How do news outlets across the political spectrum drive our discussions on politics?
For the six-part Shaping the Narrative series, AllSides examined how often national news media outlets covered select topics, including: the economy, the Trump administration, politics, international news, immigration, and crime.
In part three of this series, we’re breaking down coverage of politics. Some key findings were:
- Lean Right outlets covered politics the most – 26% of total coverage, followed by Right outlets at 21%
- Center outlets covered politics the least – at 4% of total coverage
- Right and Lean Right outlets covered Democratic politicians more than 3 times as often as Republican politicians
- Left and Lean Left outlets covered Democrats and Republicans about the same
We collected and analyzed headlines from the homepages of 16 outlets across the political spectrum over the course of 14 days (April 9 – April 22, 2025). In doing so, AllSides reveals how the media shapes the narrative on key topics.
For the purposes of this study, what determined whether a media outlet covered the topic of politics was if it wrote about: Democrats, Republicans, judges, government agencies, policy, or individual politicians outside of the Trump Administration. (Full Breakdown per Topic - Report) Moreover, what led to an article being labeled as covering politics was determined by the AllSides’ Topic Mapping Methodology.
Note: Outlets may have changed their headlines since the data collection period. Our analysis is based on the headlines as they appeared when collected. For the purposes of this project, wire news content and opinion pieces were included in the overall headline analysis for each hosting news outlet. AllSides assumes that such content passed each outlet’s standard of review and is thus attributed to the hosting news outlet.
Read more from the Shaping the Narrative series:
- Shaping the Narrative: Economy
- Shaping the Narrative: Trump Administration
- Shaping the Narrative: Immigration
- Shaping the Narrative: International News
Which News Outlets Covered Politics the Most — or Least?
The third most prominent topic covered by the sample outlets was US politics, appearing in 376 of 2,240 articles analyzed in AllSides’ Shaping the Narrative project.
On average, politics was covered on homepages the most by outlets AllSides rates as Lean Right – representing about 26% of all articles written by these outlets during this research period. Of the Lean Right outlets, the Washington Examiner (Lean Right bias) covered politics the most – at 41% of all articles collected. This was followed by MSNBC (Left bias) and Fox News (Right bias), both at 26%.
The outlets that covered politics on their homepages the least were BBC News (Center bias) at 5%, Reuters (Center bias) at 4%, and the Wall Street Journal (Center bias) at 4%.
How Are Left & Lean Left Outlets Covering Politics?
Left and Lean Left outlets followed similar trends in coverage of politics to their coverage of Trump (See: Shaping the Narrative – Trump Administration), with these outlets commonly publishing sensational or slanted headlines, and burying context in the lower halves of the articles themselves, showing bias by information placement.
Associated Press (Left bias) wrote the slanted headline, “Now that they’ve passed a budget plan, the hard part begins for Republicans.” The outlet shifts the focus away from the success of Republicans in passing their budget bill framework to focus on the difficulty they may have in pushing their budget bill through an official vote in both chambers of congress. In the article itself, the outlet also mentions how “the road ahead is daunting” for Republicans, showing spin.
HuffPost (Left bias) published the sensationalist headline, “Jasmine Crockett Trolls GOP With Blunt Reminder About ‘Fearless Leader’ Trump,” evidence in the use of the words “trolls” and “blunt.” HuffPost was not the only outlet to publish a news story on Jasmine Crockett, as several Lean Right and Right outlets did so as well, often from different angles.
The New York Times’ (Lean Left bias) sensational headline, “A Startling Admission From a G.O.P. Senator: 'We Are All Afraid'” included the subjective adjective “startling” in the headline and “tribal” to describe the Republican Party in the subheading. Moreover, during our content collection period, no Right or Center outlets reported on this particular story, while Left outlets covered this story three times – an indicator of story choice bias.
ABC News (Lean Left bias) published the slanted headline, “Commander of US base in Greenland fired for email critical of Vance visit.” The headline claimed the critical email was directly responsible for the commander’s firing, while the article itself quotes the Space Force’s official reasoning as due to a "loss of confidence.” Later in the article, ABC included a quote from Col. Shawn Lee, who claimed commanders must “[remain] nonpartisan in the performance of their duties,” demonstrating bias by viewpoint placement.
How Are Center Outlets Covering Politics?
