Analysis from the Center

Last week, news broke that over 40 news organizations across the political spectrum signed a letter condemning the Trump administration's decision to suspend The Associated Press’ (Left bias) access to the White House and Air Force One.

Notably, among them were two Right-rated sources – Fox News, which has frequently been critical of the AP’s left-leaning bias, and Newsmax.

This might not be a total surprise if you understand a bit more about the inner workings of the news business.

The White House’s move came as a response to AP’s decision to not recognize Trump’s executive order that renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.

Dozens of major news sources – many of which AllSides rates as Lean Left – signed the letter, including ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, The New York Times, NPR, and The Washington Post. It asked the White House to reinstate AP’s privileges on the basis that outlets should “be free to make their own editorial decisions without fear of government intrusion.”

While it could be that the brass at Fox and Newsmax are taking a stand for principles over partisanship, it could also be about business; both outlets rely heavily on AP to supplement their own content.

Though it’s biased in favor of the left, AP is one of the premier reporting institutions in terms of volume, resources, and access it has both domestically and globally. Alongside Reuters (Center) and AFP (not rated), AP’s reporting and wire coverage are mainstays among the pages of mainstream American news sources from left to right.

Fox and Newsmax are part of this cohort that regularly republishes AP coverage or incorporates its reporting. This is especially true when it comes to international stories, which the right does not author as much original coverage of and often resigns to using AP’s wire coverage.

For instance, last spring, when evaluating coverage of Georgia’s Foreign Agents Law, AllSides reviewed Fox News’ coverage of the story and found that in a two-month period it authored just four pieces of original coverage, while mostly republishing news articles from The Associated Press and Reuters.

Newsmax also relies on AP wire coverage for international programming. As an example, we can look at another country on the periphery of the American news cycle. A Google Search query of “Newsmax Moldova” returns four “Newsmax” articles from the past year on the first page — but all four are simply wire content from The Associated Press.

Similarly, a query of “Fox News Moldova” returned nine first-page articles from early 2024 to the present. One was authored by Fox, and the other eight were AP wires.

This test can be run with various other countries around the world and will yield similar results.

RELATED: How Americans Rated the Bias of AP News, Washington Post, Breitbart, WIRED and Washington Times

Trump’s banning of AP in the Oval Office won’t affect the outlet’s international operations, however, and hence, it shouldn’t affect Fox or Newsmax’s either. But AP provides value to these outlets domestically as well.

On a regular basis, Fox lists in several of its published news articles that The Associated Press’ reporting has contributed to its coverage. Take these three stories about DOGE or this one about an act of protest in Yosemite National Park, all published on February 25.

Newsmax, which ostensibly has far less resources than Fox, also relies on AP domestically. In addition to the international AP wire reports it republishes, Newsmax also publishes several of AP’s domestic stories on a daily basis. 

On February 26 alone, there are several stories, including ones about a “close call” at Reagan Airport in Washington D.C., a diversity lawsuit in Maryland, and a prison abuse settlement with origins in California. Similar to a lot of Fox’s stories, there is one about border security in Arizona where the AP contributed.

Though the AP ban focuses on its privileges in the Oval Office and on Air Force One, the outlet also creates a lot of reporting that makes its way into coverage and programming from many other mainstream outlets across the spectrum.

While it’s possible the outlets signing the letter were standing in solidarity with their peer organization as a matter of journalistic principle, it’s also possible AP’s value to Fox and Newsmax as a content supplier played a part as well.

In any case, it's a rare display of organizational common ground in the highly polarized world of biased media — and a reminder that news outlets with partisan biases sometimes still rely on each other for reporting.

Andy Gorel is a News and Social Media Editor at AllSides. He has a Center bias.

This piece was edited and reviewed by Henry A. Brechter, Editor-in-Chief (Center), Julie Mastrine, Director of Marketing and Media Bias Ratings (Lean Right), and Evan Wagner, News Editor and Product Manager (Lean Left).