Black Agenda Report

Black Agenda Report concerns topics such as "women's rights issues, history, business, sports, and entertainment" from a Black American perspective.^[2] It is an independent, alternative,^[3] Black-owned,^[4] publication which denounces both the Democratic and Republican parties, positioning itself as an outsider.^[5]

Black Agenda Report was founded as a radio and TV program in 2006 by Glen Ford, Bruce A. Dixon, Nellie Bailey, Margaret Kimberly, and Leutisha Stills.^[6] Ford had previously worked at the program Black Commentator, but left in 2006 to form the Report with other previous staff members.^[2][7] During the presidency of Barack Obama, journalists of the outlet severely criticized the president and accused him of being backed by corporations.^[8][9] Along with Facing South, the Report was the only media outlet to provide major coverage of the 2010 Georgia prison strike.^[10]

Netherlands-based investigative journalism group Bellingcat described BAR as one of several blogs and websites that "routinely promote pro-Assad conspiracy theories", in regards to the website being given the Serena Shim Award for Uncompromised Integrity, an award presented by the pro-Assad group Association for Investment in Popular Action Committees, describing one of its fronts, the Syria Solidarity Movement, as anti-semitic and fascist. Bellingcat also criticized the website for claiming the Sudanese revolution was a regime change operation.^[11]

Other publications have criticized BAR for denying the Persecution of Uyghurs in Xinjiang. Coda Story identified the website as part of a fringe group of leftists who deny the persecution, citing a January 2020 piece by contributing editor Danny Haiphong, who denied the existence of "concentration camps" in Xinjiang after a tour of the country.^[12] World Magazine also criticized editor and columnist Margaret Kimberly for denying the existence of internment camps, in which she tweeted: "These are lies. There is no evidence of Uighur ‘concentration camps.’ More hybrid war against China." Kimberley also appeared on the Chinese state-controlled television network CGTV, where she stated that the US was "in no position to talk about human rights in China or anywhere else" due to its high incarceration rate.^[13]