In April of 2025, AllSides conducted a large-scale analysis of 17 topics on the homepages of 16 media outlets across the political spectrum. This analysis determined which topics were covered the most by each outlet, showcasing individual outlet biases and the effects of political bias on a per topic basis.

*Read more on our methodology in the *Shaping the Narrative: Report

Shaping the Narrative: Blog Series

As part of the analysis, AllSides created a six-part blog series to further detail how biased media outlets influenced coverage of the following topics:

• Shaping the Narrative: Economy
• Shaping the Narrative: Trump Administration
• Shaping the Narrative: Politics
• Shaping the Narrative: Immigration
• Shaping the Narrative: International News
• Shaping the Narrative: Crime

Findings indicated a noticeable departure in terms of extensiveness of homepage coverage per topic, as well as biased framing throughout all topics with clear correlations to political bias.

For example, Left and Lean Left outlets disproportionately covered the Trump administration when compared to other topics (at ~32% of total homepage coverage, with Economy at second with 25%); doing so at higher rates than Center (15%), Right (22%), and Lean Right (19%) outlets. Moreover, the economy had the highest overall homepage coverage across all outlets – at 25% of total coverage.

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Economy

Most Covered Topics

RELATED: Shaping the Narrative – Economy

Key Findings on this topic:

• Outlets on the left covered the economy more than the right: 25% of homepage coverage by outlets AllSides rates as Left and Lean Left was on the topic of the economy, compared to ~15% of homepage coverage by Lean Right/Right-rated outlets.
• Center outlets covered the economy the most of any bias group. On average, Lean Left outlets covered the economy in 24% of overall media coverage, Left outlets 26%, Center outlets 42%, Lean Right outlets 17%, and Right outlets 14%.
• **Outlets on the left were more likely to show negativity bias and **bias by viewpoint, highlighting voices critical of Trump’s handling of the economy in headlines; Center outlets were more balanced, showcasing both sides, and outlets on the right tended to show positivity bias on the economy and tariffs, or bias by omission of critical voices.

Analysis:

Left and Lean Left rated outlets generally focused on framing the economy through a negative lens, showing negativity bias.

Conversely, outlets rated Right and Lean Right typically downplayed economic concerns and shaped the narrative on the economy into a more positive angle through the use of story choice bias. Additionally, these outlets often forewent covering negative stories or critical voices on the economy – what is known as bias by omission.

Trump Administration

Most Covered Topics

RELATED: Shaping the Narrative – Trump administration

Key Findings on the topic:

• Outlets on the Left covered the Trump administration more than outlets on the Right: 32% of articles from Left or Lean Left outlets were on the Trump administration, in comparison to 21% from Right or Lean Right-rated outlets.
• **Center outlets covered the Trump administration the least **– 15% of total coverage.
• Outlets on the Left generally covered the Trump administration in relation to a weakened economy.
• Outlets on the Right generally reported on Trump’s response to critiques or claims, as opposed to the claims themselves – bias by omission of viewpoint.
• **Lean Right outlets were more critical of the Trump administration than Right outlets **– and on Trump’s tariff and foreign policy specifically, almost as critical as Center outlets.

Analysis:

Left and Lean Left outlets remained critical of the Trump administration and dedicated a significant portion – 32% overall – of their media coverage to this topic. This is in comparison to Right and Lean Right outlets, which covered the Trump administration only 21% of the time. However, coverage from Lean Right outlets tended to be more critical of Trump than reporting from Right outlets.

Center outlets displayed several types of bias and took a generally critical stance toward the Trump administration, not dissimilar from Left and Lean Left outlets. BBC News (Center bias) acted as an outlier of sorts, where other than 2 instances where the outlet used spin words such as "threatens" or "tension," among 18 total headlines on the Trump administration, the outlet didn’t express much bias against Trump when compared to the rest of the news outlets in this project.

