Fox News (Online News)

AllSides Media Bias Rating™: Right
58847/56452
The bias meter value for Fox News (Online News) is 3.20. -6 is the furthest "Left" value and 6 is the furthest "Right" value.
3.20
Right What does this mean?

How we determined this rating:

Unless otherwise noted, this bias rating refers only to online news coverage, not TV, print, or radio content.

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Fox News (Online News)
Fox News (Online News)
Bias Rating Right
Type News Media
Region National
Owner Fox Entertainment Group
Established 1996
Website foxnews.com
Twitter @FoxNews
Facebook FoxNews
Wikipedia Fox News (Online News)
What a Right Bias Rating Means

The source displays media bias in ways that strongly align with conservative, traditional, or right-wing thought and/or policy agendas. A Right rating is our most conservative rating on the political spectrum.

Learn more about Right ratings
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Our records indicate that content from this source is free to access. If this is incorrect, please email us to let us know.

About Fox News (Online News)'s Bias Rating

Fox News (Online News) is featured on the AllSides Media Bias Chart™.

Fox News (Online News) is a news media source with an AllSides Media Bias Rating™ of Right.

Important Note: This page offers a media bias rating for online content on FoxNews.com only. AllSides does not rate the bias of broadcast TV or radio content.

AllSides rates Fox News Opinion/Editorial media bias separately.

What a "Right" Rating Means

Sources with an AllSides Media Bias Rating of Right display media bias in ways that strongly align with conservative, traditional, or right-wing thought and/or policy agendas. A Right bias is the most conservative rating on the political spectrum.

Learn more about Right ratings

Bias Reviews

We use multiple methods to analyze sources. Learn how we rate media bias.

Fox News Rated Lean Right in Nov. 2023 Blind Bias Survey; Jan. 2024 Editorial Review Retains Right Rating

Fox News was rated Lean Right (1.08) in the Nov. 2023 Blind Bias Survey. This differed from AllSides' current rating of Fox News as Right. A subsequent Editorial Review on Jan. 4, 2024 determined that Fox News has a Right (3.2) bias.

A multipartisan panel of reviewers on the left, center, and right found rampant sensationalism in the presentation of stories on Fox News' homepage. Photos were overlaid with very sensationalist taglines, such as, “DROPPED DEAD,” "SHAME ON YOU," “HATE ON DISPLAY,” and “SHOPLIFTERS UNITED.” Panelists argued some story choices appeared "tabloid-y," and that story choice was to the right. There was an emphasis on stories that made politicians and figures on the left look bad. Subjective qualifying adjectives were used frequently. Much coverage was about conservatives winning rhetorical battles with liberals.

Fox News headlines were typically more sensationalist on the homepage and edited to a somewhat less sensational tone on the article landing page. For example, the homepage headline (emphasis ours) "Five explosive revelations from the first Jeffrey Epstein document dump" on the homepage was tempered to, “Jeffrey Epstein documents: five revelations in Ghislaine Maxwell lawsuit” when users clicked. The homepage headline (emphasis ours), "WATCH: Ramaswamy goes scorched earth over reporter's 'White supremacy' question" was rewritten as "Ramaswamy blasts WaPo reporter with viral response to question on condemning 'White supremacy': 'Shame on you.'" Note that the second headline still contained the spin word "blasts." 

While Fox's framing, headlines, and homepage were clearly to the right, the body text of articles did not always carry such heavy bias. Fox News did a good job of using full quotes, devoting multiple paragraphs to words from politicians, whether left or right. While adequate information was often given to understand a story, it was often packaged in a way that had a strong conservative bent, and perspectives and story choices on the left were either downplayed or omitted.

Stories reviewed included:

Prior to the Editorial Review, overall, 20% of respondents to the Nov. 2023 Blind Bias Survey rated the outlet as left of center, 33% rated it in the exact center, and 47% rated it as right of center.

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Fox News Rated Right in June 2023 Blind Bias Survey

Fox News' Bias was rated Right. This confirmed the results of the February 2023 Blind Bias Survey in which respondents rated Fox News as Right, though on the border of Lean Right. 

Respondents who rated their own bias as Left, Lean Left and Right rated Fox News as Right. Respondents who rated their own bias as Center or Lean Right rated Fox News as Lean Right. On average, Democrats and Independents rated Fox News as Right while Republicans gave a rating of Lean Right.

