The "Big Four News Apps" -- Apple, Google, MSN, and Yahoo! -- have a nasty habit of promoting not just "news" sites, but trashy opinion bins like the Daily Beast, Salon, and Rolling Stone. MRC Free Speech America studied 100 days of GOP primaries, and these "curators" are heavily leaning on negative midterm messages.
Free Speech America Director Michael Morris, and FSA Associate Editor Luis Cornelio share their latest research. Out of at least 155 stories published about the GOP primaries and Trump-backed candidates, 124 stories (80%) were sourced from left-leaning media outlets with reliably hostile coverage, while only eight stories (5%) came from AllSides-rated right-leaning counterparts. Additionally, just 21 stories (13%) were from AllSides-rated centrist outlets.
--Google published a May 20 article from The Guardian headlined, “Trump’s allies in danger of scraping false hope from Maga victory in Kentucky primary.” This piece compared Trump to a “cult leader” and claimed that he runs the GOP like a “mob boss.”
Also: “Dems Stunningly Flip Seat in Major Humiliation for Trump,” by The Daily Beast, promoted March 13.
And: "Accused Sexual Harasser GOP Candidate Steps Down, An Apparent Neo-Nazi Takes His Place,” by Rolling Stone, promoted on March 7.
Yahoo: “Texas primary shows that MAGA loves a villain,” by Salon’s kooky Amanda Marcotte, was promoted on March 4.
In another new study, MRC researchers asked seven AI chatbots—Anthropic’s Claude, Google Gemini, Grok by xAI, Meta AI, Microsoft Copilot, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and Perplexity AI—whether children should participate in Pride Month celebrations. Grok alone challenged whether child participation in “Pride” is good for child welfare, noting that their broad inclusion “lacks justification from developmental science, biology, and child protection principles.” Meanwhile, the other AI chatbots implicitly promoted the celebration of Pride Month with the assurance that there are plenty of family-friendly “Pride” activities and that children can learn inclusivity and how to be an “ally” from such events.
Elon Musk’s Grok presented a strong case for why parents should feel these events are not family-friendly: “No, not in the form of ideological affirmation, medicalized framing, or exposure to adult sexual themes.” The chatbot added, “Parents may choose limited, age-appropriate involvement for their own children, but broad participation—especially school-led, parades with mixed adult content, or early gender identity lessons—lacks justification from developmental science, biology, and child protection principles.” Grok also cautioned that “Adult Pride has historical roots in sexual liberation,” adding that “blending with children invites premature sexualization.”
We also discussed how Yahoo News elevated Scott Pelley's firing from CBS News as its number one placement in its top 20 stories on June 3, but it chose to rely on a piece from left-leaning outlet Deadline. Yahoo’s headline for the Deadline piece was loaded “Fired Scott Pelley Decries ‘Heartbreaking’ Submission To Trump By CBS, Paramount: ‘Incompetence & Unprofessionalism In The New Management Have Wreaked Havoc.’” This badly disguised press release included Pelley’s full post-firing statement was included about how he was pressured to inject bias (like it was never there before).
Enjoy the podcast below.
