New York Times (Opinion)

AllSides Media Bias Rating™: Left
21887/6792
The bias meter value for New York Times (Opinion) is -4.00. -6 is the furthest "Left" value and 6 is the furthest "Right" value.
-4.00
Left What does this mean?

How we determined this rating:

  • Independent Review
  • Editorial Review: Sep 2018
  • Community Feedback:   ratings
  • AllSides has high 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 methods
New York Times (Opinion)
New York Times (Opinion)
Bias Rating Left
Type News Media
Region National
Owner The New York Times Company
Established 1851
Website nytimes.com/section/opinion
Twitter @nytimes
Facebook nytimes
Wikipedia New York Times (Opinion)
What a Left Bias Rating Means

The source displays media bias in ways that strongly align with liberal, progressive, or left-wing thought and/or policy agendas. A Left rating is our most liberal rating on the political spectrum.

Learn more about Left ratings
Go to New York Times (Opinion)
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About New York Times (Opinion)'s Bias Rating

New York Times (Opinion) is featured on the AllSides Media Bias Chart™.

New York Times (Opinion) is a news media source with an AllSides Media Bias Rating™ of Left.

What a "Left" Rating Means

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

Learn more about Left ratings

Details

Important Note: AllSides provides a separate media bias rating for the The New York Times news pages.

This page refers to The New York Times opinion page, including op-ed writers and the Editorial Board. The Editorial Board’s bias is weighted, and affects this bias rating by roughly 60%. Not all columnists for the New York Times display a left bias; we rate many individual writers separately (see end of this page). While there are some right-leaning opinion writers at the Times, overall the opinion page and Editorial Board has a strong Left bias. Our media bias rating takes into account both the overall bias of the source’s editorial board and the paper’s individual opinion page writers.

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Bias Reviews

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

New York Times Opinion Rated Left in Sept. 2018 Editorial Review

In Sept. 2018, the AllSides team conducted an extensive Editorial Review of the New York Times Editorial Board. We found the New York Times Editorial Board to be consistently Left. The team could not find even one example of an editorial piece with a Center or Right perspective. Every headline was Left in position, headline, and choice of topic.

Running pieces that declare such perspectives as, "Republicans seem determined to brand themselves the party of sexual harassment and abuse," the New York Times Editorial Board never writes favorably or sympathetically about the Republican Party, its members or ideas. We found The New York Times Editorial Board engages in some sensationalism around issues, contributing to its Far Left stance.

It's important to note that editorials from any news publication take a specific side on issues the board deems important. The New York Times Editorial Board consistently displays a Far Left stance on policies and issues of the day.

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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 New York Times (Opinion). On average, those who disagree with our rating think this source has a Lean Left bias.

Confidence Level

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

As of March 2024, AllSides has high confidence in our Left rating for New York Times (Opinion). Two or more bias reviews have affirmed this rating or the source is transparent about bias.

Additional Information

New York Times Endorses Joe Biden for President, 2020

The New York Times Editorial Board endorsed Democrat Joe Biden for president during the 2020 election, writing in part, "In the midst of unrelenting chaos, Mr. Biden is offering an anxious, exhausted nation something beyond policy or ideology. His campaign is rooted in steadiness, experience, compassion and decency."

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Accusations of New York Times Bias

In a July 2020, writer Bari Weiss publicly resigned from the New York Times, citing media bias, an internal culture hostile to new or different perspectives, and "constant bullying by colleagues who disagree with my views." Weiss said she was originally hired to bring to the Times' Opinion page the voices of "first-time writers, centrists, conservatives and others who would not naturally think of The Times as their home."

“Twitter is not on the masthead of The New York Times. But Twitter has become its ultimate editor," Weiss wrote. "As the ethics and mores of that platform have become those of the paper, the paper itself has increasingly become a kind of performance space. Stories are chosen and told in a way to satisfy the narrowest of audiences, rather than to allow a curious public to read about the world and then draw their own conclusions. I was always taught that journalists were charged with writing the first rough draft of history. Now, history itself is one more ephemeral thing molded to fit the needs of a predetermined narrative.”

"My own forays into Wrongthink have made me the subject of constant bullying by colleagues who disagree with my views," she continued. "They have called me a Nazi and a racist; I have learned to brush off comments about how I’m “writing about the Jews again.” Several colleagues perceived to be friendly with me were badgered by coworkers. My work and my character are openly demeaned on company-wide Slack channels where masthead editors regularly weigh in."

In June 2020, New York Times Editorial Page Editor James Bennet resigned amid reports of anger inside the company over the publication of an op-ed titled "Send in the Troops" by Sen. Tom Cotton. In it, Cotton advocated for using the military to oppose rioters and "insurrectionists" during the Summer 2020 protests over the death of George Floyd.

In an Editor's Note later attached at the top of the piece, the Times wrote that "the essay fell short of our standards and should not have been published" because "the editing process was rushed and flawed," Cotton had made "allegations have not been substantiated and have been widely questioned," and the headline was too "incendiary" for such a "life-and-death" topic.

Cotton accused the paper of bias, saying on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures," "The New York Times editorial page editor and owner defended [running the piece] in public statements, but then they totally surrendered to a woke child mob from their own newsroom that apparently gets triggered if they're presented with any opinion contrary to their own, as opposed to telling the woke children in their newsroom this is the workplace, not a social-justice seminar on campus."

Individual Political Biases of New York Times Opinion Writers

Not all NYT Opinion columnists have a Left or Lean Left bias; AllSides rates New York Times Opinion page writers separately. View media bias ratings for individual writers:

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New York Times (Opinion) Ownership and Funding

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

Owner: The New York Times Company

Articles from New York Times (Opinion)

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