that. Be warned the monster you’re creating!
Meantime, those standing up to be counted pointing out these obvious inconsistencies can at least wear their dissenting pride with a badge of honour. Please continue what you’re doing.
Excellent post.
Dear Daily Sceptic. ——-I am so glad to see that I can now pass comment again after having made a donation that should have covered me for making comments till next December. I could not pass comments for about a week and had to make another £5 donation 2 days ago just so I could leave you a message informing you of the problem. Thanks for sorting it out and I hope I will not face the same problem in a months time and that you actually realise from your records that I have given donation for the whole of the next year……..Thanks. (PS there is no way to contact Daily Sceptic if members have a problem, maybe this is something you can look at)
Well in goes the stingy BBC one month licence fee for a donation because I could have sworn I did a larger one on Boxing day, but it hasn’t shown up anywhere. I didn’t know whether to blame DS or my bank for being on Xmas break, or myself for being sozzled when I tried to make the payment. (It was over breakfast so I can rule out the latter)
Relieved to see others have had problems, too; I’ve been unable to comment for several days, being ‘locked out’.
Sorry to read about TY being on the FB Norty step for the story about the Australian vax- injured doctor: saw it reported on YTube but whether from SkyAustralia or GB news I can’t recall.
This didn’t go through -again. There seems to be a problem with the donate button at the bottom of articles (with my phone, at least).
Just done another one using the button at the head of the website and it has processed successfully. Weird!
Thanks to the Daily Sceptic team who now seem to have sorted out my issue whereby I was not able to pass comment under articles for about a week despite having made a donation of £50 which should see me through till next December (approx). There is still one little problem though and that is that if any of us have any problems there is no way to contact the site. It would be helpful if there was a message system or other to let you know of issues we may be having —-Cheers and Have a Great New Year