EXCLUSIVE: The “Big Four News Apps” (Apple News, Google News, MSN and Yahoo News) quickly aligned to blame the Trump administration for the Minneapolis ICE shooting that resulted in the death of an anti-Trump activist who was blocking a road.
Apple News, Google News, MSN and Yahoo News flooded their websites with elitist, anti-ICE coverage after a federal agent shot Renee Nicole Good, who authorities said hit the agent with her car. The heavy promotion of left-leaning outlets came despite conflicting accounts of what occurred in the moments leading up to the fatal shooting.
For two days following the shooting (Jan. 8 through Jan. 9), the Big Four News Apps provided 30 total articles addressing the shooting, 20 from left-leaning outlets and three from right-leaning outlets. Among the prominently featured 20 left-leaning news articles on the shooting were stories from elitist outlets like CNN, The Washington Post and The New York Times, as well as radical outlets like Salon and The New Republic. The right-of-center stories that the Big Four News Apps featured came from only two outlets: Fox News and National Review. The impact of those editorial choices is significant. The Big Four News Apps largely determine which stories and outlets Americans see first when they open a pre-installed news app, check their email or do a search.
Left-leaning coverage overwhelmingly framed the shooting as ICE or the Trump administration’s fault, even though opposing accounts of the event existed. The White House repeatedly asserted that video evidence showed Good driving at, and hitting, a federal officer. Democrats and the elitist media disputed that claim, arguing that other angles of the footage showed the agent was not in immediate danger.
Google News, MSN and Yahoo News all highlighted the Minneapolis shooting as their number one story on Jan. 8, while Google News pushed the story to the top of its site a second time on Jan. 9.
The Big Four News Apps didn’t just push the narrative through pride of place, biased headlines and radical outlets, however. On Jan. 8-9, both Apple News and Google News featured stories that included images of a memorial to the protester, placing articles with these images at the top of their pages, while MSN did the same on Jan. 8.
Yahoo News
Promoting nine left-leaning articles on the shooting, Yahoo News distinguished itself by promoting horrific headlines from the radical Salon, such as “America reaches its breaking point” and “‘Propaganda Machine’: Trump and DHS embrace conspiracy theories tied to ICE killing.” The Big Four News App doubled down with coverage from the leftist outlet The New Republic, including a story about Vice President JD Vance’s “Chilling Warning” and “MAGA Blames Minnesota ICE Shooting on Victim for Unhinged Reason.” Yahoo provided zero right-of-center articles on this story, while highlighting a number of their own articles on the shooting.
Google News
Google News pushed seven left-leaning stories on the shooting, making sure users didn’t miss the story. It put the story first, second, third and fourth both days, picking elitist media such as CNN, Politico, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. In other words, Google News devoted the entirety of the top of its featured stories to the shooting in Minneapolis. However, Google did supply one Fox News article.
MSN
On Jan. 8, MSN led off with an NBC headline announcing, “Woman fatally shot by ICE officer remembered as 'one of the kindest people.’” NBC went 11 paragraphs without mentioning why the protester was shot or even attracted the attention of ICE agents, providing a list of supportive quotes for Good, including a statement that she was out “caring for her neighbors.”
NBC, ABC and CBS also placed great emphasis on this story during the evenings prior to MSN’s morning results. All three made the Minneapolis shooting their top story in their evening news coverage on Jan. 7 and Jan. 8.
MSN also pushed the left’s narrative by highlighting an absurd claim from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), adding an article from The Hill, headlined: “Warren: ‘No indication’ woman shot by ICE was protester.” MSN supplied two right-of-center articles, one from Fox News and the other from National Review.
Apple News
Apple News chose to feature leftist publications like the Minneapolis Star Tribune, also including an article from The Washington Post that claimed the ICE agent fired “at least two of his three shots from the side.”
Methodology: During the time period Jan. 8, 2025 - Jan. 9, 2026, MRC researchers examined the top 20 of AllSides-rated news stories featured on Apple News (the app) and web versions of Google News, MSN and Yahoo! News each day at approximately 10:00 AM EST. MRC researchers used the AllSides media bias ratings, which categorize an outlet as “left,” “lean left,” “center,” “lean right” or “right” to determine the overall bias presented by Apple News and analyzed the results.
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