Tech news aggregators purport to provide their viewers with top stories on the latest news and information going on here in the U.S. and around the globe. But new evidence suggests Apple News and Google News aren’t in the business of providing balanced coverage.
Media Research Center analysis of the Press Gazette top 50 list filtered through the lens of two well-known, leftist media bias ratings firms provides yet more evidence of Apple and Google’s anti-conservative agenda.
MRC researchers examined the correlation between outlets featured by Apple News and Google News in their daily top 20 news feeds and outlets that Ad Fontes and NewsGuard rate as highly reliable. The study looked only at news outlets that made the Press Gazette’s Top 50 news websites in the U.S. for August 2026. All data examined fell between Nov. 1, 2025 and Aug. 31, 2026.
Do the News Apps Feature Outlets with Higher Ad Fontes and NewsGuard Reliability Ratings More?
MRC researchers examined whether Apple News and Google News featured more stories in their daily top 20 news feeds from outlets that the biased media ratings firms Ad Fontes and NewsGuard rated as highly reliable. Ad Fontes and NewsGuard assign what they call “reliability” scores to media outlets. Each site uses different criteria and rating scales to provide their opinion on whether a particular media outlet is trustworthy or not.
For this analysis, MRC researchers calculated both the Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficients. As explained by data analytics company Minitab, “the Pearson correlation evaluates the linear relationship between two continuous variables. A relationship is linear when a change in one variable is associated with a proportional change in the other variable. The Spearman correlation evaluates the monotonic relationship between two continuous or ordinal variables. In a monotonic relationship, the variables tend to change together, but not necessarily at a constant rate. The Spearman correlation coefficient is based on the ranked values for each variable rather than the raw data.” In the case of both the Pearson model and the Spearman model, the data support a positive correlation, as outlined in the table below:
Pearson's correlation measures how closely outlets with higher so-called reliability scores correspond with an outlet’s number of appearances on the News Apps (Apple News and Google News). Because the number of times each outlet appears in the News Apps varies across such a wide spectrum, researchers also calculated Spearman rank correlations as a confirmation. Spearman takes a broader view, asking whether outlets with higher “reliability” ratings generally tend to rank higher in appearances. The data showed that the relationships between the leftist-biased Ad Fontes and NewsGuard “reliability” ratings and the outlets shared more frequently by the News Apps are positive. Both Apple News and Google News showed a positive correlation under the Pearson and Spearman correlations, whether using the so-called reliability ratings from Ad Fontes or NewsGuard. In other words, to at least some extent, outlets that were rated as more reliable were featured more frequently by the News Apps than those with lower “reliability” ratings.
Where Does Ideological Bias Fit In?
A high so-called reliability rating is correlated with greater news-app exposure overall, but “reliability” ratings alone do not completely explain which outlets Apple News and Google News promote most frequently, or the correlation coefficients might be higher.
MRC has exposed the rank leftist bias of both Ad Fontes and NewsGuard in multiple reports and studies. The U.S. House of Representatives even sought to strip away funding previously authorized for Ad Fontes and NewsGuard under the National Defense Authorization Act, which was passed and signed by then-President Joe Biden.
MRC uses independent media ratings firm AllSides, which does not rate an outlet’s so-called reliability, for its analysis. Of the Press Gazette’s 50 most-visited news outlets in the United States in August, 46 have AllSides ratings. AllSides rates 29 of the outlets Left or Lean-Left (63%), 10 Center (22%) and 7 Right or Lean-Right (15%).
Given that a majority of the Press Gazette’s Top 50 American news websites are leftist outlets, a corresponding imbalance in the share of appearances among the News Apps daily top 20 stories may be expected. However, MRC analysis shows that the News Apps' imbalance favoring leftist outlets with higher reliability ratings is even more lopsided than what the Press Gazette's Top 50 list would predict:
Google News shows a large difference on center and right-leaning outlets: Center outlets are 21.7% of the rated sample but receive only 12.46% of appearances on the news aggregator’s top 20 morning feed (a difference of 9.2%). Right/Lean-Right outlets constitute 15.2% of rated outlets but received only 2.68% of appearances on the news aggregator’s top 20 morning feed (a difference of 12.5%).For Apple News, the especially conspicuous result lies with right-leaning outlets: Right/Lean-Right outlets constitute 15.2% of rated outlets but receive only 1.0% of appearances on the news aggregator’s top 20 morning feed (a difference of 14.2%).Apple News and Google News Feature Very Different OutletsThe media outlets from the Press Gazette Top 50 list that Apple News most-frequently featured include:
- The Washington Post — 577
- The Wall Street Journal — 559
- Reuters — 517
- The Associated Press — 506
- NBC News — 417
The media news outlets from the Press Gazette Top 50 list that Google News most-frequently featured include:
- The New York Times — 649
- CNN — 409
- BBC — 288
- The Guardian — 239
- NPR — 238
Some differences are enormous. Apple News featured CNN stories only 12 times versus Google News’s 409 times. Apple News promoted The Wall Street Journal 559 times among its top 20 morning feed, while Google News only featured the outlet 103 times. Reuters made the Apple News top stories 517 times, but Google News only promoted stories from the outlet 133 times among its top 20 morning stories.
Methodology: The Media Research Center analyzed the top 20 stories promoted by Apple News and Google News at approximately 10:00 a.m. ET from Nov. 1, 2025 - Jan. 11, 2026 and at approximately 8:30 a.m. ET from Jan. 12, 2026 through Aug. 31, 2026. MRC researchers examined only websites found in The Press Gazette’s Top 50 news sites in the U.S. ranking for the month of August 2026. 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 Google News. A total of 303 days of MRC Digital News Tracker data were examined, covering a total of 10,961 AllSides-rated headlines on Apple News and Google News combined. The MRC Digital News Tracker data was compared with the current numerical reliability ratings from Ad Fontes Media and NewsGuard, as well as the Press Gazette’s Top 50 U.S. news websites.
