The criteria exist only as a way to pretend to have some form of objective standards. But in truth, the method by which the 9 points are evaluated is completely 100% subjective. Many examples can be used to show this, to the point where this review could end up obscenely long and come across as rambling, so instead I will keep it short and point out the worst one:

Wikileaks has a red rating for "Failure to regularly correct or clarify errors".

Think about that for a second. Wikileaks has a perfect record in terms of publishing factual information. So in other words, they give it a red-rating for failing to correct mistakes...BECAUSE WIKILEAKS HASN'T MADE ANY MISTAKES. Even the most biased individual should be able to admit that at the very worst, Wikileaks should be given an N/A rating instead of a red one for not correcting their NONEXISTENT errors. But Newsguard doesn't do that, it gives it a failing grade. Simply amazing.

That's not incompetence. That's a flat out lie. This is blatant journalistic malfeasance.

Newsguard can therefore be safely regarded as a smear campaign against news sites that the curators behind it do not like, while giving a free pass to US corporate media. Only download this add-on if you want to laugh at how blatantly biased it is. Some of the mental gymnastics Newsguard pulls to ensure cooked scores are impressive to say the least.

TL;DR: Blatantly and intentionally deceptive. Beware the 5 star reviews as there is a solid chance they are paid shills.