The Daily Sceptic Christmas Appeal
We don’t often make pleas for donations on the Daily Sceptic, but I thought I’d ask readers to dip into their pockets this Christmas.
Donations from readers are more or less our only source of revenue. Thanks to the machinations of companies like NewsGuard, which rank news publishing sites according to how ‘safe’ they are for companies to advertise on, the Daily Sceptic struggles to attract any advertising. This is a prime example of the censorship-industrial complex at work, as described by Lee Fang in a recent article in the New York Post:
There’s no official ban on discussing the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines or criticising American involvement in the Ukraine-Russia war, but editors and journalists have realised that writing on such topics can come at a cost.
News publishers have been demonetised and shadow-banned for reporting dissenting views and the bureaucratic means for enforcing this form of control are under increasing scrutiny.
NewsGuard, a for-profit company that scores news websites on trust and works closely with Government agencies and major corporate advertisers, exemplifies the problem.
In that article, which is well worth reading, Fang documented my unsuccessful attempt to get Newsguard to upgrade its ranking of the Daily Sceptic last year in the hope of attracting some advertising:
NewsGuard’s core business is a misinformation metre, in which websites are rated on a scale of 0 to 100 on a variety of factors, including headline choice and whether a site publishes “false or egregiously misleading content”.
Such an endeavour might appear as an objective public service, but the devil is in the details.
Editors who have engaged with NewsGuard have found that the company has made bizarre demands that unfairly tarnish an entire site as untrustworthy for straying from the official narrative.
The Daily Sceptic, a libertarian-leaning British site, is one such example. In a series of emails over the last two years, editor Toby Young reached out to NewsGuard, hoping to improve the Daily Sceptic’s 74.5 rating.
NewsGuard took issue with the website’s criticism of lockdowns – it called them “unnecessary, ineffective and harmful” – and cited academic literature on the topic.
Young went so far as to add postscripts to his articles, relaying the issues raised by the fact-checkers and providing additional information.
For his good-faith interactions, Young was rewarded with a downgrade. NewsGuard updated his rating to 37.5 on its scale.
NewsGuard wanted nothing other than a retraction of the articles it objected to, despite the fact that further research has documented the harmful effects of lockdowns.
We’ve suffered from similar efforts to shadowban our content on social media (although thankfully not on X now that it’s owned by Elon Musk). Facebook frequently restricts the content we post, claiming it is “false or misleading” and redirecting readers to ‘fact-checking’ sites that in reality are fountains of Covid and climate-related misinformation, often funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
As Michael Shellenberger and others have pointed out, one of the reasons there’s such a concerted effort to demonetise sites like ours is because we’re stealing readers away from the mainstream media. Paul Farhi, who writes about the news media for the Washington Post, recently published a table on X that revealed the extent to which legacy media sites are hemorrhaging readers:
Meanwhile, the Daily Sceptic is now averaging 1.8 million page views per month. Given that it’s produced on a shoestring from my garden shed, that’s pretty remarkable and shows just how much appetite there is for the kinds of stories we publish.
I thought about introducing a paywall earlier this year. After all, if we cannot monetise the huge traffic the site is getting via advertising, why not stick some of the content behind a paywall, even though it will significantly reduce our traffic? But I don’t want to do that because I think it’s important our content reaches as wide an audience as possible.
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, Richard Eldred, Chris Morrison, Ian Rons, Noah Carl, J Sorel, Robert Kogon, Jonathan Barr and Steven Turner – all of whom are paid to either work on the site or produce regular content – 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’ve donated in 2023, particularly those who’ve set up recurring monthly donations – and a thank you to those people who regularly post below the line. 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.
Newsguard is a blatant example of restrictive practices by an oligopoly, msm. Clearly this is by design to stunt at birth new entries in to the market. If our courts weren’t so bent they would see newsguard are merely a method of predatory conduct and away creating exclusive dealing arrangements between legacy media and the corporate world. Given the traffic it’s beyond absurd that DS can’t attract half decent ad revenues to its very discerning readership.
