NewsNation

About NewsNation

NewsNation is featured on the AllSides Media Bias Chart™.

NewsNation is a news media source with an AllSides Media Bias Rating™ of Center.

Note: AllSides rates online, written content only, not broadcast content.

What a "Center" Rating Means

Sources with an AllSides Media Bias Rating of Center either do not show much predictable media bias, display a balance of articles with left and right biases, or equally balance left and right perspectives.

Center doesn't mean better! A Center media bias rating does not necessarily mean a source is totally unbiased, neutral, perfectly reasonable, or credible, just as Left and Right don't necessarily mean extreme, wrong, unreasonable, or not credible. AllSides encourages people to read outlets across the political spectrum.

Learn more about Center ratings

• NewsNation rated Center in Sept. 2022 Small Group Editorial Review
• NewsNation Rated On Border of Center, Lean Left in Aug. 2022 Blind Bias Survey
• Feb. 2022 Independent Review Finds NewsNation has Center Bias

NewsNation rated Center in Sept. 2022 Small Group Editorial Review

An AllSides September 2022 Small Group Editorial Review returned a bias rating of Center for NewsNation. All panelists observed a mostly balanced story choice that covered topics of interest to both the right and left. However, a reviewer on the left said they saw the outlet as leaning a bit to the right in its story choice. 

Panelists did not observe the use of spin, slant, or sensationalism in headlines, which were straightforward and factual:

• Reports: Plane of migrants heading to Delaware didn’t show Tuesday
• El Paso to spend $2 million to bus migrants out of city
• Border encounters hit record 2 million in a single year

Stories about immigration and the border were labeled “Border Report,” which was seen as a neutral word choice (as opposed to terms that would convey a viewpoint, such as “Immigration Crisis”). A panelist from the center and a panelist from the right noted that some analysis pieces, such as this article on the COVID-19 pandemic (which was seen as a Lean Right viewpoint) and this piece on Hispanic voters were not clearly labeled as analysis.

NewsNation Rated On Border of Center, Lean Left in Aug. 2022 Blind Bias Survey

NewsNation was rated on the border of Center and Lean Left in the Aug. 2022 AllSides Blind Bias Survey. AllSides rated NewsNation as Center at the time. The results triggered a Small Group Editorial Review, in which the team opted to keep NewsNation's rating Center.

On average, respondents who self-reported their own political leanings as Left, Lean Right, and Right perceived NewsNation as Lean Left, while respondents who are Lean Left and Center perceived it as Center.

Democrats and Independents rated NewsNation as Center, on average, though virtually on the border of Lean Left and Center. Republicans rated NewsNation as Lean Left.

A total of 901 people from across the political spectrum – people who identified as Left, Lean Left, Center, Lean Right, or Right – rated the bias of NewsNation. The weighted average was -1.04, which is on the border of Lean Left and Center. The middle 50% of responses lied between -2.09 (Lean Left) and -0.36 (Center) – an interquartile range of 1.73.

During an AllSides Blind Bias Survey, people from all sides of the political spectrum and a diverse array of ages and geographic locations rate the bias of content from a media outlet blindly, meaning all identifying branding information is removed. Sign up for a Blind Bias Survey here.

Feb. 2022 Independent Review Finds NewsNation has Center Bias

AllSides rated NewsNation Center following a Feb. 2022 independent review by AllSides editors.

Overall, we found little evidence that NewsNation's bias pushed more to the left or the right overall. The team found:

• Some crime stories could be seen as emotionalist clickbait, such as Watch: Driver assaults, drags mother of 2 with car, Child's body found in freezer, mom's boyfriend arrested. 
• Stories about the border issue involved investigative reporters who reported on the ground. NewsNation focused equally on the experience of local sheriffs and the stories of people trying to leave Mexico. 
• NewsNation reposts many Associated Press stories, a source which AllSides at the time rated Lean Left. An example of this is the story Abortion ruling eliminates hurdles for Colombian women, which reflects a left-wing view on abortion.
• Some story choices could be seen as appealing more to the left, such as the story of web designer denying a gay couple services, a story about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez "clapping back" at Tucker Carlson, and a story about school board members getting death threats over critical race theory and mask mandates.
• A story about a U.S. trucker convoy story was balanced.

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As of April 2023, people have voted on the AllSides Media Bias Rating for NewsNation. On average, those who disagree with our rating think this source has a Center bias.

As of April 2023, AllSides has low or initial confidence in our Center rating for NewsNation. If we perform more bias reviews and gather consistent data, this confidence level will increase.

Additional Information

Third-Party Allegations of Bias

Note: This section describes third-party accusations and reports of bias. Third-party accusations do not factor into AllSides Media Bias Ratings™.

In March 2021, Variety reported on "conservative bias concerns" at NewsNation. Variety did not attribute the concerns to an on-the-record source, pointing only to staff departures and the fact that Fox News executive Bill Shine is a consultant to NewsNation but has no formal role at the company. Variety pointed to a New York Times article that also asserted there were "staff complaints of a right-wing tilt and concern over the involvement of the former Fox News chief Bill Shine." This was allegedly according to anonymous inside sources: "Six people at the network, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reveal internal discussions, said “NewsNation” has increasingly become a venue for right-wing views," New York Times said. The NYT article also says there were "staff complaints of a right-wing tilt and concern over the involvement of the former Fox News chief Bill Shine."

The Variety article cites sources familiar with internal meetings and says Nexstar chairman-CEO Perry Sook "told staffers that the goal from the start was to produce a telecast that reflects centrist views. As such, NewsNation would naturally lean more to the right than other mainstream news outlets because, in Sook’s view, the political perspectives of journalists in most newsrooms lean to the left." 

Variety further stated, "Another source at NewsNation blasted the criticism, arguing that there was no movement from the pledge to offer down-the-middle news headlines outside of shows specifically designed for more opinion and commentary."

About NewsNation

NewsNation was formerly known as Superstation WGN and WGN America. On March 1, 2021, the channel was relaunched from WGN America to NewsNation with expanded programming.

According to a press release, as of Jan. 2021, WGN was reaching 75 million U.S. television households.

NewsNation bills itself as unbiased. During the launch of NewsNation, Sean Compton, Nexstar Inc.’s Networks Division President, said, “Rebranding WGN America as NewsNation underscores the network’s clearly defined mission of delivering fact-based and unbiased news, while making it easier for viewers to find this new informative source for news."

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