Yahoo News demonstrated in March that it cannot manage to take a balanced approach to news, instead presenting a bipolar selection of top stories predominantly from the left compared to a smattering from the right.
Yahoo News’s bipolar nature was on full display in March. The Media Research Center tracked the top 20 daily stories each morning during the month and found that the news aggregator overwhelmingly promoted stories from the left, while giving short shrift to stories from right-leaning outlets and all but blacklisting articles from center-rated outlets altogether. While Yahoo News promoted some of the most radical left-leaning outlets throughout the month, it virtually silenced all of the most-visited right-leaning news outlets, except for one.
MRC Findings of Yahoo News’s Top 20 Morning Editions in March:
- Yahoo News continued to demonstrate its clear preference for left-leaning outlets, running 400 stories from leftist outlets (just over 83%) compared to only 70 stories from right-leaning outlets (15%).
- The tech giant also promoted some of the most radical outlets, like Salon and The New Republic, but it silenced all top 50 right-leaning outlets not named Fox News for the month, with the exception of one story from the New York Post.
- Yahoo News was the most bipolar of the Big Four News Apps, promoting fewer stories rated “center” by AllSides than any other Big Four News App, with a paltry 9 stories (2%). Meanwhile, Apple News promoted 153 (26%), Google News promoted 146 (27%) and Microsoft’s MSN promoted 199 (41%).
“Yahoo News is presenting a one-sided view of the news,” said MRC President David Bozell. “An 83% to 15% split makes that clear. With a reach of over 200 million visits a month, editorial choices on a platform like that shape what people believe is happening, which issues rise to the top, and how voters respond.”
Yahoo News Promoted the Left, Virtually Silenced All But One Outlet from the Right
The tech titan promoted a wealth of stories from the left, even highlighting some of the most radical left-wing outlets while virtually silencing all but one of the most-visited right-leaning outlets.
Yahoo News ran a total of 479 AllSides-rated top stories in the month of March. The digital news gatekeeper promoted 400 stories (84%) from left-leaning outlets, while only promoting 70 stories (15%) from right-leaning outlets.
The news aggregator relied almost exclusively on one right-leaning outlet for its 70 top stories in March – Fox News. It virtually ignored all other right-leaning outlets except for a single article from the New York Post. That means, Yahoo News failed to promote any stories from Breitbart News, Newsmax, The Daily Mail and The Gateway Pundit, all listed on the top-50 most visited news outlets by the Press Gazette.
Among the top left-leaning article headlines in March, Yahoo News pushed the following:
- “Trump draws anger after celebrating the death of Robert Mueller, ex-FBI director: ‘Disgusting,’” by The Independent, promoted Mar. 22.
- “Millions turn out for ‘No Kings’ rallies held worldwide to protest against Trump,” by CBS News, promoted Mar. 29.
- “Trump says his bill would ‘guarantee the midterms.’ House Republicans are moving on,” by Politico, promoted Mar. 11.
- “4 weeks in, Trump’s conflicting signals on Iran war frustrate GOP lawmakers and political allies,” by CNN, promoted Mar. 28.
- “The National Park Service race to rewrite history becomes a slog,” by Politico, promoted Mar. 16.
- “Trump Began Iran Talks as Allies Warned War Risked Disaster,” by Bloomberg, promoted March 23.
- “Trump's changing course on Strait of Hormuz strategy raises questions about US war preparation,” by The Associated Press, promoted March 22.
- “Male shoe anxiety hits the Oval Office,” by CNN, promoted March 15.
Not only did Yahoo News highlight more left-leaning stories in its top morning headlines for the month of March, it also selected stories from some of the most radical leftist outlets.
In particular, the news aggregator leaned heavily on two of the more radical left-wing outlets, Salon and The New Republic. In March, 56 of Yahoo News’s top headlines came from Salon and 11 from The New Republic. Only three outlets were featured more than Salon, with one being Yahoo News itself. Some of the more radical headlines that Yahoo News highlighted from these two outlets included:
- “Trump Has Brought American Paramilitary Violence Home,” by The New Republic, promoted March 15.
- “The Gen-Z Organizers Plotting to Take Down Trumpism,” by The New Republic, promoted March 12.
- “Texas primary shows that MAGA loves a villain,” by Salon, promoted March 4.
- “America’s enduring appetite for Trump’s deportation cruelty,” by Salon, promoted March 3.
- “Republicans don’t care about parents rights,” by Salon, promoted Mar. 11.
- “Democrats should go all-in on Texas—and Talarico,” by Salon, promoted March 9.
- “He’ll Need Some Luck, but James Talarico Can Win the Texas Senate Seat,” by The New Republic, promoted March 2.
- “Finally, Democrats—of All Stripes—Are Coming After the Wealthy’s Money,” by The New Republic, promoted March 18.
Yahoo News Was the Most Bipolar of the Big Four News Apps
Yahoo News has become the leader in presenting partisan news among the Big Four News Apps. In February, it promoted AllSides-rated center stories only six percent of the time. In March, Yahoo News doubled down, demonstrating that its penchant for extremes was not just a fluke. Of the 479 AllSides-rated top stories the digital news gatekeeper promoted, only nine came from center-rated outlets. The poor showing (nearly 2%) was a dramatic drop from February’s already low figure.
Instead of leaning into center-rated news outlets for its top stories to provide a veneer of balanced coverage, Yahoo News almost completely cut out the middle. The result? The tech giant has carved out its place as the most heavily divisive of the Big Four News Apps. During the month of March, Microsoft’s MSN promoted 199 center-rated stories out of 483 (41%), Apple News promoted 153 center-rated stories out of 592 (26%) and Google News highlighted 146 center-rated stories out of 540 (27%).
According to a report from the Reuters Institute, “engagement with traditional media sources such as TV, print, and news websites continues to fall, while dependence on social media, video platforms, and online aggregators grows,” particularly in the United States. Indeed, according to Pew Research Center, 86% of Americans turn to their digital devices for news “at least sometimes.”
Methodology: During the time period Mar. 1 - 31, 2026, MRC researchers examined the top 20 stories featured on Yahoo News each day at approximately 8:30 AM ET. 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 Yahoo News and analyzed the results.
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