The Commercial Appeal
What does this mean?How we determined this rating:
- Independent Review
- AllSides has low or initial confidence in this bias rating.
Unless otherwise noted, this bias rating refers only to online news coverage, not TV, print, or radio content.
Learn about our bias rating methodsAbout The Commercial Appeal's Bias Rating
The Commercial Appeal is a news media source with an AllSides Media Bias Rating™ of Lean 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.
Learn more about Lean Left ratingsDetails
The Commercial Appeal (also known as the Memphis Commercial Appeal) is a daily newspaper of Memphis, Tennessee, and its surrounding metropolitan area. It is owned by Journal Media Group; its former owner, The E.W. Scripps Company, also owned the former afternoon paper, the Memphis Press-Scimitar, which it folded in 1983. The Commercial Appeal is a seven-day morning paper. It generally takes a liberal point of view regarding editorial positions. It is distributed primarily in Greater Memphis, including Shelby, Fayette, and Tipton counties in Tennessee and DeSoto, Tate, and Tunica counties in Mississippi. These are the contiguous counties to the city of Memphis. In 1994, The Commercial Appeal won a Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning by Michael Ramirez.
Confidence Level
Confidence is determined by how many reviews have been applied and consistency of data.As of June 2026, AllSides has low or initial confidence in our Lean Left rating for The Commercial Appeal. If we perform more bias reviews and gather consistent data, this confidence level will increase.
The Commercial Appeal Ownership and Funding
Funding and ownership do not influence bias ratings. We rate the bias of content only.Owner: Gannett Company