Politics

Most Covered Topics

RELATED: Shaping the Narrative – Politics

Key Findings on the topic:

• Lean Right outlets covered politics the most – 26% of total coverage, followed by Right outlets at 21%
• Center outlets covered politics the least – at 4% of total coverage
• Right and Lean Right outlets covered Democratic politicians more than three times as often as Republican politicians
• Left and Lean Left outlets covered Democrats and Republicans about the same

Analysis:

When looking at trends in coverage, Right and Lean Right outlets dedicated 32% of their homepage coverage on politics to Democrats and 9% to Republicans, while Left and Lean Left outlets dedicated 20% of their homepage coverage on politics to Democrats and 18% to Republicans.

Center outlets covered politics on their homepages the least – at 4% of all coverage. Both Left and Right outlets displayed several types of bias in their coverage of politicians on the opposite side of the political spectrum and dedicated a significant portion of homepage coverage on politics to individual politicians. Center outlets, on the other hand, largely forewent homepage coverage of partisan politics and focused more on foreign policy and the economy.

Outlets biased to the left or right appeared to emphasize partisan politics more, potentially due to their users engaging with political narratives more often, especially when those narratives vilify “the other side.”

Immigration

Most Covered Topics

RELATED: Shaping the Narrative – Immigration

Key Findings on the topic:

• Outlets rated as Left and Lean Left by AllSides emphasized homepages coverage of immigration court cases where the immigrant received a ‘legal win’
• Right and Lean Right outlets emphasized coverage on immigration court cases where the Trump administration received a ‘legal win’
• Center outlets covered immigration the least on their homepages, on average
• Right and Lean Right outlets typically covered stories on immigration in relation to crimes
• Left and Lean Left outlets typically covered stories on** immigration in relation to systematic abuses** they may receive

Analysis:

The data collected shows that Left and Lean Left outlets dedicated 13% of their total homepage coverage to immigration. In this coverage, these outlets generally focused on immigration court cases that provided legal ‘wins’ for the immigrants.

This was in contrast to Right and Lean Right outlets, which dedicated 10% of their homepage coverage to immigration, and generally focused on immigration court cases that provided legal ‘wins’ for the Trump administration. Additionally, Right and Lean Right outlets often covered stories on immigrants committing crimes; meanwhile, Left and Lean Left outlets more often described immigrants as ‘victims’ either by being ‘wrongfully deported’ or treated ‘inhumanely’ in detention centers, among other points.

Center outlets covered immigration the least, with about 6% of homepage coverage dedicated to the topic. Throughout this limited coverage, Center outlets covered immigration court cases that tended to be critical of the Trump administration’s deportation operations. It should be noted that this may or may not be indicative of shared bias with Left and Lean Left outlets on the topic, as Center outlets did not exhibit many types of bias beyond potential negativity bias towards the Trump administration.

International News

Most Covered Topics

RELATED: Shaping the Narrative – International News

Key Findings on the topic:

• Center outlets featured international news the most – at 25% of total coverage
• Left outlets related international news stories back to the** Trump administration’s tariffs **around half of the time
• Center outlets featured the** Russia-Ukraine conflict (20%) **more than the Israel-Hamas conflict (13%)
• Right outlets tended to publish stories on international news with** favorable framing to the Trump administration** (echoing behavior from the Shaping the Narrative: Trump administration analysis)

Analysis:

Center outlets covered international news the most out of all bias groups. A disproportionate amount of coverage on international news was from BBC News (Center bias) and Reuters (Center bias), both outlets based outside of America. This suggests that the data may inflate or skew upward the level of international coverage typically provided by Center outlets.

Meanwhile, outlets from the left and right, which primarily cater to an American audience, do not cover international news as often, likely reflecting the interests of their readers.

