How we rate outlets
Every story shows which outlets covered it, grouped as outlets on the left, center and right. This page explains where those groups come from and how they are counted.
Where the sides come from
We do not decide any outlet's lean ourselves. Each outlet's side comes from two independent, published media bias ratings: AllSides and Ad Fontes Media.
An outlet joins the panel only when both raters put it on the same side. AllSides gives each outlet a category (Left, Lean Left, Center, Lean Right, Right). Ad Fontes Media gives an overall bias score, negative for left and positive for right; a score within 6 points of zero counts as center. Where a rater rates an outlet's news and opinion separately, we use the news rating. We re-check every rating each quarter, and an outlet whose side changes moves group or leaves the panel.
The panel
We check the same fifteen outlets for every story: five on the left, five in the center and five on the right. Because the panel stays fixed, the counts mean the same thing every day, and every side has the same number of outlets to be counted.
Ratings as published on October 28, 2026. Ad Fontes Media scores are its overall bias score; negative is left.
| Outlet | AllSides | Ad Fontes Media |
|---|---|---|
| Left | ||
| CNN | Lean Left | −6.26, Skews Left |
| The New York Times | Lean Left | −7.80, Skews Left |
| The Washington Post | Lean Left | −6.95, Skews Left |
| HuffPost | Left | −10.79, Skews Left |
| MS NOW | Left | −13.75, Strong Left |
| Center | ||
| Reuters | Center | Middle |
| The Hill | Center | −1.65, Middle |
| BBC News | Center | −1.42, Middle |
| Newsweek | Center | −1.78, Middle |
| Bloomberg | Center | −2.82, Middle |
| Right | ||
| Fox News | Right | +11.43, Skews Right |
| New York Post | Right | +9.57, Skews Right |
| Washington Examiner | Lean Right | +11.15, Skews Right |
| The Washington Times | Lean Right | +11.60, Skews Right |
| Breitbart | Right | +13.55, Strong Right |
Not on the panel because the two raters put them on different sides: NPR (AllSides Lean Left, Ad Fontes −4.36); NBC News (AllSides Lean Left, Ad Fontes −4.84); ABC News (AllSides Lean Left, Ad Fontes −2.46); Axios (AllSides Lean Left, Ad Fontes −3.34).
The three headlines in each video come from outlets on this panel, one from each group.
How the coverage bar works
For each story, we check which of the fifteen panel outlets published their own story on it, or ran a wire service's story, before we post.
The number under each side is how many of its five outlets covered the story. Each part of the bar is as wide as that side's share of all the panel outlets that covered it. The bar counts coverage; it says nothing about whether that coverage was good or bad.
Once a week the story is a blindspot: one that outlets on one side covered heavily and outlets on the other side barely covered.
Headlines and facts
Each headline is quoted exactly as the outlet published it, with the outlet's name, the date and a link to the original. We never paraphrase a side's framing or describe it in our own words.
Every sentence in a story's account of what happened is checked against a source first, and those sources are listed on the story's page. We use primary sources where they exist and the wire services, AP and Reuters, for the plain facts.