A study by the Media Research Center, a conservative media watchdog group, has found that Apple News featured a significant number of articles from left-leaning outlets in its top stories during January 2026, while including zero from right-leaning sources.
The group examined 620 stories that appeared in high-traffic morning slots on Apple News from January 1 to January 31. According to the analysis, 440 of those stories came from outlets rated as left-leaning (such as The Washington Post, Associated Press, NBC News, The Guardian, The New York Times, NPR, and others), while the remaining 180 came from centrist outlets (including The Wall Street Journal and Reuters). No stories from right-leaning publications, such as The New York Post or Washington Examiner were included.
The Media Research Center based its outlet classifications on AllSides media bias ratings, which draw from multi-partisan panels and public surveys.
Apple News features a mix of stories selected by in-house editors and some determined algorithmically, though the company describes the top stories as editor-curated.
Thomas Barrabi for The New York Post:
Of the 620 stories, a whopping 440 came from outlets that are rated as left-leaning, while the remaining 180 were published by centrist outlets. Meanwhile, outlets which are considered right-leaning – including The Post – were shut out entirely.
In January, Apple News featured a total of 72 articles by The Washington Post, 54 articles by The Associated Press, 50 by NBC News, 34 by The Guardian and 25 by NPR, according to MRC’s data. It published 54 Wall Street Journal articles. The numbers for The Post and Fox News were zero and zero, respectively.
Julie Mastrine, who serves as director of AllSides’ media bias rating system, said she was “not surprised at all” by the results.
“The bottom line is that Americans that are relying on these Big Tech companies to provide them with news are not getting a balanced view and they’re not getting the full scope of perspectives available,” Mastrine said in an interview…
As of Monday, Apple News had gone 96 consecutive days without showcasing a story from a conservative publication in its top stories.
“Almost half of voting-age Americans own an Apple iPhone,” MRC’s Dan Schneider told The Post. “Of course, all its phones come pre-installed with Apple News. Swipe right and you’re inundated with Apple’s cherry-picked news stories. Most people don’t even know they are being fed a steady stream of leftist narratives…”
“It is a subliminal form of propaganda, paid for with corporate dollars but without campaign finance disclosures,” Schneider added. “It could be illegal.”
MacDailyNews Take: Shocker.
Look for MacDailyNews on Apple News. We used to be included. No longer, likely due to being critical of Apple’s myopic, charisma-free, placeholder CEO who missed GenAI and has reacted to it like a deer in the headlights ever since.
Who determines what’s “real” news and what’s “fake?” Cook seems to want “technology companies'” idea of what’s “real” to be “ingrained in the schools” and “ingrained in the public.” Technology companies, again, who donated 99% of their political dollars to one party in the last U.S. Presidential election.
If this is really what Cook desires then… Wow. Just wow. – MacDailyNews, February 11, 2017
So, if TIME Canada puts the next-gen iPhone on their cover a day before Apple’s unveiling or some website criticizes Apple’s software quality, where do those stories go in Apple’s News app? Do they even show up at all?
Or how about positive news articles involving politicians with whom Tim Cook & Co. do not agree/actively oppose? – MacDailyNews, June 15, 2015
As always, readers of “news” need to consider the sources and interpret what they are are being told accordingly. The more disparate sources you can find, the better. And we don’t mean different newspaper, network, website brands that are all owned by the same conglomerate. Determining the actual ownership of your “news” sources is an investment that requires a bit of time, but it is very enlightening. – MacDailyNews, June 17, 2015
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More likely you were excluded because you don’t add much value: 1) you just reference other articles and 2) when you have your own commentary it is more often than not incredibly biased and/or stupid
If MDN “don’t add much value,” why are you visiting and posting comments on MDN?
If MacDailyNews is “incredibly biased and/or stupid,” why are you reading MacDailyNews’ articles and posting comments here?
That is the biggest reason why I will not subscribe to Apple News.
And, one can get all the Apple News news free.
Heh, you guys just revealed your hypocrisy. Good addition to your stupidness.
The Washington Post, Associated Press, NBC News, The Guardian, The New York Times, NPR ARE HIGHLY CREDIBLE NEWS ORGANIZATIONS.
If you’re used to getting your news from the manosphere or from platforms owned by oligarchs or astroturfed by Russian bot farms, you probably can’t see that, and I’m sorry for you.
I’m happy Apple News doesn’t prioritize junk news outlets.
To joke, or not to joke….
The same NPR where the CEO states “Our reverence for the truth might be a distraction getting in the way of finding common ground & getting things done?”
Who needs to be concerned with a Russian bot, when the “friendlies” think this way!
Fox and Maxx both keep their right wing audiences because they REFUSE to fact check any story they cover/make up. If they did fact check their articles they would have no right wing audiences.
CNN is marginal at best when it comes to fact checking comments made by the Trump administration.
CBS aka See BS news is also guilty of bending the knee to Trump and being caught out doing it.
The rest of main stream news stations definitely report the news and some of them are pretty good at fact checking their sources but they could all do better.
The best fact checkers are actually the newly emerging group of independent pod casting journalists including
Dean withers
Parker
Harry Sidon
Adam Mockler
Jasmine Crockett (D Texas)
George stephanopoulos
Medhi Hasan
Isiah Martin
Don Lemon
Aaron Parnas
There are probably others but those are the most regular ones I follow
The Media Research Center is right-wing joke led by Bozo the Clown, Brent Bozell.
We check up on MDN only occasionally to monitor the stink as found in this story.
Note that vtvita stoops to attacking the messenger as he cannot attack the stats, because they are true: Of the 620 stories, a whopping 440 came from outlets that are rated as left-leaning, while the remaining 180 were published by centrist outlets. Meanwhile, outlets which are considered right-leaning – including The Post – were shut out entirely.
To any rational observer, Apple News is clearly slanted left. Victims of leftist propaganda are, of course, blind to it, as always.
Not sure why this would be a surprise or controversial, What should be controversial is when the government forces news sources and broadcasters to be “fair.” Like the threatening to sue “The View” for not being “balanced.”
It has been that way from the get go!
Its a brainwashing medium…
What else would u expect from a Left leaning company like APPLE!
I have never used Apple News because it was obvious Apple would push far-left fake news propaganda on unsuspecting users.