In a world where politics have become increasingly polarized, it has become difficult to find unbiased news sources. Particularly in the United States.
So who is right? The media are free from state or corporate censorship and are they actually reporting the facts or are they trying? Here we’ve done the research for you.
Based on research conducted by J.J. Pryor @TowardsDataScience.com. He evaluates 102 news sites on the news bias chart, using an initial dataset from Ad Fontes Media and SEO tools named Ahrefs and Semrush.
Research Findings
Identifiers
denotes conservative-leaning blogs (bias score greater than +6)
is a collection of liberal-leaning blogs (lower than -6 on the bias)
is for unbiased, impartial news media (between -6 and +6).
Based on research findings, these are the most neutral news sources out there to rely on.
The AP is consistently featured on almost every list of unbiased news sources. So it makes sense to list the list here first.
The slogan included at the top of the AP on the main page is “promoting the power of facts”.
You will notice that the language in which the news is here – politically as well – is very neutral and non-inflammatory.
AP journalists focus on reporting the facts by relying on reliable sources and corroborating or disproving allegations by sources through evidence.
Just this week, you can even find a story about all of the “fake news” readers might have seen on social media apps. The AP then confirms or debunks these claims with hard facts.
The Top Stories section of the AP website is an excellent place to get the latest news from around the world. There is also an interesting video section with news and a listen section that updates the AP radio broadcasts every hour.
Both media bias/fact check and AllSides report from Reuters as well as being less partisan in their reporting than the BBC.
It doesn’t take long to browse the Reuters website to see why this is the case. Article titles are refreshingly neutral and journalists are heavily fact-based reporting.
Despite that neutrality, Reuters journalism is not reluctant to proceed. You will find US-based stories out there that take a tough line against corruption, immoral politicians on both sides of the aisle, and well-rounded coverage of every issue.
Reuters is an excellent source of news on business and markets, politics, and also technology and lifestyle topics.
There is also a TV link in the header where you can watch all of Reuters’ previous video news programs. Select the flag in the header to change Reuters coverage to your own region of the world.
While NPR news is often featured on most balanced news sources lists, it also has several allegations of being left-skewed than other reliable news sources on that list.
These allegations are usually made by a few NPR journalists who are less savvy to keep their political leanings in the background. But most NPR journalists stick strongly to all of the basic principles of journalism, especially accountability.
NPR listeners and readers reaching out to NPR will find that journalists are excellent at responding to criticism. In many cases, they are even correct stories or trying to better balance the subjects on which they hear criticism or complaints from your audience.
NPR offers a tremendous variety of news content for your audience. You can find the categories on the website, such as Politics, Business, Technology, Science, Race, and Culture.
NPR also offers wonderful shows and podcasts, and even a music section focused on helping NPR audiences better appreciate existing, new, and alternative artists and music.
For the most part, when you discover NPR news stories – aside from the occasional left-wing comments or weird ones from some of the journalists – for the most part, you will find balanced and fact-based coverage out there.
According to a 2014 Pew Research study, 40% of CBS News audiences are “left-wing” while only 20% are “right-leaning”. While this is often pointed out by political conservatives that CBS News has a left-leaning bias, the truth is that the rest of the CBS News audience is centred.
This means that the CBS news audience is much more politically balanced than many other news outlets.
Even when dealing with very controversial subjects, CBS News uses balanced and neutral language in its reporting. Article titles on the website are factual and reporting which includes context as well as opinions from all sides of any debate.
Other major network news channels like NBC or ABC are being accused of being more often spared from these accusations by the conservative, over inflammatory anti-right wing headlines, CBS News, more often goes.
In fact, the Gallup / Knight Foundation poll by CBS News was consistently far higher by the conservatives than CNN, MSNBC, and NBC News. The Liberals rated CBS News higher than CNN, USA Today, and even The Washington Post.
In 2016, USA Today shared the largest circulation crown in the United States with the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. It is read around the world and is an important source of news for millions of people every day. The opinion pieces in USA Today are clearly labelled and present a variety of points of view (a refreshing change from the opinion pieces in some other publications).
AllSides gives the publication a centre rating, although it notes that there has been some disagreement. However, the fact that two blind surveys supported this rating adds weight. You may be used to seeing USA Today in front of your hotel room door, but if you’re looking for good news, check their site regularly.
PBS News is one of the few media outlets that remains free from serious accusations of bias.
The stories here are both sides of every issue. When reading quotes from politicians or other key figures you will be reading, provided you with all of the important contexts. Context is an important part of balanced reporting, and PBS News does far better than most other media sources.
On PBS News, you will find news categories such as Politics, Health, World, Nation, Economy, and much more. It also features a Full Episodes section of all the news programs, a podcast section of most popular audio news podcasts, and a live link at the top of the page for watching the latest, ongoing news programs.
If you are a US-focused source of news that you can trust, stay fair and balanced in your reporting, you cannot go wrong with PBS News.
Although AllSides claims that The Economist tends to lean to the left, it has a reputation for high-quality reporting. The publication “is seen as the enemy of privilege, pomposity, and predictability.” (Although one has to wonder if he considers himself the enemy of privilege and pomposity, why “Which MBA” and “Executive Education Navigator” feature prominently in navigation.)
