MRC Study Alleges Political Bias in Apple and Google News

The Media Research Center released an analysis claiming that Apple News and Google News exhibit a strong political imbalance in their most prominently promoted outlets. The study found that the five most-promoted outlets on each platform with a history of presidential endorsements issued 31 endorsements to Democratic candidates and zero to Republicans across ten elections from 1988 through 2024. These outlets include The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and USA Today.

An examination of Microsoft's MSN showed a similar trend, with its most-promoted outlets issuing 25 Democratic and two Republican endorsements since 1988. David Bozell, president of the MRC, argued that the findings reveal a corporate tilt in algorithms and that the platforms are presenting a left-wing aggregation of news.

Google disputed the findings, stating that the prominence of certain outlets reflects a high volume of coverage on trending topics rather than political bias, and previously described the MRC's methodology as completely flawed. Apple did not respond to requests for comment. The controversy follows a warning letter from Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson to Apple CEO Tim Cook, noting that politically based curation could raise federal consumer protection concerns if it conflicts with representations made to consumers.