The latest AllSides Google News bias analysis found 63% of articles that appeared on the news aggregator over a 2-week period were from media outlets on the left. This is a larger share than in 2022, when 61% of articles on Google News  were from liberal outlets. In 2023, 6% of articles were from sources on the right; in 2022, just 3%. 

In the days leading up to the 2022 midterm elections, AllSides found the search term “election” returned no Google News results from Center-, Lean Right- or Right-rated media outlets. (View the AllSides 2022 Google News bias analysis here.)

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The 2023 analysis looked at 974 articles that appeared over a 2-week period in October and November. AllSides found the proportion of media outlets that appeared on Google News’ homepage were as follows:

• 4% Left-rated
• 59% Lean Left-rated
• 16% Center-rated
• 1% Lean Right-rated
• 5% Right-rated
• 15% Not Rated by AllSides

Google News consistently displayed more articles from Lean Left-rated sources than sources on the right when it came to six search terms as well — ”abortion,” “climate change,” “economy,” “election,” “Biden,” and “immigration.” 

For each search term, Lean Left-rated outlets accounted for over half of the results, excluding the term “immigration.” Outlets on the right never accounted for more than 12% of the results, except for the term “Biden.”

Out of the 494 homepage articles analyzed, the top sources that appeared were CNN (Lean Left bias), The New York Times (Lean Left bias), Reuters (Center bias), Fox News (Right bias), and Yahoo! News (Lean Left bias). All of the top 10 sources curated were rated Lean Left or Left, other than Reuters and Fox News. 

Read the full report on AllSides’ 2023 Google News Analysis here.

2023 vs. 2022 Google News Bias Comparative Analysis

In AllSides’ 2022 Google News bias analysis, 17% of outlets on the homepage were Left-rated, 44% were Lean Left-rated, 25% were Center-rated, 3% were Right-rated, and 11% were not rated. 

Compared to 2023, there was about a 13% decrease in Left-rated outlets and a 16% increase in Lean Left-rated outlets (+2% overall on the left). There was a 10% decrease in Center-rated outlets.

There was a 1% increase in Lean Right-rated outlets and a 2% increase in Right-rated outlets (+3% overall on the right). There was a 5% increase in outlets not rated by AllSides. From 2022 to 2023, both Right-rated outlets and Left-rated outlets increased almost in equal measure, while Center outlets decreased, leading to a mostly consistent left-leaning bias on the part of Google News.

Bias in News Aggregators

AllSides has found a similar pattern among other news aggregation services, including Bing News, Apple News, NewsBreak, and Yahoo! News — all of which favor news outlets on the left. Just because the news is aggregated from different sources does not mean you are getting the full picture of different perspectives.

AllSides Media Bias Ratings™ reflect the average judgment of all Americans, not just a panel of insiders. Ratings are driven by a balance of input from experts and ordinary people across the political spectrum to reveal the average judgment of Americans. AllSides uses multiple methodologies to rate bias, including Editorial Reviews and Blind Bias Surveys of Americans.

Please contact AllSides for inquiries about this news aggregator bias analysis.

Clare Ashcraft is the Bridging and Bias Specialist at AllSides. She has a Center bias.

Visuals by Andrew Weinzierl, Research and Data Journalist at AllSides (Lean Left bias).

Reviews and edits by Julie Mastrine, Director of Marketing and Media Bias Ratings (Lean Right bias).