Crime

Most Covered Topics

RELATED: Shaping the Narrative – Crime

Key Findings on the topic:

• Left and Lean Left outlets emphasized coverage of stories where the perpetrators of crime were either alleged white supremacists or where victims were minorities
• Right and Lean Right outlets tended to cover cases where** left-leaning individuals, minorities or unauthorized immigrants were perpetrators, and white individuals were victims**
• Outlets on the Left dedicated a significant portion of homepage coverage on crime to the burning of PA Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home
• Right outlets dedicated a significant portion of homepage coverage on crime to stories of unauthorized immigrants committing crimes

Analysis:

After an in-depth look into coverage from outlets of each cohort, certain trends were apparent. Left and Lean Left outlets often covered stories in which the perpetrators were alleged white supremacists or the victims were minorities. Right and Lean Right outlets did the opposite, often reporting on cases where minorities were perpetrators, while white individuals were victims.

Center outlets reported much less on crime, and displayed very little in terms of AllSides’ 16 Types of Media Bias, often choosing to cover the mere facts of the case and focus on stories outside the US.

Arts and Entertainment

Most Covered Topics

This topic was included in the analysis to capture all miscellaneous topics not captured by the science topic. Additionally, several awards shows in the early half of the year may have interfered with the analysis of bias, hence the importance of including this topic in the analysis. This topic was covered the most by the New York Post (Lean Right bias) – at 21% of the outlet’s total homepage coverage of all topics.

Key Findings on the topic:

• Outlets rated Right and Lean Right by AllSides covered stories on Arts & Entertainment more often than Center and Left- and Lean Left-rated outlets
• Outlets rated Right and Lean Right often covered entertainment stories that elevated conservative perspectives and critiques on feminism and LGBTQ+.
• **Left and Lean Left outlets often covered entertainment stories that elevated **critiques of the Trump administration

Analysis:

AllSides typically addresses the impact of political bias on political, social, and economic news. Preliminary analysis on entertainment news indicates that outlets rated Right and Lean Right, as well as outlets rated Left and Lean Left, often use entertainment topics to elevate their own political biases on topics related to, but not explicitly on, the entertainment news story.

For example, MSNBC (Left bias) published the opinion piece, “Why Jon Stewart’s apology about Trump resonates” in order to tie in an entertainment news piece with critiques to the Trump administration. Similarly, Fox News (Right bias) wrote, “Drag queen group mocks Jesus, Christianity in Easter show marketed to kids” emphasizing conservative perspectives on the harm drag queens – and to a certain extent, LGBTQ+ identity – have on children.

Education

Moderately Covered Topics

The Trump Administration, along with several conservative politicians, had long held critiques over the United States Department of Education. Trump’s second term and promise to restructure the Department of Education was met with strong opinions across the political spectrum, shifting perspectives across media outlets. The topic was covered 89 times, with the Wall Street Journal (Center bias) covering the topic the most, at 11 total stories.

Left and Lean Left outlets typically covered stories with biased framing against the Trump administration’s blocking of federal funds for select universities, along with critiques over ICE activity on school grounds.

Center outlets provided significant coverage to Harvard’s back-and-forth with the Trump administration’s demands, with limited instances of biased coverage.

Right and Right Lean outlets often reported on stories of purported antisemitism and alleged anti-Israel cases in schools.

RELATED: Tracking Controversial Deportations and Detainments Under the Trump Administration

Unfortunate Death

Moderately Covered Topics

This topic was included to capture the outlier stories on death not captured by the other topics. Due to the death of Pope Francis, the topic gained outsized coverage in the latter half of the data collection period, an overrepresentation compared to the typical amount of coverage the topic receives by mainstream media outlets. The topic was covered 62 times, with the New York Post (Lean Right bias) covering the topic the most, at 15 total stories.

This topic did **not have notable instances of bias in coverage **by outlets across the political spectrum. A potential reason for this is due to Pope Francis’ death during the content collection period, biasing the results to include more stories on this topic than would otherwise have been covered.