Fox News Rated Right in Feb. 2023 Blind Bias Survey

Fox News' bias rating was confirmed as Right in the Feb. 2023 AllSides Blind Bias Survey.

Respondents who rated their own bias as being in the center or on the right rated Fox News as Lean Right; respondents on the left rated its bias as Right. The average rating was Right, confirming AllSides' existing Media Bias Rating for Fox News.

 

A total of 1,125 people across the political spectrum took the survey, including 147 respondents with a self-reported Left bias; 256 with a Lean Left bias; 320 with a Center bias; 301 with a Lean Right bias, and 101 with a Right bias.

May 2021 Editorial Review: Fox News Moved from Lean Right to Right

On May 19, 2021, the AllSides team conducted an Editorial Review of Fox News, in which we moved Fox from Lean Right to Right. Fox News had been rated Lean Right since 2017, and a Nov. 2020 Blind Bias Survey of Fox confirmed the Lean Right rating when the average rating across all bias groups was between Center and Lean Right. 

During an Editorial Review, the AllSides team — which includes people from the left, center, and right — reviews the works of a media outlet and looks for the common types of media bias. We then come to a general consensus on its bias.

The May 2021 Editorial Review was conducted after members of our news posting team had been noting increased sensationalism from Fox's online news after President Joe Biden's inauguration in Jan. 2021. One team member noted that Fox News had reportedly fired 16 digital editors from its Digital department in Jan. 2021, which may have contributed to a shift in online content.

For this review, we looked at Fox News' homepage and it US and Politics sections only, not its opinion content. At the time, we rated Fox Opinion separately as Right. During the review, two team members who Lean Right and one who is in the Center said Fox News is between Lean Right and Right; all other team members said Fox News deserves a Right rating.

The team generally agreed Fox News runs a number of sensationalist headlines and that its story choice is right-wing. In many cases, we found the body text of the articles to be rather balanced or just stating the facts. We noted sensationalism in subheadlines that appeared in blue blocks on Fox News' homepage. Fox News sometimes used qualifiers to describe things in a more editorialized way, such as characterizing people or groups: "Squad member Talib", "the left-wing group", "terrorist organization Hamas." The team noticed a marked pro-Israel slant as we assessed news articles about the exchange of rockets between Hamas and Israel. An article about House members being fined for not wearing masks didn't interview the other side, such as Nancy Pelosi or others who wanted Congress to keep wearing them despite new CDC guidelines. We noticed articles framing Vice President Kamala Harris negatively, as well as a headline mentioning "disgraced Cuomo".

One team member with a Lean Left bias noted they were "pleasantly surprised" by Fox News' Jan. 6 Capitol riot storming coverage and Jan. 20 Biden inauguration coverage, as it was neutral; a team member with a Center bias said Fox News "offers good quotes from both sides, but gives priority to GOP quotes sometimes."

Nov. 2020 Blind Bias Survey Confirms Lean Right Rating

An AllSides Blind Bias Survey in Nov. 2020 confirmed our Lean Right bias rating for Fox News. 2,285 people from across the political spectrum on average blindly rated content from Fox News as between Center and Lean Right, though closer to Lean Right.

People on the left on average rated Fox News as firmly Lean Right; people in the center and on the right rated Fox between Center and Lean Right. The average rating across all political groups was Lean Right.

A plurality within all groups rated Fox as Lean Right. The second most common response across all groups was Center.

2017: Fox News Media Bias Rating™ Moves from Right to Lean Right

After conducting a 2017 Blind Bias Survey, considering feedback from the AllSides community, and undertaking an Editorial Review of Fox News on Dec. 10, 2017, AllSides shifted its original media bias rating of Fox News from Right to Lean Right in December 2017.

The majority of the AllSides community disagreed with our original bias rating of Fox News as "Right" (12,896 agreed and 19,249 disagreed as of December 2017). Those who voted against the original rating recommended an average rating of Lean Right for Fox News media bias, which aligned with observations made by the AllSides editorial team. Further, results from three blind bias surveys (in which participants read and rate the bias of headlines without knowing which source they belong to) also rated Fox as Lean Right, thus confirming the votes of the AllSides community.

Fox News' media bias is still noticeably conservative, particularly in regards to story choice, but its biases are subtler when it comes to word choice, especially when compared with sources like Townhall, Daily Wire, and National Review.