I find myself conflicted here. I really appreciated the forum that Lockdown Sceptic provided in 2020. The articles on the climate hoax are very good, as are those voicing dissent against lockdowns etc and those highlighting the toxic experimental jabs. And, of course, all the anti-woke articles are welcome. However, there have been glaring omissions. The minimal reporting of the mass demonstrations against lockdowns and jabs in 2021 concerned me. Missing the two Better Way Conferences in Bath in 2022 and 2023 was very disappointing. Currently, the lack of reporting of such extremely serious matters as signing away this country’s sovereignty to the W.H.O. through the International Health Regulations is quite alarming. There has been no mention of Monday’s parliamentary debate on this. I am amazed. There has been the emphasis on contentious issues such as the Middle East which, although a serious issue, is a divisive distraction from the very imminent takeover of this country by the powers that be. The bias shown by cut and paste from the Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph does tend to keep DailySceptic with one foot in the MSM. I really wish I could see content that would make me feel justified in… Read more »
Agree on some of your points. No publication though will precisely mirror ones views and all things considered I personally am extremely pleased to continue supporting the DS when compared to it’s debauched alternatives.Btw the TCW is another worthy of supporting too. Ppl like Will and Chris the climate bloke are how journalists are meant to be. This needs to be paid for in this sick woke world unfortunately.
It is less about my views and more about the subjects presented.
Some serious discussions need to be had about who controls this country and would seek to remove our individual sovereignty.
Discussions based on cut and paste from any MSM from any side of the political spectrum is no substitute.
Yeah don’t disagree.
The way I look at it, nowhere is perfect. I guess it depends where you draw the line and what other useful things you can do with the money. But for me, for all its (in my eyes) “failings”, DS is worth £5 a month – if only to read your posts!
Also worth pointing out that the discussions you say are important are often had among BTL commenters.
The Israel business caused a lot of division – that’s true. But if it had been ignored, an equal number of BTL commenters would have been unhappy.
The owner (owners?) of DS are probably less “conspiracy-minded” than the average BTL commenter, and seem to have an eternal hope that the Conservative party will become conservative. Or perhaps they tactically avoid “conspiracy theories” in order not to put people off. Either way, they may be right (though I probably disagree).
👍👍👍
A little unfair to say there’s been a lack of reporting on the site about the WHO’s recent power grab. If you put Dr David Bell’s name in the search engine, you’ll pull up a dozen pieces on this issue and Dr Will Jones has written about it extensively too.
Perhaps so, Toby. But nothing has been reported about Monday’s parliamentary debate where front benchers from both sides of the house are minded to sign the updates to the I.H.R. and hand over sovereignty to the W.H.O.
This is major and urgent! It will put this country and all its citizens in the dog doo! It puts all other debates and discussions in the shade.
It’s been another year when the DS has helped to keep me relatively sane. It’s not perfect (as highlighted in earlier posts) but it is my only “go to” every morning nowadays, and worth every penny of my monthly contribution.
Thank you Toby et al. I hope enough readers will show their appreciation by contributing. We cannot allow these globalist entities to control what we’re allowed to read and see and talk about.
Merry Christmas to Toby and all the team and readers of The Daily Sceptic.
Off Guardian have found an instruction manual from 1946 on how to move from democracy to despotism. It mentions editorial control of the media and the relationship with advertising revenues. Worth 10 minutes to watch it:
https://off-guardian.org/2023/12/20/watch-despotism-1946/
And Off-G are another handful of good, decent people doing their best to keep us properly informed.
I followed OffGuardian from it’s inception and it went downhill rapidly that I no longer bother with it.
Thanks very much to Toby and his Team for being brave and putting their heads above the parapet to present the alternative view, much appreciated.
It’s likely that there will be another donation soon. This publication has been a breath of fresh air over the last few years, and the the more readers there are, the better. I’m not keen on the idea of going down the paywall route, though. There are quite a few sites that I read (often via links from this one) to which I can’t comment without becoming a donor/subscriber, but still find useful, and I hope this one does the same, so as to broadcast our views to the wide world.
Recently, GBN has started doing partial paywall, with selected articles on their site being readable by members only. I’m not one of them, but whether it will increase readership or not, we’ll see,
The aim of broadening the field of coverage could be quite ambitious, of course. It evolved from the way the politicians and bureaucrats handled the “pandemic” (panic?) in 2020, and was inevitably focused on health matters. It’s no surprise that some issues of concern with us (the readers) are not dealt with much, or the opposite, depending on the format of the crew etc.
