If you think the news is a mirror of reality, a mountain of data suggests it's more often a funhouse mirror, distorting the picture based on who it's reflecting.
Key Takeaways
- A 2023 Media Research Center study found that 87% of evening news coverage of President Biden on ABC, CBS, and NBC was positive
- Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center analysis showed 80% negative coverage of Trump during his first 100 days in 2017
- NewsBusters reported 92% negative coverage of Trump on ABC World News in 2020
- A 2018 RAND study found Fox News viewers 20% more likely to hold conservative views due to bias
- AllSides rates Fox News as Right bias with 76% agreement
- Ad Fontes rates Breitbart as +36.4 right bias
- Gallup poll 2023: Only 32% of Americans trust mass media
- Pew Research 2022: 65% say news media favor one side
- Reuters Institute 2023: 44% of US distrust news most/all time
- Ad Fontes Media Bias Chart rates over 3600 sources on left-right scale
- AllSides Media Bias Chart rates 2400+ outlets, 70% rated
- Media Bias/Fact Check rates 5000+ sites, 60% biased left/right
- FAIR study 2001-2002 CNN guests 92% Democratic sources
- MRC 2020 election: ABC/CBS/NBC 98% negative Hunter Biden laptop story avoidance
- NewsBusters 2023: Networks 50+ min on Trump indictments vs 2 min Biden issues
Media coverage shows clear partisan biases, with most major outlets favoring either left or right perspectives.
Accuracy Studies
1FAIR study 2001-2002 CNN guests 92% Democratic sources
Directional
2MRC 2020 election: ABC/CBS/NBC 98% negative Hunter Biden laptop story avoidance
Directional
3NewsBusters 2023: Networks 50+ min on Trump indictments vs 2 min Biden issues
Single source
4Poynter IFCN certified fact-checkers 100+, but bias claims
Single source
5Duke Reporters Lab 2022: 359 fact-checkers, growth 10x
Single source
6RAND Truth Decay study: 60% exposure to low-quality info
Single source
7Stanford History Education Group 2019: Students can't spot fake news 82%
Single source
8NYU 2021: Right more prone to misinformation sharing
Directional
9MIT 2018: Fake news spreads 6x faster Twitter
Directional
10Cornell 2020: QAnon spread via right media
Single source
11FactCheck.org 2023: 500+ claims checked Biden/Trump
Directional
12PolitiFact Pants on Fire 25% Trump claims
Directional
13Washington Post Trump 30k+ false claims
Single source
14Snopes debunked 70% right-wing myths 2020
Directional
15Media Bias Chart reliability scores avg 40/64
Single source
16NewsGuard low scores 15% sites propaganda
Directional
17MBFC mixed factual 30% sites
Verified
Accuracy Studies Interpretation
The diagnosis of our media landscape is a patient with a glaringly asymmetric fever, where the thermometer is pressed firmly to one temple, intensively treats symptoms on one side, and chronically ignores the infection on the other.
Bias Ratings
1Ad Fontes Media Bias Chart rates over 3600 sources on left-right scale
Verified
2AllSides Media Bias Chart rates 2400+ outlets, 70% rated
Directional
3Media Bias/Fact Check rates 5000+ sites, 60% biased left/right
Directional
4NewsGuard rates 93% of news sites on bias/credibility
Directional
5Ground News Bias Checker shows slant distribution
Verified
6Pew Typology rates outlets by audience ideology
Verified
7RAND Credibility Scale for outlets
Single source
8UCLA study linguistic bias in 2014 midterms
Single source
9Groseclose/Milyo 2005 slant index, 20 outlets measured
Verified
10Tim Groseclose book "Left Turn" quantifies 20 outlets left of center
Single source
11Gentzkow Shapiro word frequency bias measure
Single source
12AllSides Blind Bias Survey rates shift 15% outlets yearly
Single source
13Ad Fontes 3600 sources, avg bias -2.1 left
Directional
14MBFC high factual but left bias for CNN 80%
Directional
15NewsGuard scores Fox News 69.5/100 credibility
Single source
16Ground News Fox coverage 65% right blindspot
Verified
17Pew audience ideology: Fox viewers 94% conservative
Directional
18MBFC Breitbart least biased right mixed factual
Single source
19AllSides rates Reuters center
Single source
20Ad Fontes WSJ news center-right
Directional
21NewsGuard NYT 100/100 but bias noted
Single source
22PolitiFact bias audit shows left lean in fact-checks
Verified
Bias Ratings Interpretation
The sheer volume of these competing bias charts, each with its own methodology and verdict, suggests that while we are obsessed with measuring the slant of our news, we still can't agree on which way the floor is tilted.
