Apple News is not the sole platform accused of promoting a left-leaning bias; many major online news aggregators share this trait.
A surprising study from AllSides, a nonpartisan organization that evaluates news outlets by their political orientation, reveals that only 1% of articles in Google News’s non-customizable section are sourced from right-leaning outlets.
In stark contrast, a whopping 73% of articles stem from organizations perceived to have a leftist bias, based on an analysis of significant news aggregators that compile online stories.
Interestingly, Google News’s left-leaning bias appears to be even more pronounced than that of Apple News, where the editorial team selects just 2% of stories from conservative sources and 50% from the left. This assessment focused on sections within Apple News that users cannot tailor to their preferences.
Moreover, Microsoft’s Bing News exhibits similar patterns, with a mere 5% of its articles coming from conservative sources and 72% from the left. Yahoo News reported just 2% from the right while 53% came from the left.
By failing to present users with a balanced array of news, these aggregators may be, in a way, hindering Americans from considering diverse perspectives and thinking on their own, according to Julie Mastlin, director of AllSides’ media bias rating system.
Mastrine elaborated on the troubling effects of this one-sided media landscape, emphasizing its significant reach to millions of users.
This report could potentially attract the attention of the White House and the Federal Trade Commission, which has expressed its intentions to tackle perceived biases against conservatives on digital platforms.
Digital ethics expert Mark Grabowski described the findings as alarming, pointing out that these companies have long asserted their neutrality, a claim that seems increasingly hard to uphold.
Earlier this year, it was noted that FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson had sent a warning to Apple CEO Tim Cook, indicating possible violations of federal consumer protection laws related to the suppression of right-leaning media.
Dan Schneider from the Media Research Center remarked that AllSides’ work should serve as a caution for all Americans, highlighting the potential threats to the nation’s governmental framework posed by powerful tech companies.
Many people, he noted, rely on these corporations for their news, often unaware that algorithms might be skewing the information to reflect a liberal agenda.
In February 2025, Ferguson initiated an investigation into technology censorship, aiming to gain a clearer insight into how these companies have possibly silenced and intimidated certain voices.
The audit conducted by AllSides spanned from June to December 2025, focusing on areas within each aggregator’s feed curated by human editors, rather than algorithms, over a two-week period.
To determine bias ratings, AllSides employs a bipartisan panel of experts trained in identifying media bias, along with a blind survey of everyday Americans.
A Google News representative countered the findings, suggesting that the investigation misrepresented facts and relied on arbitrary ratings from a limited snapshot of time while ignoring the personalization feature of Google News.
Apple asserted that its trending news section is sourced based on readership statistics, rather than editorial choices, and declined to elaborate further.
Meanwhile, Yahoo News stated that it collaborates with numerous news organizations representing both political sides, including conservative outlets like Fox News and others.
In this analysis, every aggregator was assigned a bias rate. Negative scores indicated a left bias, positive scores indicated a right bias, and a score of 0.0 denoted perfect balance.
Google News emerged as the most biased aggregator with a rating of -1.62, followed closely by Apple News (-1.57), Bing News (-1.55), and Yahoo News (-1.55), all firmly categorized as leaning left.
In contrast, other popular aggregators like SmartNews (-0.79), NewsBreak (-0.42), RealClearPolitics (0.17), and AllSides itself (0.09) obtained median bias ratings, suggesting a more balanced range of sources.
The Drudge Report presented a unique situation. AllSides performed two audits because Drudge not only republishes articles but also modifies headlines to align with his editorial perspective. One audit focused on the articles’ political leanings, while the other involved an expert panel assessing Drudge’s revised headlines.
Based solely on content, Drudge achieved a bias ratio of -0.91, classifying it within the center category. However, when factoring in the modified headlines, which tend to be harshly critical of Trump, the bias ratio dropped to -1.74, landing it left of Google News.
White House Wire, introduced by the Trump administration in 2025, was understandably rated as “right-leaning” with a bias ratio of 2.50, surpassing other aggregators in AllSides’ review.
The volume of articles reviewed for this analysis varied by aggregator, ranging from 140 for Yahoo News to 315 for RealClearPolitics.
Attempts to reach representatives from Bing News and Drudge Report for comments went unanswered.
