BuzzFeed News

About BuzzFeed News's Bias Rating

BuzzFeed News is featured on the AllSides Media Bias Chart™.

BuzzFeed News is a news media source with an AllSides Media Bias Rating™ of Left.

What a "Left" Rating Means

Sources with an AllSides Media Bias Rating of Left display media bias in ways that strongly align with liberal, progressive, or left-wing thought and/or policy agendas. This is our most liberal rating on the political spectrum.

Details

On April 20, 2023, BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti sent a memo to employees announcing that BuzzFeed News would soon shut down. 

Top of Page

July 2019 Blind Bias Survey: BuzzFeed Moved From Lean Left to Left

In July 2019, AllSides conducted an editorial review and decided to shift BuzzFeed News' bias rating from Lean Left to Left, based on its exclusion of right-leaning perspectives and occasional misrepresentation of facts to support leftist points of view.

Before AllSides changed the rating in July 2019, roughly 4,400 AllSides readers agreed with the media bias rating of Lean Left, while roughly 6,700 disagreed.

September 2018 Survey: BuzzFeed Rated as Lean Left

The AllSides team conducted an editorial review of BuzzFeed News in September 2018 and noted BuzzFeed never includes right-wing opinions or perspectives in its news coverage. At the time, we gave BuzzFeed a Lean Left rating.

Top of Page

As of April 2024, people have voted on the AllSides Media Bias Rating for BuzzFeed News. On average, those who disagree with our rating think this source has a Left bias.

As of April 2024, AllSides has medium confidence in our Left rating for BuzzFeed News. An Editorial Review or Blind Bias Survey has affirmed this rating, or multiple reviews have returned differing results. If we perform more bias reviews and gather consistent data, this confidence level will increase.

Additional Information

Third Party Analysis of BuzzFeed Bias

According to Wikipedia, "In June 2016, the left-leaning media watchdog Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting found that in 100 BuzzFeed stories about Barack Obama, 65 were positive, 34 were neutral, and one was critical."

In June 2016, BuzzFeed cancelled an advertising agreement with the Republican National Committee over what BuzzFeed founder Jonah Peretti called "offensive remarks" made by Donald Trump. Peretti said, "We certainly don't like to turn away revenue that funds all the important work we do across the company. However, in some cases we must make business exceptions: we don't run cigarette ads because they are hazardous to our health, and we won't accept Trump ads for the exact same reason."

The 2014 Pew Research Study, Where News Audiences Fit on the Political Spectrum, found "those on the left of the ideological spectrum are overrepresented in [BuzzFeed's] audience (59%, compared with 38% of all respondents)." About 14% of BuzzFeed's audience holds right or right-of-center political values (compared with 38% of all respondents to the survey). Roughly 27% of BuzzFeed's audience is considered to have mixed or center-aligned political values (compared with 36% of all respondents to the survey).

About BuzzFeed News

BuzzFeed combines a technology platform for detecting viral content with an editorial selection process to provide a snapshot of "the viral web in realtime." It was co-founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti (who also co-founded of HuffPost). 

On its About page [retrieved March 2023], BuzzFeed News states: 

"Our mission is to report to you: We cover what you care about, break big stories that hold major institutions accountable for their actions, and expose injustices that change people's lives — all while averaging over 50 million unique monthly readers."

"BuzzFeed News has more than 100 journalists across New York, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, San Francisco, London, Berlin, Toronto, Chicago, São Paulo, and Tokyo, and foreign correspondents based in Mexico City, New Delhi, and Ukraine. We focus on reporting breaking news quickly and accurately, and breaking down what the internet is talking about — from new memes to new forms of digital deception — in the language of the internet itself."

In its Standards And Ethics Guide, last updated in September 2019, BuzzFeed News states:

"We firmly believe that for a number of issues, including civil rights, women's rights, anti-racism, and LGBT equality, there are not two sides. But when it comes to activism, BuzzFeed editorial must follow the lead of our editors and reporters who come out of a tradition of rigorous, neutral journalism that puts facts and news first. If we don't, it makes it harder for those reporters to do their jobs." 

Funding, Financing, and Ownership

Buzzfeed Inc. owns Buzzfeed News. While initially using venture capital to fund the first few years of Buzzfeed, In August 2015, NBCUniversal made a $200 million equity investment in BuzzFeed. NBCUniversal invested an additional $200 million in 2016. Together, Comcast and its NBCUniversal subsidiary own about a third of BuzzFeed. BuzzFeed has said that it intends to stay independent. In November 2020 BuzzFeed Inc. agreed to acquire the HuffingtonPost in a stock deal. Comcast owns NBC Universal. Brian L. Roberts is the chairman, president, and CEO of Comcast. Comcast is publicly traded. Financing and ownership information last updated February 22, 2021. If you think this information is out of date or needs to be updated, please contact us.

Top of Page

Owner: BuzzFeed