Less than 2% of the top stories featured on Apple News in February came from right-leaning outlets—a minimal uptick from 0% in January that a conservative watchdog group dismisses as mere “damage control” amid threats of federal action over alleged media bias.
As The New York Post exclusively reported, Apple faced significant backlash last month after a Media Research Center analysis revealed that not a single article from a conservative outlet appeared among the top stories on its widely used news app during January.
Thomas Barrabi for The New York Post:
In a Feb. 11 letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson formally warned that Apple could be violating federal consumer protection laws against “unfair or deceptive acts or practices.” Apple News finally featured an article by a right-leaning outlet on Feb 12 — its first in 100 days — when it promoted a Fox News story about the death of actor James Van Der Beek.
Out of 560 stories tracked during a new analysis by MRC in February, just eight of them, or 1.4%, were written by conservative outlets. Meanwhile, 400 articles, or 75%, were written by outlets classified as left-leaning. The remaining 152 articles were either from outlets rated as centrist or outlets that were not assigned a bias classification, like small local newspapers.
“2% is not progress. It’s damage control,” MRC president David Bozell said in a statement. “If public exposure and a federal inquiry only yield a modest adjustment, that suggests the bias we documented was deeply embedded.”
“Apple News should not require public pressure to reflect viewpoint diversity,” Bozell added. “This is not about token inclusion. It’s about whether one of the most powerful information gatekeepers in the country operates fairly.”
The watchdog’s researchers relied on ratings compiled by AllSides, a nonpartisan organization that uses a multipartisan panel of experts — with two members from the left, two from the center and two from the right — who are trained to spot media bias. It also conducts blind surveys of ordinary Americans, then averages both sets of results to come up with a rating.
MacDailyNews Take: Lauren Kern is the Editor-in-Chief of Apple News at Apple, the role that directly leads the curation team. Kern has held this position since joining Apple in 2017 as the first person in the role. Apple emphasizes human editors over pure algorithms for key curation decisions. Kern reports up through Apple’s services organization, ultimately to Eddy Cue (Senior Vice President of Services), who oversees Apple News.
Kern was previously Executive Editor at New York magazine and ,m prior to that, the Deputy Editor of The New York Times Magazine (from 2010 to 2014). Which ought to tell you all you need to know about why Apple News, out of the box, leans left.
On the day Lauren Kern was named first Editor-in-Chief of Apple News, we wrote, “Interesting choice that could open Apple News up for some additional criticism.”
Yup, our crystal ball is still flawless!
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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Who watches the gatekeepers?
A paranoid FCC. This government is not about freedom of speech or freedom of the press. The FCC is supposed to be independent of the government. The FCC under Brandan Carr is attached to Trump at the hip.
When you have a far left lib who is gay and cannot manage to find a wife, have kids, procreate in a healthy way, and just be normal and brings a culture to your company of everything abnormal and backing all manner of radical left ideology you end up having a new service with their name on it that is 98% lopsided slanted and just plain sick.
A persons sexual orientation has nothing to do with this story.
FTR Gay couples do have kids and create families. Lesbian couples use the services of a sperm donor and gay men usually find a close female friend who is willing to carry their child from conception to birth.