Nearly 60% in US get their news from 4 biggest aggregators, just 2% of stories right-leaning: study

An estimated 58% of Americans or more – hundreds of millions of people – get their news from at least one of the Big Four news aggregators: Apple News, Google News, Yahoo News and Microsoft’s MSN.

But a nonprofit, conservative media watchdog has documented an extreme left-leaning bias among them.

David Bozell, who leads the Media Research Center, says his group in analyzing one month of stories on Apple News found that of 620 stories that Apple had promoted on its top feeds, “not a single one of those stories was from a right-wing news source. Not one. Zero.”

According to research by the MRC, out of 487 top stories last February on Google News, only 11, or 2.2%, were right-leaning; 314, or 64.5%, were left-leaning and 162, or 33.3%, were in the center. 

As for Apple News, last January, out of the 620 top stories, there were zero right-leaning ones and 440 left-leaning. Articles on popular websites such as Fox News and the New York Post were never promoted.

A broader “Big Four” analysis in April showed the apps promoted 92% left-leaning outlets and only 17% of right-leaning ones. And when “right-leaning” outlets were promoted, Bozell says, they were typically non-political features that don’t really lean left or right.

Bozell says some of the patterns regarding what news is promoted among the news apps make no sense – unless there’s a paid arrangement that’s not being offered to right-wing news outlets. He points to stories by left-leaning NPR being promoted dozens of times on Apple News while more popular conservative news sites get zero visibility.

“NPR was linked by Apple 155 times in six months,” Bozell told Full Measure. “It was linked by Google 121 times in six months. … How is that? NPR, National Public Radio, [is] the 20th most-popular news website in America today, whereas the New York Post is in the top 10 and Breitbart is in the top 35." Right-leaning news "gets no love from these guys.”

Bozell says the audience is left with little choice because, for example, Apple News is preloaded on iPhones. Google News is preloaded on Androids.

He recommends that news consumers speak up and demand a more diverse mix of information from the Big Four news apps.

Sharyl Attkisson is the managing editor of Full Measure and author of bestsellers “Slanted,” “The Smear” and “Stonewalled.”