Silicon Valley’s digital news gatekeepers have been busy interfering in the 2026 midterms since the election season began. Analysis of the Media Research Center’s Digital News Tracker data explains how.
In the lead-up to this year’s midterm elections, four of the most prominent News Apps (Apple News, Google News, Microsoft’s MSN and Yahoo News) promoted an astounding 14,348 articles from left-leaning outlets out of a total 21,096 articles from AllSides-rated outlets in their morning feeds. Collectively, they promoted leftist sources 68% of the time. Compared to the meager 1,153 articles (5%) from right-leaning outlets, the overt bias of the tech titan news aggregators ahead of the midterm elections is hard to miss.
MRC’s Findings of the Top 20 Morning Editions from Nov. 1, 2025 - Sep. 6, 2026:
- Apple News was the most biased news aggregator against the right, promoting only 65 stories (1%) from right-leaning outlets. It pushed 4,133 articles from left-leaning outlets out of 5,810 total articles, giving the left a commanding 71% share of Apple News’s coverage.
- Google News was nearly as biased toward right-leaning media as Apple News. The tech titan promoted a mere 184 articles (3%) from right-leaning media sources, and it pushed 3,665 articles (68%) from leftist outlets out of a total of 5,371 articles.
- Still overtly favoring the left, Microsoft’s MSN proved the least biased of the group. The news aggregator promoted 2,460 articles (53%) from leftist sources out of 4,614 total. It also promoted the largest share of stories from right-leaning outlets, with 574 stories (12%).
- Yahoo News promoted the highest percentage of leftist-sourced stories while also promoting the second-most stories from right-leaning media outlets. The news aggregator promoted 4,090 stories (77%) from left-leaning outlets out of 5,304 total stories, while only promoting 330 stories (6%) from right-leaning outlets.
There is clear evidence that Americans have lost confidence in the media, and the latest MRC study results underscore why. As a recent Pew Research Center survey showed, a majority of U.S. adults (57%) have expressed low confidence in journalists to act in the best interest of the public, including “40% who say they have not too much confidence and 17% who say they have none at all.”
Considering that 86% of U.S. adults say they get their news from a digital source at least sometimes, the bias imposed by tech titans and their ability to impact voters’ understanding of the issues as the midterm polls open cannot be ignored. Exacerbating the problem, three of the four major news aggregators come preloaded on digital devices—Apple News on iPhones, Google News on Android phones and Microsoft's MSN on computers. All four news aggregators collectively receive over 550 million monthly views, demonstrating the depth of the problem. Yahoo leads the pack with a little over 200 million. Microsoft’s MSN pulls about 150 million. Apple News attracts another approximately 125 million. Google News gets roughly 93 million.
The Silicon Valley Tech Titans Overwhelmingly Favor Leftist, Elitist Media Sources
The news aggregators’ bias toward leftist news outlets has become abundantly clear, as an analysis of more than 20,000 stories showed 68% of the articles promoted across Apple News, Google News, Microsoft’s MSN and Yahoo News came from left-leaning outlets, and only 5% from right-leaning outlets.
MRC has published various studies and reports exposing the left-leaning bias of the News Apps, demonstrating that their promotion of left-leaning stories has real-world consequences.
For example, the major News Apps failed to feature numerous stories of alleged fraud and corruption rocking entities and politicians on the left. MRC studies included how the News Apps censored news and information about specific politicians like Michigan Democrat Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and former Maine Senate Democrat candidate Graham Platner, as well as non-governmental organizations such as the Southern Poverty Law Center. News Apps coverage of such stories was sparse at best among the digital news gatekeepers. The news aggregators also worked overtime to protect discredited former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Anthony Fauci from criticism as government records revealed the depths of deception that he sank to during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The stories that the News Apps elected to highlight surrounding the campaigns and primaries during the midterm elections season have also been heavily biased. Stories about Republican primaries were largely sourced from left-leaning news outlets, while the news aggregators pushed negative stories about Trump-endorsed candidates that painted their wins as defeats for the opposing candidates instead.
The digital news gatekeepers have also worked overtime to push narratives closely aligned with the left while suppressing conservative or alternative views. For example, when it came to stories about Iran and immigration, the leftist framing dominated morning headlines. The digital gatekeepers smothered stories about the WNBA transgender controversy and also stories about FIFA World Cup tourists’ appreciation for the United States. In fact, when it came to celebrating America on its 250th anniversary, the tech titans instead focused on negativity, political conflict and criticism of Trump’s celebrations.
The bias of the News Apps becomes even more clear when examining just how often they feature leftist news outlets versus others. Below are the top 10 AllSides-rated national and international outlets the News Apps pushed from Nov. 1, 2025 - Sep. 6, 2026, along with the number of stories the News Apps featured from each outlet:
- Yahoo News (no fewer than 1,113) - Left-leaning
- The Associated Press (AP) (1,100) - Left
- CNN (1068) - Left-leaning
- Reuters (1,019) - Center
- The Washington Post (970) - Left-leaning
- Fox News (970)
- The New York Times (945) Left-leaning
- USA Today (893) - Left-leaning
- CBS News (874) - Left-leaning
- NBC News online (865) - Left-leaning
The majority of the stories from right-leaning outlets highlighted by the News Apps came from either Fox News (970) or Fox Business (62). However, UK-based The Telegraph was also picked up 61 times. Additionally, the New York Post was featured 31 times, a shocking number considering that the newspaper is one of the top 50 most-visited sites, according to Press Gazette.
Far more right-leaning media outlets were all but ignored by the news aggregators, including several that also made the Press Gazette’s most-visited sites list. Four right-leaning outlets that made the Press Gazette’s top 50 news websites list did not garner much attention from the News Apps: Newsmax (8), Daily Mail (2), Breitbart (0) and The Gateway Pundit (0). The News Apps did also include at least one article from the following AllSides-rated right-leaning outlets (but never more than five): The Bulwark (5), National Review (4), Catholic News Agency (1), Investors Business Daily (1), Pennsylvania Capital-Star (1), The Center Square (1), The Orange County Register (1), The Washington Times (1) The Western Journal (1) and Vatican News (1).
Methodology: MRC researchers examined the top 20 stories featured on Apple News, Google News, Microsoft’s MSN and Yahoo News each day in the mornings at approximately 10:00 AM ET from Nov. 1, 2025 - Jan. 11, 2026 and at approximately 8:30 AM ET from Jan. 12 - Sep. 6, 2026. MRC does not have data for Apple News on Nov. 1 - Nov. 2, 2025. 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 the News Apps and analyzed the results.
