EXCLUSIVE: Google News kicked off 2026 by largely shutting out right-leaning sources throughout January, continuing the censorship campaign that defined the digital gatekeeper in December.
Google News once again religiously promoted leftist outlets that created structural, headline-driven attacks against President Donald Trump and his administration.
MRC’s Findings:
- From Jan. 1–31, Google News pushed 349 stories from left‑leaning outlets, which accounted for nearly 67 percent (66.7%) of its top 20 morning editions. The tech giant promoted only 14 right-leaning sources, accounting for just under 3 percent (2.6%), while 30.7 percent was sourced from center outlets.
- Google News’s most frequently promoted left-leaning outlets were The New York Times (82 appearances), CNN (36), The Guardian (22), CBS News (21), The Washington Post (18), The Associated Press (17), NBC News (17), NPR (14), Al Jazeera (12) and CNBC (12).
- Even tabloid outlets like TMZ, BuzzFeed and People made appearances, while many right-leaning news sources did not.
- The tiny share of right-leaning coverage was limited to foreign affairs, sports, crime stories, the weather or anti-Trump commentary from the controversial outlet The Bulwark.
- Google News’s overt bias in favor of leftist outlets produced political coverage that consistently painted Trump as dangerous and destabilizing across domestic politics, international affairs and immigration.
The Data Explained: MRC reviewed the top 20 stories promoted daily on Google News in January, producing a sample of 620 stories. By utilizing AllSides to evaluate bias, MRC found that 524 stories originated from outlets that had been rated: Left = 56 (10.7%), Lean-Left = 293 (55.9%), Center = 161 (30.7%), Lean-Right = 4 (.8%), Right = 10 (1.9%).
Why It Matters: Google News is one of the “Big Four News Apps,” along with Apple News, MSN and Yahoo News, dominating the digital news landscape. Preinstalled on millions of devices, it plays a crucial role in determining which stories are seen or ignored.
As trust in traditional media declines, more Americans are turning to smartphones for news. A Pew Research Center survey from September 2025 indicates that at least 86 percent of Americans now rely on digital devices for news, underscoring a growing reliance on these platforms.
Google News Again Props Up Left-Leaning Sources
The near 67 percent–to–3 percent disparity rendered right-leaning sources virtually invisible on Google News.
January’s data shows Google News recycled many of the same left‑leaning outlets it promoted in December, doubling down on its reliance on the elitist media for top placements.
The tech giant anointed The New York Times as its most-promoted outlet, featuring it 82 times, up from 59 in December.
CNN dipped slightly to 36 from 38 but remained the second‑most promoted left‑leaning outlet.
CBS News saw a bump, rising to 21 placements in January from 16 the month before.
The Associated Press was promoted 17 times, up from 16, while Al Jazeera climbed to 12 from nine.
The Guardian, The Washington Post and NPR declined in volume but remained heavily favored, with 22, 18 and 14 placements, respectively.
ICYMI: Google News in December: Holiday Cheer for Some, Censorship for Others
By contrast, no right-leaning outlet reached double digits. Fox News received just eight placements. The Bulwark was featured twice, more than the National Review, OutKick.com, New York Post and The Telegraph, each of which appeared once during January.
The Three Percent: Trivial and Anti-Trump Stories
MRC found that when Google News featured right-leaning outlets, the stories were rarely favorable to the political right. In fact, when right-leaning sources were placed prominently in Google News, the articles were often trivial, non-political or openly critical of Trump.
Of the 14 right-leaning stories Google News featured in January, two negative stories came from the notorious anti-Trump Bulwark.
- One of the stories, headlined “Trump Is Making China Great Again,” accused Trump of alienating U.S. allies and driving them toward China.
- The other, headlined “How the Media Fails With Trump. Over and Over. (And Over.)” attacked the already left-leaning media for not being leftist, and anti-Trump, enough. It accused the media of “sane-washing” Trump’s remarks and treating his so-called “insane” comments as “ephemeral.”
Two stories were sports pieces from OutKick.com and the New York Post. One story from Fox News covered the disappearance and discovery of a missing teen in North Carolina.
Five stories dealt with foreign affairs, including Fox News covering Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro being arraigned in New York. Three stories focused on Iranian protests, with two reports from Fox News and one from National Review. The fifth piece, published by Fox News, was a column about Greenland.
One headline from The Telegraph covered the weather, while two Fox News stories highlighted Minnesota protests, and one, also from Fox News, discussed a government funding deal.
That near-erasure of impactful or consequential right-leaning sources had predictable consequences for the tone and substance of the month’s coverage.
The Predictable Narrative Result of Google News’s Imbalance
Headlines about Greenland, Iran and other major developments repeatedly clustered multiple, unrelated so-called crises around Trump, creating an impression of chaos tied directly to his presidency.
Trump’s push to acquire Greenland was framed not as a strategic dispute but as a destabilizing global threat, with Google News-promoted headlines attributing economic volatility and allied anxiety to Trump.
Examples included:
- “Trump threatens new tariffs on countries opposed to Greenland takeover as US lawmakers visit Denmark to ease tensions” by the BBC on Jan. 16.
- “World markets jolted, dollar dips as Trump vows tariffs on Europe over Greenland” by Reuters on Jan. 18.
- “Trump at Davos: Greenland threats force allies to confront global ‘rupture,’” by NBC News on Jan. 21.
- “Canada’s Prime Minister Says There Has Been a ‘Rupture’ in the World Order,” by The New York Times on Jan. 21.
The same crisis‑framing appeared in coverage of ICE operations in Minnesota. As previously reported by MRC, Google News elevated stories that portrayed ICE activity as the trigger for violence. For 15 days in January, ICE‑related headlines used sanitized language to describe the riots and omitted any mention of the alleged crimes committed by illegal aliens in the state.
Examples included:
- “ICE shooting of woman in Minneapolis sparks protests, condemnation,” by The Washington Post on Jan. 8.
- “ICE and Border Patrol shootings spark hundreds of weekend vigils and protests,” by Axios on Jan. 10.
- “Federal agents’ aggressive moves in Minneapolis and St. Paul, visualized,” by CNN on Jan. 23.
- “ICE Agents Bring Military-Grade Weapons to Minnesota Doorsteps,” by The New York Times on Jan. 28.
Google News also elevated opinion and analysis pieces as if they were straight news:
- “Trump Is the Jan. 6 President,” by The New York Times on Jan. 6.
- “Nervous Allies and Fox News: How Trump Realized He Had a Big Problem in Minneapolis,” by The New York Times on Jan. 28.
- “MAGA’s Foundational Lie,” by The Atlantic on Jan. 6.
- “ICE Now So Hated Even Their Own Agents Are Terrified,” by The Daily Beast on Jan. 13.
Methodology: During the time period Jan. 1 - Jan. 11, 2026, MRC researchers examined the top 20 AllSides-rated news stories featured on Google News each day at approximately 10:00 AM ET and the top 20 AllSides-rated news stories between Jan. 12 - Jan. 31, 2026, at approximately 8:30 AM ET. MRC researchers used the AllSides media bias ratings, which categorize an outlet as “left,” “lean left,” “center,” “lean right” or “right” to determine the overall bias presented by Google News and analyzed the results.
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