CNN (Online News) is a news media source with an AllSides Media Bias Rating™ of Lean Left.
From 2017 to 2021, the bias of CNN's web news shifted significantly, from Center, to Lean Left, to Left. CNN, its employees, and its content are commonly associated with liberal media bias by voices across the political spectrum in the public discourse.
NOTE: This rating is not for CNN's TV/broadcast content, nor its opinion/editorial content. This bias rating reflects the online, written news content available on CNN.com only. AllSides does not rate broadcast content for any outlet. We also provide a separate media bias rating for CNN's Opinion/Editorial content here.
We split our bias ratings for CNN Web News and CNN Opinion/Editorial on December 21st, 2017, because they were significantly different; read our explanation here. In January 2021, we determined the bias of CNN's news content and editorial content matched, and were both rated Left.
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.
Earlier this year, CNN's AllSides Media Bias Rating was moved from Left to Lean Left following two Editorial Reviews and the February 2023 Blind Bias Survey. While the results of the June 2023 Blind Bias Survey have confirmed the earlier move from Left to Lean Left, AllSides has opted to keep the rating as Lean Left.
Respondents who rated their own bias as Left, Lean Left, Center and Lean Right rated CNN as Center. Respondents who rated their own bias as Right rated CNN as Lean Right. On average, Democrats, Independents and Republicans rated CNN as Center.
A total of 698 people across the political spectrum took the survey, including 101 respondents with a self-reported Left bias; 163 with a Lean Left bias; 178 with a Center bias; 190 with a Lean Right bias, and 66 with a Right bias.
CNN Moved from Left to Lean Left Following Two Editorial Reviews (Feb. and March 2023) and Center Rating in Feb. 2023 Blind Bias Survey
CNN was moved from Left (-3.8) to Lean Left (-2.0) in March 2023.
The media bias rating change occurred after CNN was rated Center in the Feb. 2023 AllSides Blind Bias Survey, which triggered two Editorial Reviews in Feb. and March 2023, in which CNN was rated Lean Left on average by a 6-person panel of people on the left, center, and right. AllSides then moved CNN from Left to Lean Left. Our confidence level in this rating has been downgraded from High to Medium because of the difference in results among methods.
During the Editorial Reviews, the AllSides panel noted types of media bias such as sensationalism and emotionalism, word choice bias, subjective qualifying adjectives, analysis presented as fact, and Lean Left story choice.
AllSides opted to review CNN after it underwent leadership changes that indicated there may be a change in content.
The Feb. 2023 Blind Bias Survey Center result was surprising; AllSides noted that the content presented to respondents from CNN’s homepage in the survey had a strong emphasis on Biden’s classified documents as this was what CNN was focusing on during the days the content was pulled; the multipartisan team agreed this may have skewed results and given respondents a more Center view of the outlet. AllSides conducted two Editorial Reviews as a response.
In the March 2023 Editorial Review, panelists on the right argued CNN was actually Left.
On average, respondents to the Feb. 2023 Blind Survey in every bias category except for those on the Left rated CNN Center; the Left category respondents rated CNN Lean Left.
CNN was rated Center (-0.67) in the Blind Bias Survey, Lean Left (-1.22) in the Feb. 2023 Editorial Review, and Lean Left (-2.4) again in the March 2023 Editorial Review. AllSides moved CNN from Left to Lean Left, and assigned a subjective numerical value that represents a rough aggregate of all the recent ratings data (-2.0).
Editorial Review Summary: Feb. and March 2023
The overall result was Lean Left for both the Feb. and March Editorial Reviews.
A Center reviewer noted CNN used subjective qualifying adjectives, such as stating (emphasis ours) “ugly spat” between Trump and DeSantis and a “nasty GOP primary.” A Center reviewer noted Lean Left word choice in CNN using the term “abortion care.” A story about charities bailing out protesters after the death of George Floyd was seen by the same reviewer as “not a story I’d expect to see in a Left outlet” but they noted that “throughout the article, it repeatedly highlights how criticism of the charities is coming from “Republicans” and “rightwing media” and coverage is sympathetic to the charities throughout.”
A Lean Left panelist noted that CNN made a “valid attempt at balance, but I think that story choice and word choice is driving the outlet outside of the Center category. There is also some eye-catching emotionalism.” They noted CNN put the word “woke” in quotes, as if to discredit the term. Read about why the left and right disagree about the word “woke.”
A Lean Right reviewer noted spin words such as mention of “GOP radicals” and a strong anti-Tucker Carlson bias, such as when CNN noted “efforts to help Tucker Carlson whitewash the Capitol insurrection.” (Read about why the left and right disagree that Jan. 6 was an insurrection.) They noted this was “a left and partisan priority and story choice, a slamming and shaming of a business competitor in the name of news, and the headlines were sensational.” Headlines of this nature included:
A Lean Left reviewer noted that coverage on gender-affirming care, an issue of disagreement on the left and right, “favored health professionals and LGBTQ advocates.”
A Center reviewer noted that a CNN analysis/interactive graphic focusing on how far people in all parts of the country would have to travel to get an abortion after the fall of Roe v. Wade was a Lean Left angle.
CNN Fact Check Also Has Left Bias: July 2021 Editorial Review
CNN Moved from Lean Left to Left Following Nov. 2020 Blind Bias Survey
After analyzing the results of our November 2020 Blind Bias Survey, in which 2,285 people across the political spectrum blindly rated CNN's content, AllSides moved CNN's Media Bias Rating™ from Lean Left to Left. We officially shifted CNN's bias rated to left on Jan. 15, 2021.