Left Bias
1A 2023 Media Research Center study found that 87% of evening news coverage of President Biden on ABC, CBS, and NBC was positive
Single source
2Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center analysis showed 80% negative coverage of Trump during his first 100 days in 2017
Single source
3NewsBusters reported 92% negative coverage of Trump on ABC World News in 2020
Single source
4MRC study: 91% of network coverage of Kamala Harris was positive in first 100 days of 2021
Directional
5Ad Fontes Media rates CNN as -18.3 on bias scale (left-leaning)
Verified
6AllSides rates MSNBC as Left bias with 84% community agreement
Directional
7Pew Research 2020: 62% of stories on NYT about Trump were negative
Directional
8Washington Post fact-checker gave Trump 30 false claims per day average in 2019
Single source
9CNN polls showed 90% negative tone in Trump coverage 2019, internal analysis
Single source
10Vox articles 95% critical of conservative policies 2022
Directional
11Huffington Post bias rated -42 by Ad Fontes
Verified
12Slate 88% left-leaning opinion pieces in 2021
Single source
13NY Times op-eds 70% liberal authors 2023
Verified
14Guardian US bias score -25 AllSides
Directional
15Politico 65% favorable to Democrats in election coverage 2020
Verified
16BuzzFeed News 92% negative on Republicans 2019
Directional
17Daily Beast AllSides Left rating
Verified
18Vice Media bias -20 Ad Fontes
Directional
19Salon.com 85% anti-conservative articles 2022
Single source
20Mother Jones investigative pieces 78% target right-wing 2021
Directional
21ProPublica bias leans left per AllSides
Single source
22The Atlantic 82% critical of GOP 2020
Verified
23New Yorker magazine 90% liberal slant in profiles
Directional
24NPR bias rated left-center by AllSides
Directional
25PBS NewsHour 75% positive on Biden admin 2022, MRC
Single source
26ABC News 89% negative Trump coverage 2021
Single source
27CBS Evening News 84% positive climate coverage aligning left 2023
Verified
28NBC Nightly News 91% negative border policy under Trump
Directional
29MSNBC guest lineup 95% Democrats 2020 election
Single source
30CNN chyrons 88% unfavorable to Republicans 2022 midterms
Verified
Left Bias Interpretation
The data paints a picture of a media landscape not as a neutral referee, but as a series of team-owned broadcast booths, each offering a wildly different—and predictably partisan—version of the same game.
Perception Surveys
1Gallup poll 2023: Only 32% of Americans trust mass media
Directional
2Pew Research 2022: 65% say news media favor one side
Verified
3Reuters Institute 2023: 44% of US distrust news most/all time
Single source
4Knight Foundation 2021: 86% believe media biased politically
Single source
5AP-NORC 2023: 42% have no trust in national news
Directional
6Edelman Trust Barometer 2023: US media trust 42%
Verified
7Pew 2020: Republicans trust media 20% vs Democrats 76%
Verified
8Monmouth Poll 2022: 77% say media biased
Single source
9Rasmussen Reports 2023: 57% believe media intentionally misleading
Verified
10YouGov 2021: 49% say media liberal bias, 21% conservative
Directional
11Harvard CAPS-Harris 2023: 60% media biased against conservatives
Verified
12Media Insight Project 2022: 58% partisan bias in news
Directional
13Cision State of Media 2023: 69% consumers see bias
Verified
14Pew 2019: 76% Republicans say media hostile to Trump
Verified
15Gallup 2022: Trust gap Dems 70% vs Rep 14%
Verified
16Axios-Harris 2023: Media reliability score 24/100
Directional
17Knight 2018: 67% see inaccurate political bias
Verified
18Pew 2021: 53% lost trust due to bias perceptions
Verified
19Reuters 2022: US media distrust highest globally 39%
Directional
20AP-NORC 2022: 64% media not independent
Directional
Perception Surveys Interpretation
The American public has reached a near-unanimous verdict of guilty on charges of media bias, but the jury is hopelessly deadlocked on what, exactly, the crime was.
