How We Rate Sources
When we say an outlet is left-leaning, center or right-leaning, we're describing its overall lean as rated by independent organizations. It's not our own opinion of the outlet.
Our references
- AllSides Media Bias Ratings rate outlets from Left to Right using blind surveys, editorial reviews and community feedback. Ratings (opens in new tab) · Methods (opens in new tab)
- Ad Fontes Media rates both political bias and reliability. Media Bias Chart (opens in new tab) · Methodology (opens in new tab)
How we apply labels
- Left / Center / Right follows the AllSides rating. "Lean Left" and "Left" both count as Left, and "Lean Right" and "Right" both count as Right.
- When AllSides and Ad Fontes disagree, or an outlet isn't rated, we say so and use the closer of the two, or label it "unrated."
- Wire services and primary documents count as Center or Primary.
- A label describes an outlet, not an individual article, and we never use it as an insult.
The balance tally
Each month we count every outlet cited in our episodes and Every Side stories, sorted into Left, Center, Right and Primary, and publish the totals on our Transparency page. The goal is roughly equal Left and Right citations on contested stories. When we miss that, the tally shows it.