NewsGuard, Trusted News Initiative,Conscious Advertising Network (Can), ‘Stop funding hate’ are all examples of socialist fascism.
‘(Socialist Fascism) is opposed to classical liberalism which arose as a reaction to absolutism’
Mussolini 1932
‘Stop Funding Hate is registered as a Community Interest Company (CIC), a type of organisation which should not be formed for political purposes.’
WPP, Publicis, Dentsu, Omnicom and the Interpublic Group are all as guilty. Of course they are simply positioning themselves to profit from a change of government.
Brendan O’Neill had it right.
‘…….elitist, repugnant and illiberal, as are all attempts at press censorship’
He could have added ‘venal, corrupt’ as well.
This and TCW are the 2 sites I visit every day to keep me sane in this insane world. I was introduced to TCW by Mark Steyn when he was on GBNews and I stumbled across the DS from a link in a TCW article.
If these sites were behind a paywall, I would not have subscribed and would be missing out. It is therefore important to keep them available to everyone to stumble across and so I have just increased my donation to both.
If you have never heard of Mark Steyn, I recommend visiting his website at steynonline for his witty, thought-provoking take on current affairs and life in general.
Here’s a link to Mark Steyn’s latest offering which comments on an article from yesterday’s DS:
https://www.steynonline.com/13988/you-make-me-feel-so-jung
Donation made. I look at the Daily Sceptic every day and often read the articles in their entirety. Unlike The Times – so timely reminder to cancel that subscription. I was going to do it with their witch hunt around Russell Brand.
We need an increase in subscribers because we need an increase in commenters. With 1.8 million page reads per month it means a reasonable percentage of the BTL comments are being read so further spreading the message.
Personally, I much appreciate the links that other subscribers provide to alternative sources and I try as much as possible to do my bit particularly as I also subscribe to TCW, Off-G, UK Column News and various others.
If subscription numbers increase then content will undoubtedly follow.
In the battle against a dehumanising and technocratic agenda which ultimately threatens the survival of mankind a sum of five pounds per month is not a big ask. In many parts of the country a fiver is not even the price of a pint – just to put this in to perspective.
Many thanks to Toby, Will Jones, Richard Eldred, Chris Morrison, Ian Rons, Noah Carl, J Sorel, Robert Kogon, Jonathan Barr and Steven Turner and not forgetting Lulu for all their hard work over the last three plus years.
We need DS now as much as ever.
Let’s not forget….
Every little helps.😀😀😀
Seconded
Thanks tof.
I agree with everything you have written; however, whilst I’d welcome a small increase in commenters, some of the other sites (that you mention) can end up with too many comments, such that I find myself not reading them as it becomes too time consuming and often repetitious.
I feel that most of the regular commentators below the line are my new friends. Unlike many of you, I’m not highly qualified or able to contribute much to the medical/scientific discussions but it has meant a great deal to me to be able to share my anecdotes and experiences of the past few years with people who share my perspective on the situation we faced/face.
I wish every single one of you a lovely Christmas and a happy New Year.
God Bless you all.
Your very generous comments are much appreciated.
Never be too shy to post your views. The last thing we need on here is a shortage of comments which might give occasional viewers the impression that this is a poorly supported News venue.
1.8 million page views per month – let’s aim to get this to at least 2.0 million in 2024.
Best wishes for a Happy Christmas. 😊
On the Newsguard issue, I have suggested getting subscribers to do some articles (1) Because the site can say it is the view of a subscriber rather than them, and Newsguard might not have the same authority over readers and subscribers (2) It will save Daily Sceptic money getting subscribers to do some articles. (all overseen by Toby etc ofcourse)———–We have to box clever. ——-Ok so subscribers are not professional journalists, but can we really afford to be snobs when fighting the Liberal establsihment tyranny? As you say ——-“Every Little Helps”
Dear Toby and the rest: you get £5 a month from me and I’m afraid that’s all I can afford at the moment. But in early summer I will finally reap the reward of 45 years’ working and paying tax, which will make a considerable difference to my income – so that’s when I’ll review my contribution.
Happy Christmas to all and thank you so much for all you are doing. Let’s hope 2024 is better for all of us.
