RealClearPolitics

AllSides Media Bias Rating™: Center
4807/5877
The bias meter value for RealClearPolitics is 0.16. -6 is the furthest "Left" value and 6 is the furthest "Right" value.
0.16
Center What does this mean?

How we determined this rating:

  • Independent Review
  • Editorial Review: Sep 2020
  • 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
RealClearPolitics
Bias Rating Center
Type News Media
Region National
Owner RealClearInvestors and Crest Media
Established 2000
Website realclearpolitics.com
Twitter @RealClearNews
Facebook realclearpolitics
Wikipedia RealClearPolitics
What a Center Bias Rating Means

The source either does not show much media bias, displays a balance of articles with left and right biases, or equally balances left and right perspectives in its reporting.

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
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About RealClearPolitics's Bias Rating

RealClearPolitics is featured on the AllSides Media Bias Chart™.

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

RealClearPolitics' AllSides Media Bias Rating™ is weighted; its homepage content affects this rating by about 60%, as its homepage includes content curated from across the political spectrum. Content in RealClearPolitics' Articles section may display more of a Lean Right bias.

Note: This Media Bias Rating reflects the bias of RealClearPolitics, not other RealClear sections such as RealClearInvestigations, RealClearEnergy, RealClearHealth, etc. 

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

Bias Reviews

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

2023 AllSides Analysis: RealClearPolitics is Center; Displays Slightly More Sources on the Right

AllSides found RealClearPolitics to be largely balanced in a Jan. 2023 media bias analysis, confirming our Center media bias rating for RCP. 

AllSides examined 622 curated articles that appeared on RCP’s homepage from January 15-28, 2023. Of those articles, 32% were from sources AllSides rates as on the left and 35% were from sources on the right – indicating a very slight rightward lean by the outlet.

A total of 198 articles were from sources on the left and 219 from sources on the right. Of those, 13% of articles were from Left-rated sources, 18% from Lean Left-rated sources, 22% from Center-rated sources, 20% from Lean Right-rated sources, and 15% from Right-rated sources. 

Thirty-six percent of the outlets featured in the Morning and Evening Editions in the two-week period were from outlets rated Lean Left or Left, 38% were from outlets rated Lean Right or Right, 19% were from outlets rated Center, and 10% were Not Rated. 

Washington Examiner (rated Lean Right at the time of analysis) made up 6% of the stories curated on RCP’s homepage over the two-week period. RealClearPolitics original content and the New York Post (rated Lean Right at the time of analysis) each made up 5% of stories curated on RCP’s homepage. 

Learn more about the AllSides RealClearPolitics Bias Analysis™ and get full results here.

As of 2024, AllSides had analyzed the bias of multiple news aggregators and found most of them Lean Left.

RealClearPolitics Fact Check Rated Center in July 2021 Independent Review

RealClearPolitics fact-checking section has a Center bias, according to a July 2021 independent review by AllSides staff. 

RealClearPolitics Rated Center in Sept. 2020 Editorial Review

On Sept. 25, 2020, the AllSides team, which contains people across the political spectrum, conducted an Editorial Review of RealClearPolitics. Overall, readers will get a mixture of left and right views when visiting RealClearPolitics.com, so the site gets a Center bias rating; however, the team agreed that content on RealClearPolitics' "Articles" section has more of a Lean Right bias.

During the Editorial Review, there was a general consensus among the AllSides team that RealClearPolitics' homepage of curated articles is very balanced, featuring an equal number of stories (typically, opinion pieces) from left media outlets/writers and right media outlets/writers. RealClearPolitics does not hide or obscure the left or right view, and displays content from both sides very equally. RealClearPolitics frequently showcases opposing views side-by-side.

At the time of review, content from Elle Magazine (rated Lean Left at the time of review) appeared right next to content from The Federalist (Right bias); commentary from someone criticizing the Black Lives Matter organization appeared right next to a video of Bernie Sanders criticizing President Trump; an article about critical race theory activists "destroying STEM high school" (Asra Nomani, Quillette, Lean Right at the time of review) appeared right next to an article declaring "Telling the Truth About Slavery Is Not 'Indoctrination' (Clint Smith, The Atlantic, Lean Left); an article about "How Louisville Can Still Get Justice for Breonna Taylor (Travis Waldron, HuffPost, Left) appeared right next to a piece declaring "Breonna Taylor Grand Jury Simply Followed the Facts" (James Gagliano, DC Examiner, Lean Right at the time). AllSides rates the bias of as many individual writers that appear on RealClearPolitics as possible so that readers can more easily assess the bias of individual articles.

April 2020 Independent Review

An AllSides independent review in April 2020 found that RealClearPolitics prominently includes commentary from all sides of the political spectrum, linking to a variety of commentators on sites from the left and right, including The New Yorker, CNN Opinion, The Federalist, The Nation, and the Washington Times.

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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 RealClearPolitics. 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 high confidence in our Center rating for RealClearPolitics. Two or more bias reviews have affirmed this rating or the source is transparent about bias.

Additional Information

RealClearPolitics was founded in 2000 in Chicago by former options trader John McIntyre and former advertising agency account executive Tom Bevan. The site includes political news, op-eds, and commentary. It also publishes aggregation of polling data during election seasons. According to its About page,

"At RealClearPolitics (RCP) we’re dedicated to providing our readers with better, more insightful analysis of the most important news and policy issues of the day. RCP’s daily editorial curation and original reporting present balanced, non-partisan analysis that empowers our readers to stay informed."

Third-Party Claims of Bias

During the 2008 United States presidential election, The Wall Street Journal referred to RealClearPolitics as "nonpartisan" multiple times. The New York Times referred to its polling as a "nonpartisan tally." An October 2019 article in The Daily Beast claimed Real Clear Media managed a Facebook page of "far-right memes and Islamophobic smears" called "Conservative Country." Anand Ramanujan, RealClear CTO, said the company created a website, ConservativeCountry.net, that was affiliated with the Facebook page "as part of an effort to understand the flow of traffic from social media—particularly Facebook—to political websites."

Philosophy and Bias of RealClear Founders

Site founder John McIntyre has said, "I'm not really a die-hard Republican because my interests are less on social issues, more on taxing and spending. ... But I definitely don't want the government telling me what to do with my property... Nevertheless, any political junkie—even a liberal—would enjoy our site because the topics we choose are current." In a 2008 interview with the Chicago Tribune, McIntyre said, "We're trying to pull together the best political stories, op-eds, news analyses, editorials out there. The proliferation of content is enormous. Part of what we're trying to do is distill it in a clear, simple way for people who don't have hours to spend searching the Net". In a 2003 interview with the conservative magazine Human Events, McIntyre reportedly described the philosophy behind the website as being based on "freedom" and "common-sense values." Founder Tom Bevan also said: "We think debate on the issues is a very important thing. We post a variety of opinions ... we have a frustration all conservatives have ... the bias in media against conservatives, religious conservatives, [and] Christian conservatives".

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RealClearPolitics Ownership and Funding

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

Owner: RealClearInvestors and Crest Media

RealClearPolitics was founded in 2000 by Tom Bevan and John McIntyre. They are a part of the RealClear brand that includes 14 other websites. In 2007, Forbes Media took a 51% equity stake in RealClear Holdings. In 2015, Crest Media, which owns the Middle East news outlet Al-Monitor, and the original owners bought out a large equity stake that had been possessed by Forbes Media. Crest Media was founded by the president and chairman of Crest Investment Company Jamal Daniel. Financing and ownership information last updated February 8, 2020

Articles from RealClearPolitics

This content was curated by AllSides. See our Balanced Newsfeed.