Associated Press Fact Check

About Associated Press Fact Check's Bias Rating

Associated Press Fact Check is a news media source with an AllSides Media Bias Rating™ of Lean Left.

AP Fact Check is a project of the Associated Press. It offers "fact-checking and accountability journalism from AP journalists around the globe," according to its website.

What a "Lean Left" Rating Means

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

Associated Press Fact Check Media Bias Is Lean Left: April 2020 Editorial Review

AP Fact Check was assessed via AllSides Editorial Review in April 23, 2020. We determined AP Fact Check bias is Lean Left.

The AllSides panel found AP Fact Check frequently favors left interpretations of claims and events, and noted AP is more likely to fact check the right and Republicans than those on the left.

During our review, AllSides noted that AP Fact Check (with posts displaying only as far back as February) had a clear focus on President Trump; there were not as many instances of AP fact checking Democrats or other folks on the left. AP did fact check the Feb. 2020 Democratic Debate. It is hard to say whether the Trump focus necessarily constitutes a lean left bias; the editorial team agreed that this could simply be due to the fact that Trump was the president and had been doing daily news briefings around the coronavirus. However, AP’s omission of fact checks on left-wing issues and claims that other sources were looking into during the same time frame, such as claims made by Democratic presidential frontrunner Joe Biden and Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, does constitute a lean left bias.

Our team noted AP Fact Check often displayed an ideological bias of appeal to elites, such as quoting the World Health Organization (WHO) or other government institutions that are seen by some as having a bias. This form of bias is not necessarily partisan; both the left and right experienced a surge in populist questioning of and pushback against elite institutions in 2020 and the years leading up to it. The team noted some sensationalism in content written by journalists Hope Yen and Calvin Woodward.

Our April 23 Editorial Review of AP Fact Check was significantly hampered by the fact that the WayBack Machine, an internet archive tool we rely on to read the source’s content dating back six months, was returning broken links for AP. It is always true that our Editorial Reviews and Blind Bias Surveys deal only with a snapshot in time. It is possible that a source’s bias differs on different days or across different topics. In addition, the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic dominated headlines on this day, which offered a narrower range of topics to assess for bias.

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As of September 2023, people have voted on the AllSides Media Bias Rating for Associated Press Fact Check. On average, those who disagree with our rating think this source has a Lean Left bias.

As of September 2023, AllSides has medium confidence in our Lean Left rating for Associated Press Fact Check. 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.