Separate Media Bias Rating™ for Fox News Opinion

After analyzing Fox News' Opinion/Editorial section in 2018, it became clear that its opinion pieces had a different bias than its news pages. AllSides created a separate Media Bias Rating™ for Fox News Opinion/Editorial. AllSides Media Bias Ratings™ delineate between news and opinion when there is a distinct difference between the two.

Fox News Media Bias Rating Prior to December 2017

Prior to 2017, AllSides gave Fox News a bias rating of Right. Many AllSides users disagreed with the rating; those who disagreed gave Fox News an average rating of Lean Right, and closer to Right than Center.

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Community Feedback

Feedback does not determine ratings, but may trigger deeper review.

As of March 2024, people have voted on the AllSides Media Bias Rating for Fox News (Online News). On average, those who disagree with our rating think this source has a Lean Right bias.

Confidence Level

Confidence is determined by how many reviews have been applied and consistency of data.

As of March 2024, AllSides has medium confidence in our Right rating for Fox News (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.

Additional Information

Fox News is a 24-hour news service founded in 1996 by Rupert Murdoch. It is a top five cable network and for over 14 years has been the most-watched news channel in America.

Pew Data on Fox News Audience Makeup

In November 2019, Pew Research Center found that Fox News' audience was more conservative or right-leaning than any of the 30 outlets tested, except for The Daily Caller, Breitbart, Sean Hannity's radio show, and Rush Limbaugh's radio show. 

The same survey found that Fox News was the news source most trusted by Republicans and least trusted by Democrats. The poll also found that 60% of Republican-leaning voters got political and election news from Fox News. 

A 2014 Pew Research Study, Where News Audiences Fit on the Political Spectrum, found that 46% of Fox News' audience held political values to the political right or right-of-center. 18% of Fox's audience was left or left-of-center (compared with 38% of all respondents to the survey). Roughly 37% of Fox News' audience was considered mixed or center (compared with 36% of all respondents to the survey).

Is Fox News Part of the "Mainstream Media"?

While Fox News often criticizes the "mainstream media," 2021 poll data from Pew Research Center showed 73% of Americans thought Fox News was part of the mainstream media — more than The Wall Street Journal (71%) and the New York Post (61%). 

Third-Party Accusations of Bias

Fox News' TV network has long been accused of right-wing bias and of favoring the Republican Party, mostly by those on the left. Some have accused Fox of not occupying a "fact-based" reality, or being too focused on opinion content. Others, such as Media Matters for America, have accused Fox News of lying.

Following the 2020 presidential election, some news outlets on the right reported that Fox News was losing support and viewership among the right, characterizing it as "an aggressive movement by some television viewers to leave Fox News and head to Newsmax TV," citing data from Nielsen. Some, such as Conservative Daily News, chalked it up to the network "prematurely calling the presidential election in favor of Joe Biden." Some noted Fox News was undergoing a "leftward shift" and no longer represented the American right.

A 2022 study by researchers from Yale and UC Berkeley found that regular Fox News viewers "moderated their attitudes" after switching to CNN. Discussing the study, one of the researchers said, "Fox News doesn’t simply reinforce beliefs that its viewers already hold, it also feeds them a biased set of facts that leaves them with a warped understanding of factual reality," adding, "That many of our participants’ attitudes shifted back to their preferred ideological perspective after they stopped watching CNN suggests that partisan media serves to replenish people’s partisan loyalties and political beliefs, giving it formidable power over our discourse."

According to a study by The Economist, which looked at whether news outlets used words more often associated with Democrats and Republicans and assigned those outlets an ideological score, Fox News had a Republican leaning of around 2 Republican-leaning phrases per 10,000 from 2017-2022.

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Fox News (Online News) Ownership and Funding

Funding and ownership do not influence bias ratings. We rate the bias of content only.

Owner: Fox Entertainment Group

Fox News is part of the Fox Broadcast Network, which is owned by the Fox Corporation. The Fox Broadcast Network includes Fox News and a chain of 28 local Fox television stations, among other media assets. The Fox Corporation is owned by Rupert Murdoch. Rupert Murdoch is the owner of News Corp. News Corp. is the owner of hundreds of national and international publishing outlets including The Wall Street Journal, Fox News, and many other outlets.

Financing and ownership information last updated March 31, 2021. If you think this information is out of date or needs to be updated, please contact us.

Articles from Fox News (Online News)

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