Center outlets were largely more balanced in their coverage of politics when Trump was not involved. However, there was minimal engagement with the topic, with about 4% of all coverage focused on politics on homepages.
BBC News (Center bias) wrote, “US fires Greenland military base chief for 'undermining' Vance” including both the news peg of the firing and official reasoning in the headline. This stands in direct contrast with ABC News, which led with one side of the story and only provided the official reasoning for the firing in the article’s bottom half.
Reuters (Center bias) wrote the headline, “Republican senator criticizes Trump, calls Abrego Garcia case a 'screw up'.” The outlet did not display notable types of bias in the headline, however, in the article itself, the outlet mentions its prerogative in publishing this story: “It is not very common for Republican lawmakers to criticize Trump.” Reuters chose this story to represent Republican dissent towards Trump, an example of story choice bias.
The Wall Street Journal (Center bias) only reported on politics on its homepage five times during the content collection period, with zero mentions of any particular politician or legislation. BBC News and Reuters only featured headlines on politicians on their homepages one time each – both on Republicans.
How Are Right and Lean Right Outlets Covering Politics?
When looking at the data collected as a whole, Right and Lean Right outlets often engaged in story choice bias. Individual headlines may not demonstrate story choice bias, but rather when viewed in the context of the other stories covered by the outlet. Right and Lean Right outlets often published stories on their homepages with headlines critical of Democratic politicians, seldom doing so for Republicans. It is worth noting that these outlets covered Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett (a Democrat) on their homepages more than other politicians; both on her claims and potential controversies.
Washington Examiner (Lean Right bias) wrote, “Jasmine Crockett faces FEC complaint over ActBlue donations.” The outlet covered Democratic politicians 11 times more often on its homepage than Republicans, and often focused on Democratic scandals in this coverage, an example of story choice bias.
New York Post (Lean Right bias) wrote, “Letitia ‘no one is above the law’ James dodges questions about mortgage fraud scandal outside NYC home, pretends to be on phone.” The headline assumes that Letitia James pretended to be on the phone to avoid the press without providing evidence to back up its claim, a form of bias known as mind reading. Moreover, the outlet frames Letitia James as hypocritical by noting her claims against Trump – “no one is above the law” – as antithetical to her current circumstance in a fraud scandal – showing slant.
Breitbart (Right bias) wrote, “...DEM DARLING JASMINE CROCKETT THROWS SUPPORT BEHIND ILLEGAL ALIEN….” In the article itself, the outlet provided an image of Congresswoman Crockett that appears as though she is upset, displaying photo bias. Additionally, the outlet also calls Kilmar Abrego Garcia an "illegal alien,” showing word choice bias, as this is a term more often used on the right.
Fox News (Right bias) published the headline, “Dem senator accused of violating 1799 policy with El Salvador trip.” While in isolation, the headline does not include any notable bias, when looking at the data as a whole, Fox News was the only outlet to report on this particular story throughout the content collection period, an example of story choice bias. The outlet published headlines on Democrats on its homepage about three times as often as headlines on Republicans.
Was Coverage Influenced by Political Bias?
When looking at trends in coverage, Right and Lean Right outlets dedicated 32% of their homepage coverage on politics to Democrats and 9% to Republicans, while Left and Lean Left outlets dedicated 20% of their homepage coverage on politics to Democrats and 18% to Republicans.
Center outlets covered politics on their homepages the least – at 4% of all coverage. Both Left and Right outlets displayed several types of bias in their coverage of politicians on the opposite side of the political spectrum and dedicated a significant portion of homepage coverage on politics to individual politicians. Center outlets, on the other hand, largely forewent homepage coverage of partisan politics and focused more on foreign policy and the economy.
Outlets biased to the left or right appeared to emphasize partisan politics more, potentially due to their users engaging with political narratives more often, especially when those narratives vilify “the other side.”
See how major media outlets cover Immigration in the fourth part of our analysis.
Emanuel Macuixtle is a Policy Analyst and Research Assistant at AllSides. He has a Left bias.
This blog was edited and reviewed by Andrew Weinzrierl, Bias Research Manager & Data Journalist (Lean Left), Andy Gorel, News and Social Media Editor (Center), Henry A. Brechter, Editor-in-Chief (Center), and Julie Mastrine, Director of Marketing and Bias Ratings (Right).
