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If you aren't concerned, you aren't paying attention, or are complicit
Below are links to several news and information sites. Some include a short description, typically taken from the source website. Also included, in parenthesis, is a link to a bias analysis of the site. The bias categories below reflect these analyses.
What does bias mean?
See the figure at the bottom of this page to identify the political leaning of a news source. Wikipedia states: "Media bias occurs when journalists and news producers show bias in how they report and cover news." Wikipedia defines 26 different types of bias. The type of bias exhibited by a media source is important. Below are what I believe are the most important types of bias to be aware of, in my order of importance (more to less important).
Distortion bias - fact or reality is distorted or fabricated in the news
Comment: Factual reporting is essential, no matter whether it favors one side or another.
Content bias - differential treatment of the parties in political conflicts, where biased news presents only one side of the conflict.
Comment: Similar to distortion bias in that not all factual information is provided
Coverage bias - when media choose to report only negative news about one party or ideology. An example is Fox News, which rarely credits anything done by entities with different ideologies.
Partisan bias - a tendency to report to serve particular political party leaning.
Comment: If news is factual but consistently favors a particular leaning, don't disregard the news, because it is factual, but make sure you get facts from multiple sources. An example is ElectoralVote.com, which is highly factual and left leaning.
False equivalence - implying that an event is a new event, and thus deriving notability, without addressing past events of the same kind
Comment: This is often applied to science, on the assumption that scientists are biased and have an agenda based on that bias. Good scientists are not biased; they rely only on information considered factual at time the information is provided. Scientists may have agendas in the sense they are concerned about a particular issue, but their pursuit is based on factual information. The classic example is climate change.
Information
The following websites focus more on investigative news or reporting
PBS (Ad Fontes analysis) Wikipedia states "PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educational programs to public television stations in the United States".
Pew Research Center (AllSides Analysis) Website statement - Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan, nonadvocacy fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world.
Brookings Institute (AllSides Analysis) Website statement - "The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. Our mission is to conduct in-depth, nonpartisan research to improve policy and governance at local, national, and global levels."
Bellingcat (Ad Fontes analysis) Website statement - "Bellingcat has collected useful open source resources in one place to help researchers and journalists with their investigative efforts"
ProPublica (Ad Fontes analysis)
Middle
BBC News: Gathers and broadcasts news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. It is the world's largest broadcast news organization (Ad Fontes Analysis)
AllSides: Displays the day’s top news stories from the Left, Center and Right of the political spectrum — side-by-side
Politico: Covers politics and policy in the United States and internationally (Ad Fontes Analysis)
National Public Radio: NPR is an independent, nonprofit media organization that was founded on a mission to create a more informed public (Ad Fontes Analysis)
The Hill: The Hill newspaper is generally considered a non-partisan publication, though it focuses on Capitol Hill, K Street, and the White House. It aims to cover news related to Congress and the government. (Ad Fontes Analysis)
Forbes (4 free articles): Mission statement - Forbes gives people the knowledge, resources, inspiration, and connections they need to achieve success. (Ad Fontes Analysis)
ABC News: Mission statement is to deliver trusted, award-winning journalism across various platforms, focusing on in-depth coverage of breaking news, politics, health, culture, and global events (Ad Fontes Analysis)
Reuters (paywall) (Ad Fontes Analysis)
News Nation: Website statement - NewsNation, a Nexstar Media Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: NXST) property, is a news network reaching nearly 65 million television households across the United States. Validated by independent watchdog groups, NewsNation is America’s source for engaging and unbiased news, which reflects the full range of perspectives across the country. (Ad Fontes Analysis)
Axios: articles are often brief to facilitate quick reading; most are shorter than 300 words and use bullet points (Ad Fontes analysis)
The Fiscal Times: a digital news, opinion and media service primarily focused on the federal budget, entitlements, healthcare, taxes and the national debt. (Ad Fontes Analysis)
Wall Street Journal: Mission statement - We are the definitive source of news and information through the lens of business, finance, economics and money, global forces that shape the world and are key to understanding it. (Ad Fontes Analysis)
Skews Left
The Washington Post (paywall) (Ad Fontes analysis)
The New York Times (paywall) (Ad Fontes analysis)
The Guardian: Covering American and international news for an online, global audience. (Ad Fontes analysis)
Electoral-Vote.com: Features daily commentary on political news stories (MBFC analysis)
The Atlantic (Ad Fontes analysis)
The Philadelphia Enquirer (Ad Fontes analysis)
Huffington Post (Ad Fontes Analysis)
Minnesota Reformer (Ad Fontes analysis)
The Daily Beast (Ad Fontes Analysis)
Skews Right
New York Post: Website statement - News Corp (Nasdaq: NWS, NWSA; ASX: NWS, NWSLV) is a global, diversified media and information services company focused on creating and distributing authoritative and engaging content and other products and services. (Ad Fontes Analysis)
Special Report (Ad Fontes Analysis)
Just the News (Ad Fontes Analysis)
Quillette (Ad Fontes Analysis)
Real Clear Politics (Media Bias Fact Check Analysis)
Avoid These
The following are examples of websites to avoid. The link takes you to an analysis of the site by Ad Fontes Media, a website dedicated to assessing bias and accuracy of information on a specific website.
Left Bias
Right Bias
Is there a Left (liberal) bias in the news media?
I would be classified as a liberal by nearly anyone I talk to. So you may be surprised to hear that my answer to the above question is "Yes, there is a liberal bias in the news media". There is clear evidence of this [1, 2, 3]. But there are reasons. Most importantly, people go into professions for different reasons. Consequently, professions such as businessman, Catholic clergy, and corporate executives favor conservatives, while environmentalists, Episcopal priests, and yes, journalists, favor liberals [1, 2].
People who become journalists tend to be more creative, more educated, and more fact discerning. They thus are less inclined to give all sides of an issue equal coverage [1, 2, 3, 4].
A study by Hohenberg (2023), published in the Public Opinion Quarterly (Oxford Journals) states Conservatives are less truth-discerning than liberals, but also less affected by the congruence of news.
The average American leans conservative [1, 2, 3]. This automatically builds in some bias toward the perception of news media sources.
Bias or no bias, what is important is for us to gather information from a variety of sources and viewpoints, try to understand those viewpoints, and then decide [1].
I welcome respectful and informative comments, suggestions, and information. Send those to the email below. Thank you for visiting this site.
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