On average, people who self-reported that they are on the left rated CNN as being between Lean Left and Left; people in the center and on the right found CNN on average to be Left. The average rating from people across the political spectrum was Left.
For this survey, AllSides collected two types of content from CNN's website: top headlines from two different days at the same time of day, and top stories CNN ran around two major national news stories. Stories and headlines were stripped of branding and any information that would allow participants to identify the outlet. Participants were asked to rate the bias of CNN on a scale of Left, Lean Left, Center, Lean Right, and Right.
After analyzing the results of this survey, members of the AllSides team conducted some independent reviews of CNN's content, and decided to move the outlet's rating to Left.
During our independent reviews, team members on the left, center and right noted a lot of sensationalism in CNN's news reporting. One team member with a Center bias said, "CNN uses proper source attribution and good hyperlinks, and often has clear, accurate labels for content. However, its homepage is dominated by anti-Trump/anti-GOP narratives and features few to zero anti-left/anti-Democrat narratives. The reports themselves are often skewed by a lack of right-leaning sources, biased/subjective language, or omission of facts that may, if included, counter a left-leaning point of view."
We found CNN's fact-checking section was very skewed toward an anti-Donald Trump/anti-GOP focus, and that the outlet didn't focus nearly as much on fact checking Democrats or Joe Biden — or really anything except President Donald Trump.
CNN Moved from Center to Lean Left in March 2018 Editorial Review
After conducting deep editorial analysis and analyzing user feedback, on March 27th, 2018, AllSides moved the Media Bias Rating™ for CNN Web News from Center to Lean Left. More details as to why we made the change can be found in our March 2018 blog post on the matter, as well as below.
After years of receiving feedback from AllSides users that our media bias rating of CNN Web News as Center was incorrect, we conducted an extensive editorial review in March 2018, after which we decided to move CNN Web News to a Lean Left rating.
For our review of CNN Web News, the entire AllSides team read CNN’s homepage and politics page every day for a week and compared it to other Center and Lean Left sources. We looked at the stories CNN chose to cover as well as the prominence certain stories held over others.
We found CNN Web News has a tendency to include a lot of Opinion and Analysis without labeling it clearly as such until afterreaders clicked through to the full article. This means CNN displayed Opinion-level content alongside hard news on the homepage, making it look like the Opinion pieces are objective, fact-based news.
We also found that there were Left-leaning and Center articles featured on CNN, but the outlet never published a Right-leaning article. (Note that a Center rating is assigned if we see a balance of biases being represented, which is not the case with CNN.)
CNN Rated Center in Jan. 2013 and Oct. 2013 Blind Bias Surveys, UCLA Study
Feedback does not determine ratings, but may trigger deeper review.
As of September 2023, people have voted on the AllSides Media Bias Rating for CNN (Online News). On average, those who disagree with our rating think this source has a Lean Left bias.
Confidence is determined by how many reviews have been applied and consistency of data.
As of September 2023, AllSides has medium confidence in our Lean Left rating for CNN (Online 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.
In January 2020, CNN faced accusations of bias over its moderation of a 2020 presidential debate between Democratic candidates.
In 2021, as former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo faced widespread criticism over sexual harassment allegations and a cover-up of COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes, CNN took criticism. Chris Cuomo, a prime-time CNN television host and brother of Andrew, was accused of avoiding coverage of his brother's scandals after hosting him on his show for playful TV segments throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The network faced similar allegations of avoiding negative coverage of Andrew.
Political Leanings of CNN's Audience as of 2014
According to the 2014 Pew Research Study, Where News Audiences Fit on the Political Spectrum, 44% of CNN’s audience holds political values to the political left or left-of-center. About 17% of CNN's audience holds right or right-of-center political values (compared with 38% of all respondents to the survey). Roughly 40% of CNN's audience is considered to have mixed or center-aligned political values (compared with 36% of all respondents to the survey).
Is CNN Fake News?
President Donald Trump and others have accused CNN of being fake news. Fake news can be defined in many ways, and can refer to either overtly false information, or information that is biased or manipulative in some way. AllSides explored whether CNN is fake news on the blog in May 2019.
About CNN
CNN was founded in 1980 by Ted Turner as a 24-hour cable news channel, the first 24-hour news channel at the tine. In April 2016, an executive of CNN said that the channel “is no longer a TV news network,” but “a 24-hour global multiplatform network.” CNN is among the world's leaders in online news and information delivery. Staffed 24 hours, seven days a week by a dedicated staff in CNN's world headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, and in bureaus worldwide, CNN relies heavily on its global team of almost 4,000 news professionals. The CNN website features the latest multimedia technologies, from live video streaming to audio packages to searchable archives of news features and background information. The site is updated continuously throughout the day. CNN is available in over 100 million American households. In 1998, the Four Freedom Award for the Freedom of Speech was awarded to CNN.
Funding and ownership do not influence bias ratings. We rate the bias of content only.
Owner: Turner Broadcasting System
CNN’s parent company is Warner Media LLC, which also owns HBO, Otter Media, Warner Brothers, and Turner Broadcasting System. Warner Media is then owned by parent company AT&T. AT&T is publicly traded. John Stankey is the CEO of AT&T Inc.
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.
What does this mean?
