‘Watchdog’ tells Daily Star to ‘show’ Biden faux tans like orange manbaby Trump

The world’s No1 fun sponges have asked the Daily Star to prove if ‘Sleepy’ Joe Biden is a fake-tanned AI bot.

Anal analysts at self-appointed ‘internet watchdog’ NewsGuard have had a pop at our story revealing how social media commentators claimed a July Oval Office address by the outgoing president was AI-generated. Suspicious viewers reckoned Biden’s Donald Trump–style orange glow in the footage was a sign of ‘bot manipulation. News outlets around the world carried rib-tickling stories about the claims.

But square bears from US fact-check freaks NewsGuard, who claim to police online stories, said they had carried out lab tests of the footage and boffins had ruled it “very unlikely” to be AI-generated.

They accused us of failing to put the sceptical viewers claims into context, even though our story stated it would have required some seriously impressive AI to pull off the stunt.

NewsGuard appears to suggest we should have stated the onlookers, who are entitled to free speech, were wrong even though Biden himself has not commented on his unusual appearance in the footage.

The same company killjoys tried to take us to task over an article accurately reporting a claim by documentary film-maker Mark Christopher Lee that Trump was at risk of another assassination attempt after revealing he plans to release America’s UFO files if he is elected.

According to NewsGuard the article “did not question” Mr Lee’s comments. It is not the first time the company has experienced a sense of humour failure.

Last year they asked us to succeed where governments, scientists and astronomers have so far failed – by proving aliens exist. They wanted us to verify a picture of a supposed ET locals claimed had been found dead in their village in Bolivia.

And they wanted to know why we “did not question” allegations by former US defence staff that the American government had covered up the recovery of crashed UFO wreckage.

Daily Star chiefs found NewsGuard’s fascination with Biden’s tanning habits, UFOs and aliens hilarious – until we looked into the organisation. It is currently the subject of a US Congress investigation into alleged political “bias”.

Republican congressman James Comer announced the probe will focus on “the impact of NewsGuard on protected First Amendment speech and its potential to serve as a non-transparent agent of censorship campaigns”.

He has requested documents revealing the company’s contracts with federal agencies and “its adherence to its own policies intended to guard against appearances of bias”.

“The Committee seeks to make an independent determination about whether NewsGuard’s intervention on protected speech has been in any way sponsored by a federal, state, local, or foreign government,” Comer wrote in his letter to the company.

He said the committee was “concerned with the potential involvement of government entities in interfering with free expression”.

“Truthfulness and transparency about the purpose and origin of inquiries and managing conflicts of interest that may impact the public good are also relevant,” he added.

One Daily Star wag said: “It’s perhaps interesting NewsGuard focussed on Biden’s tan and yet raised no concerns about our satirical and frequently used description of Trump as an `orange manbaby’. Our tan-gate files are available to US Congress if they require them.”

The UK’s Free Speech Union welcomed the Congressional probe. Its official X site tweeted: “Some encouraging news from the US — so-called ‘fact checking’ firm NewsGuard, which works closely with government agencies and major corporate advertisers, is now under congressional scrutiny for its practices.

“Following concern over reports that NewsGuard’s actions may be suppressing accurate information, the Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, James Comer, has launched an investigation into the company’s impact on protected First Amendment Speech.”

Last night NewsGuard declined to comment on the Congressional probe.

A spokesman said: “NewsGuard contacts every publication we rate before issuing a rating so that we can give the publisher a chance to point us to any information we may have missed, rectify issues we have found, or provide comments for us to include in our rating description so that readers can see the publisher’s point of view.

“Please note that we contact publishers for comment about any potential issues we identify, even minor ones–and thus, being contacted for comment does not mean a publisher is receiving a poor rating from NewsGuard.

“In our last rating, for example, we found DailyStar.co.uk passed seven of our nine rating criteria and received an overall “credible” designation.”

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