Throughout its history, The Economist has championed issues on both sides of the political spectrum. Today, it tends to have a little more left. That said, they are not afraid to align themselves with the party they believe best supports their ideas, which focus on free trade and free markets.
Two media bias rating services, Media Bias / Fact Check and AllSides, both rank BBC News at the center of coverage.
This means that for independent news readers, BBC news reporting stands as one of the best options. This may be due to the fact that the BBC is based in the UK so it remains unaffected by US political influence.
US coverage for the BBC is surprisingly balanced. Headings are factual and avoid hitting one side of the American political spectrum.
BBC also offers an extremely wide range of news and coverage, including world news, business, science, health, and even a “reality check” section that lists the fake news you might have seen on social media or on other news sites.
A surprising candidate on the list of unbiased news sources given the name, Christian Science Monitor. Both AllSides and Media Bias / Fact Check-List Christian Science Monitor as center-balanced and unbiased.
This news organization has built a reputation over the years for providing an extremely fair in-depth, exploration into the important issues in the world today. In contrast to the biased media out there, Christian Science Monitor works hard to bring in perspectives from all sides.
You will not find article titles on this website that seek to defame or unjustly cover the cost of a political or another page. The stories delve into key subjects that the audience, providing full context and drawing in multiple sources to confirm all of the facts.
The content of the website is mixed in with both text and video news content. You will also find podcasts, photos of the week, and also a section devoted to reviews.
According to traffic estimates from Similarweb, the most visited news sources in the US in 2022 are;
Here are the most popular news sources in the UK:
In 2022, these are the most popular news sources in Australia:
These are some of the most popular news sources in Canada:
They all have a lot of Canadian traffic.
The most popular news sources in India are;
Almost 3 out of 4 Indian people visit these websites.
There are some additional news organizations in the world today that deserve a mention. They were not included in the list above because sometimes these sites occasionally allow their authors’ biases to be published.
C-Span and Pew Research are not specifically news organizations. But they deserve to be mentioned as fantastic resources for learning the deeper truth behind today’s news.
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His finding revealed that 21 of the 102 outlets examined had some kind of paywall.
Surprisingly, the majority of the outlets mentioned above are regarded as impartial and trustworthy news outlets. It begs the question of whether paywalls restrict the dissemination of accurate information enough.
To find reliable sources, I, therefore, invite you to favor:
A source of information is said to be unbiased if it can be trusted. On the Internet, it is necessary to criticize the source of information because anyone can post online without a filter.
Almost all major news outlets have a corporation behind them. In some countries, the state controls the media to push its own agenda. It is hard to find news sources that are unbiased on the internet or otherwise.
In fact, many survey and research companies routinely ask viewers/readers which networks they find trustworthy and which they feel are biased.
Most newspapers are biased one way or the other, but you can find accurate information in magazines and special-interest publications.
Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube are some good examples of other websites for getting new. These sites may be biased and want you to hear their point of view.
Using the Gallup / Knight Foundation survey itself, it is easy to identify the least biased news sources. It is those who are the least upset, both the liberals and the conservatives. The news sources estimated those in the middle of the two lists represented the least amount of bias.
Why is that the case?
Journalists who rely on facts and evidence are least likely to ask questions at a press conference (upsetting conservatives) or use objectionable terms in their reporting (upsetting liberals).
Most journalists have likely read The Elements of Journalism by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel at some point in their study of journalism. It is well known as a guide to good journalism. The Ethical Journalism Network further cooks up the principles from this book into five core principles of journalism.
What are the characteristics of the most unbiased news sources? According to EJN:
True or Fake: the public audiovisual fact-checking and debunking platform. The decoders: made by Le Monde. The Decodex: created by Le Monde, is a search engine in which you can type the URL of the site on which the information was found in order to verify its veracity.
According to a new study by Patrick Stox @Ahrefs.com;
During Google Core Update cycles from 2015 to the present, the average traffic for the top news sources in each category has decreased.
These figures are actually very similar and not statistically significant, given that we’re looking at the traffic of 50 websites over a six-year span. The effect on both groups was nearly similar in the run-up to the 2016 election. If you look at the results from the previous year or so leading up to the 2020 election, you’ll see that the effect was nearly similar for both groups, with the most recent change appearing to be stronger for Conservative news websites.
Finding an unbiased newspaper or news source may seem like an impossible task. In part because humans are seldom able to have an open mind about something. It takes an active effort to report an event or situation in a completely impartial manner.
The problem with news sources is that even if journalists can’t be 100% unbiased, their audiences might find it useful to reveal their bias and speak openly about it.
However, this is unlikely. Therefore, it is up to the public to read multiple news sources and different viewpoints before forming a judgment.
What are your favorite online news sources? Let us know in the comments section below.
