An estimated 280 million users depend on Google News, a news aggregator that sources from over 50,000 outlets worldwide. However, a recent study by AllSides Media suggests that these sources might not be as unbiased as users believe.
During a two-week analysis, AllSides discovered that left-leaning sources constituted 63% of Google News content in 2023, a slight increase from 61% in the previous year. Conversely, right-leaning outlets represented 6% in 2023, up from 3% in 2022.
The study also highlighted an imbalance in political coverage, particularly leading up to the 2022 midterm elections. Searches for “election” yielded fewer results from outlets classified as center, right-leaning or right by AllSides.
Right-leaning sources seldom exceeded 12% of search results, except for searches related to the keyword “Biden.”
In an examination of 494 homepage articles on Google News, AllSides found that eight of the top 10 sources exhibited a left-leaning or left bias. This left-leaning trend was also identified in Bing News, Apple News and Yahoo News.
Ad Fontes, another media bias and reliability assessment tool, noted similar biases in Apple News and Yahoo News, though it did not evaluate Bing or Google News.
News aggregators aim to be neutral, offering content from across the political spectrum. However, factors like algorithmic curation and user interaction can influence the visibility of certain political perspectives, potentially creating filter bubbles or echo chambers.
John Gable, CEO and co-founder of AllSides, suggested that the skewed results might reflect a profit motive, where news favoring one political side generates more views, clicks and ad revenue.
Despite these findings, Google has consistently stated that it does not and will not bias its search results for political purposes. A 2019 report by The Economist found that Google’s search engine prioritizes “expertise” and “trustworthiness” over ideology.
Straight Arrow News is rated as “center” by AllSides, and it is committed to delivering facts without any filter.