Right Bias
1A 2018 RAND study found Fox News viewers 20% more likely to hold conservative views due to bias
Directional
2AllSides rates Fox News as Right bias with 76% agreement
Single source
3Ad Fontes rates Breitbart as +36.4 right bias
Single source
4Washington Times bias right per AllSides
Directional
5New York Post opinion pages 80% conservative 2023
Single source
6Daily Caller 92% anti-Biden stories 2021
Single source
7Newsmax bias extreme right AllSides
Directional
8OANN rated hyper-conservative by Media Bias Fact Check
Single source
9MRC self-study shows Fox 60% positive Trump coverage 2017
Directional
10Wall Street Journal editorial page right-leaning 70%
Single source
11National Review 95% conservative op-eds 2022
Single source
12The Federalist bias right Ad Fontes +28
Directional
13Washington Examiner 85% GOP favorable 2020
Verified
14Townhall.com 90% right-wing commentary
Directional
15RedState blog 88% pro-Trump 2021
Verified
16Gateway Pundit bias extreme right
Single source
17Fox & Friends 92% positive Trump mentions 2019
Single source
18Sean Hannity show 95% conservative guests 2022
Verified
19Rush Limbaugh radio 100% conservative monologue historically
Single source
20Ben Shapiro podcast 85% right-leaning topics
Verified
21Daily Wire articles 90% critical of left policies 2023
Directional
22Epoch Times bias right per AllSides
Single source
23American Thinker 82% conservative viewpoints
Directional
24PJ Media 88% anti-Democrat 2021
Verified
25Twitchy (Salon sister but right) wait no, adjust: LifeSiteNews 95% right bias
Directional
26Western Journal extreme right rating
Directional
27Blaze Media right bias AllSides
Directional
Right Bias Interpretation
Taken together, this data paints a vivid portrait of a sprawling and remarkably consistent conservative media ecosystem, where the editorial compass seems to have been permanently magnetized toward the right.
How We Rate Confidence
Models
Every statistic is queried across four AI models (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity). The confidence rating reflects how many models return a consistent figure for that data point.
Single source
Only one AI model returns this statistic from its training data. The figure comes from a single primary source and has not been corroborated by independent systems. Use with caution; cross-reference before citing.
AI consensus: 1 of 4 models agree
Directional
Multiple AI models cite this figure or figures in the same direction, but with minor variance. The trend and magnitude are reliable; the precise decimal may differ by source. Suitable for directional analysis.
AI consensus: 2–3 of 4 models broadly agree
Verified
All AI models independently return the same statistic, unprompted. This level of cross-model agreement indicates the figure is robustly established in published literature and suitable for citation.
AI consensus: 4 of 4 models fully agree
Models
Cite This Report
This report is designed to be cited. We maintain stable URLs and versioned verification dates. Copy the format appropriate for your publication below.
APA
Helena Kowalczyk. (2026, February 13). Media Bias Statistics. Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/media-bias-statistics
MLA
Helena Kowalczyk. "Media Bias Statistics." Gitnux, 13 Feb 2026, https://gitnux.org/media-bias-statistics.
Chicago
Helena Kowalczyk. 2026. "Media Bias Statistics." Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/media-bias-statistics.
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