Evaluated News Outlets
| News Source | Reliability | Bias |
| New York Post | 38.7 | 5.15 |
| Reuters | 51.64 | -0.95 |
| The Gateway Pundit | 12.44 | 28.55 |
| Intercept | 37.76 | -15.52 |
| The New Yorker | 41.85 | -6.9 |
| FreeSpeech TV | 24.77 | -22.49 |
| Occupy Democrats | 20 | -25.59 |
| ProPublica | 47.78 | -5.93 |
| Democracy Now | 32.91 | -19.31 |
| Breitbart | 20.58 | 22.57 |
| Quartz | 41.34 | -3.89 |
| BBC | 46.56 | -3.03 |
| OZY | 40.99 | -5.43 |
| National Review | 26.36 | 16.23 |
| Daily Beast | 34.44 | -16.25 |
| Fortune | 45.15 | 0.43 |
| Daily Signal | 24.79 | 23.31 |
| National Public Radio | 49.9 | -2.73 |
| Counterpunch | 25.06 | -19.38 |
| Washington Times | 31.34 | 12.97 |
| Daily Caller | 23.93 | 20.06 |
| Slate | 31.12 | -18.47 |
| PJ Media | 18.36 | 20.33 |
| NewsMax | 33.15 | 13.61 |
| InfoWars | 12.97 | 31.05 |
| World Truth TV | 7.41 | 8.48 |
| The American Spectator | 22 | 23.89 |
| Wall Street Journal | 48.33 | 1.89 |
| USA Today | 46.07 | -2.03 |
| The Advocate | 49.47 | -1.85 |
| Daily Mail | 30.36 | 3.27 |
| Wonkette | 15.27 | -31.15 |
| The Progressive | 37.79 | -17.48 |
| Al Jazeera | 49.47 | -3.71 |
| Huffington Post | 39.98 | -11.64 |
| WorldNetDaily | 16.95 | 22.92 |
| Conservative Review | 21.8 | 25.3 |
| Washington Post | 43.73 | -4.18 |
| Fox News | 26.76 | 15.31 |
| Bipartisan Report | 19.29 | -23.55 |
| The Economist | 42.34 | -2.43 |
| ShareBlue | 22.71 | -24.95 |
| AP | 51.98 | -1.06 |
| Palmer Report | 17.66 | -29.37 |
| Second Nexus | 24.29 | -22.61 |
| News and Guts | 34.98 | -9.84 |
| Forward | 37.57 | -5.69 |
| The Skimm | 41.67 | -3.31 |
| Washington Free Beacon | 35.07 | 16.71 |
| Truthout | 24.07 | -24.4 |
| The Federalist | 22.23 | 23.29 |
| ABC news | 49.47 | -1.85 |
| Washington Monthly | 26.91 | -14.68 |
| Alternet | 21.4 | -19.16 |
| NewsPunch | 14.39 | 28.58 |
| Weather.com | 51.55 | -2.43 |
| National Enquirer | 9.65 | 5.41 |
| The Week | 30.98 | -8.31 |
| The Atlantic | 40.16 | -6.41 |
| Foreign Policy | 41.49 | -1.65 |
| One America News Network | 30.57 | 15.89 |
| Daily Kos | 23.16 | -21.49 |
| Business Insider | 43.13 | -0.38 |
| The Blaze | 27.34 | 15.7 |
| CNN | 42.22 | -5.69 |
| New York Times | 47.5 | -4.01 |
| Vox | 41.97 | -8.75 |
| Life News | 24.49 | 24.75 |
| PBS | 47.86 | -2.37 |
| MSNBC | 46.39 | -6.11 |
| Forbes | 40.27 | 0.2 |
| American Thinker | 23.1 | 29.82 |
| Bloomberg | 47.63 | -0.85 |
| Fiscal Times | 44.72 | 1.52 |
| New Republic | 36.43 | -12.82 |
| Reason | 38.27 | 4.12 |
| The American Conservative | 28.65 | 10.82 |
| RedState | 26.44 | 20.08 |
| Daily Wire | 24.39 | 16.35 |
| Politico | 46.11 | -5.24 |
| Talking Points Memo | 41.96 | -5.67 |
| Jacobin | 32.32 | -19.92 |
| Financial Times | 46.71 | 0.62 |
| Mother Jones | 37.31 | -13.92 |
| Marketwatch | 44.8 | -0.54 |
| Think Progress | 35.59 | -19.12 |
| Vanity Fair | 35.42 | -17.98 |
| Time | 42.7 | -4.35 |
| The Guardian | 47.66 | -6.45 |
| LA Times | 48.88 | -3.06 |
| The Hill | 46.23 | 0.09 |
| Washington Examiner | 29.07 | 12.17 |
| IJR | 44 | 6.73 |
| The Nation | 33.39 | -16.89 |
| Twitchy | 17.08 | 20.57 |
| Crooks and Liars | 23.06 | -23.46 |
| Axios | 47.36 | -5.74 |
| Christian Science Monitor | 44.47 | -0.21 |
| Newsy | 42.1 | -8 |
| BuzzFeed | 43.2 | -7.06 |
| Conservative Tribune | 29.69 | 17.22 |
| CBS | 47.06 | -1.85 |
Credits
Without J.J. Pryor’s findings, would have been difficult to compose this article.
https://towardsdatascience.com/how-statistically-biased-is-our-news-f28f0fab3cb3
https://ahrefs.com/blog/is-google-biased/