RELATED: Pope Leo XIV’s Background, Opinions Spark Media Bias

Elon Musk

Moderately Covered Topics

The start of Trump’s second term set Elon Musk as a key player throughout the administration, as the previous head of DOGE, and as a former special government employee. This topic was included to determine how media bias may shape early narratives on Musk, in a rare instance where prior notions of his character may be changed due to the political climate. The topic was covered 53 times, with Newsmax (Right bias) covering the topic the most, at eight times.

Left and Lean Left outlets were often critical of Musk’s role in government, and highlighted negative stories on DOGE and Tesla earnings.

Center outlets did not cover stories on Elon Musk often. This is partially due to dedicating a significant portion of their coverage to international news topics instead.

Right and Lean Right outlets often viewed Musk’s role in DOGE favorably, while covering stories where Musk critiques others.

RELATED: Tracking Trump’s Cuts to Federal Agencies and Funding

LGBTQ+

Least Covered Topics

Concerns over the state of LGBTQ+ rights were at a heightened level in the immediate period following Trump’s second term. In order to understand how media bias affected coverage of this topic during potentially salient times, the topic was included. During the content collection period the topic was reported on 35 times, with Fox News (Right bias) covering the topic the most, at six times.

While there wasn’t sufficient data to make a general analysis of bias and coverage of the topic, a particular trend was notable:

• Outlets rated Right and Lean Right covered LGBTQ+ stories more than outlets rated Left and Lean Left

*NOTE: Further research needs to be done to make stronger and more definitive claims on this topic. *

Health and Healthcare

Least Covered Topics

This topic was primarily included due to rising concerns over healthcare quality following the second term of Trump’s administration. However, this topic was only covered 30 times, with Associated Press (Left bias) covering the topic the most, at five times.

The small amount of coverage on the topic prevents AllSides from making strong claims of bias and coverage of the topic. The most notable finding was:

• Outlets rated Left and Lean Left covered stories on healthcare more often than outlets rated Right and Lean Right

*NOTE: Further research needs to be done to make stronger and more definitive claims on this topic. *

Science

Least Covered Topics

This topic was included in the analysis to represent the more miscellaneous topics and studies that served more as entertainment than information. This topic was covered 20 times, with BBC (Center bias) covering the topic the most, at four times.

*NOTE: Further research needs to be done to make stronger and more definitive claims on this topic. *

Social Programs

Least Covered Topics

The Trump Administration’s policy agenda largely aligned with the political goals to reduce funds or eliminate several social programs in America. As such, this topic was included to measure how bias affected coverage of the fate of social programs during this administration. Throughout the content collection period, the topic was covered 17 times with the Wall Street Journal Opinion (Lean Right bias) covering the topic the most, at three stories.

*NOTE: Further research needs to be done to make stronger and more definitive claims on this topic. *

Environment

Least Covered Topics

Concerns over climate change have been a mainstay in political discourse. As such this analysis aimed to capture how media bias affected coverage of stories related to the environment, capturing 11 total stories. Vox (Left bias) covered the topic the most, at three instances.

*NOTE: Further research needs to be done to make stronger and more definitive claims on this topic. *

Race and Racism

Least Covered Topics

This topic was originally selected due to the heightened political animus along racial lines in America. Race, as a contentious topic of discussion, is a crucial factor to understand the role of media bias in creating narratives along racial lines. During the content collection period, only six stories related to this topic were recorded. However, it should be noted that racial issues may dominate headlines reliant on the news cycle. The Washington Post (Lean Left) covered the topic the most, at two total stories.

*NOTE: Further research needs to be done to make stronger and more definitive claims on this topic. *

Abortion

Least Covered Topics

The original reasoning to include abortion as a topic for analysis built on the electoral trends showcasing the importance of abortion access for voters across the nation. However, during the content collection period, only one outlet published a story on, or related to, abortion – Associated Press (Left bias) wrote, “An emboldened anti-abortion faction wants women who have abortions to face criminal charges.”

*NOTE: Further research needs to be done to make stronger and more definitive claims on this topic. *