Happy Christmas to you too, RTSC. And Happy Christmas to everyone here, including those I sometimes disagree with – some of my best friends, literally, believe in conspiracy theories which I think are nonsense, but it doesn’t stop us being good friends.
If, like me, you still pay the BBC licence fee – currently £159 per year – but you don’t like paying for BBC propaganda (such as woke and uncritical vaccine-pushing pharma propaganda), you could consider simultaneously saving yourself some money while donating some of it to the Daily Sceptic, by stopping paying the BBC licence fee. It’s absurd that if I want to watch GB News and/or ITV live (and no BBC TV programmes) that I have to pay £159 to the BBC. But that’s the law. However, as I’ve recently discovered that there are so many ways around this now, I’m seriously considering stopping paying the BBC licence fee in April – when the licence fee is increased to £169.50 – if not before. (A friend of mine is in one episode of a BBC television drama due to be broadcast in January, so I’m going to wait until after that.) I’ve discovered that I can listen to GB News radio very conveniently via the Internet (or DAB radio) for which no licence fee is required, it’s the same as GB News on TV except without the pictures, but also without any annoying adverts which is a bonus. Instead,… Read more »
…And her face was white with fear in case her actions were observed
So she closed her eyes to keep her conscience blind…
No need to close your eyes, just do it. A life long BBC devotee I didn’t renew in 2021 in protest at their COVID-19 coverage and even unplugged my TV aerial! Life has been better since 😊
Liberate yourself, like millions have already done – highly recommended, you won’t regret it. Nobody needs to pay a TV propaganda tax anymore with catch up TV available for which you don’t need a licence.
People on here have said they will stop their monthly subscription because of the one sided coverage in favour of Israel.
The Daily Sceptic is supposed to be an antidote to the main stream media.
If you just parrot and link to MSM articles supporting the Israeli genocide against the indigenous Palestinians it is no wonder people stop paying.
There has not been one article in the DS giving the Palestinian side.
Many of the alternative media sites I follow are against the Covid scam, against the WHO, against the media coverage of Ukraine, against the media coverage of Israel etc. etc. The DS is all these things APART from their slavish support of Israel.
Perhaps “some” articles to give a balanced view of the Middle East would stop people leaving DS and may encourage new subscribers?
I would be very happy to up my subscription, but I can’t find any way to do this on the website. I log-in, can edit my profile, but nowhere can I find the details of my monthly subscription.
A very Happy Christmas to Mr Toby Young and DS team and god bless x
I rely on the DS to breath a sigh of relief when you cover detail that others dare not especially in these authoritarian cancelling times.
And thank you to your families too because it is a collective brave quest to open debate at risk from the ‘mob’ so including them in my best wishes for 2024
Have a lovely one and Merry Christmas to all the contributors including those who down tick me sometimes as it is the season of Good Will and we all modify our views me too when we can listen read and discuss especially on this forum x .
Merry Christmas to everyone at the Daily Sceptic. And thank you for all the articles throughout the year.
It’s important that we financially support the Daily Sceptic.
By our nature we are sceptics and because of that the balance of reporting on any one issue might not precisely match what we consider balanced reporting. That’s to be expected. However what we get here is real journalism. That is a real attempt to examine issues and challenge the nonsense out there. And issues are presented without the presentation being completely driven by major conflicts of interests as most mainstream media is.
We need the Daily Sceptic to remain publicly viewable because that and word of mouth is the only way the information is going to get out there so that others have some chance of coming to a genuinely informed viewpoint on issues.
A Merry Christmas and happy New Year to all the commenters also. You’ve helped keep me sane throughout the year.
Toby—————–Why not get subscibers to do a few articles to save money? I am sure we would all happily help out, and speaking for myself I would be very cheap. Actually I would do it for NOTHING —–Merry Christmas and all the best for 24 and I hope I am wishing you the best for 25.
I visit this site several times a day. I think it’s probably helping to keep me sane, and for that, Toby and your team, I am very grateful. When I can afford to give more, I absolutely will be more than happy to do so.
Hi, I have been trying to cancel my old suscription and recreate a larger subscription from a different debit card. I cannot find how to cancel the old subscription. please make it easier to edit and alter subscriptions.