Apple and Google News accused of promoting Democratic-leaning outlets

A study by the Media Research Center (MRC) claims that news aggregators Apple News and Google News exhibit significant political bias by promoting outlets that exclusively endorse Democratic presidential candidates. According to the analysis, the most prominent outlets featured on these platforms have endorsed Democrats 31 times since 1988, while failing to feature any outlet that endorsed a Republican candidate during that same period.

The report highlights that the top five featured outlets on Apple News—including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Guardian—have a combined endorsement record of 28 Democratic endorsements and zero Republican endorsements. Google News' top five outlets show a similar pattern with 27 Democratic endorsements and zero Republican endorsements.

Additional data cited from AllSides suggests a broader trend in digital news distribution, noting that only 1% of Google News articles and 2% of Apple News offerings come from right-leaning publications. The MRC has called for scrutiny from Congress and the Federal Trade Commission regarding these algorithmic trends. Microsoft’s MSN was also noted to have a skew, with its top five organizations recording 25 Democratic endorsements and two Republican endorsements.