The news organizations receiving the most prominent exposure on Apple News and Google News have collectively endorsed Democratic presidential candidates 31 times since 1988 without backing a Republican even once, according to a new study raising fresh allegations of political bias in the way major technology platforms distribute news.
The analysis was conducted by the Media Research Center, a conservative media watchdog that has repeatedly scrutinized Big Tech news platforms. MRC found that newspapers and magazines appearing most frequently in prominent positions on Apple News and Google News have consistently favored Democratic presidential nominees in their editorial endorsements over the past 10 presidential elections.
On Apple News, the five outlets appearing most often were the New York Times, Washington Post, Guardian, Los Angeles Times and USA Today. Together, those publications endorsed Democratic presidential candidates 28 times dating back to 1988.
The New York Times editorial board accounted for 10 of those endorsements, supporting the Democratic nominee in every presidential election beginning with Michael Dukakis in 1988. The Washington Post endorsed Democrats eight times, while the Guardian did so five times, the Los Angeles Times four times and USA Today once.
A similar pattern emerged on Google News. Its five most frequently featured publications were the New York Times, Guardian, Washington Post, USA Today and the Atlantic. Combined, those organizations issued 27 Democratic presidential endorsements. The Atlantic accounted for three of them beginning in 2016.
When MRC combined the endorsement histories of the leading publications across Apple News and Google News without double-counting overlapping outlets, researchers arrived at a 31-0 record favoring Democratic presidential nominees.
“Big Tech executives insist their news platforms serve as objective public squares, but our findings lay bare the massive corporate tilt driving these algorithms,” MRC President David Bozell said in a statement. “Apple and Google systematically funnel tens of millions of users into media sources that have backed Democrats for president 31 times without a single Republican endorsement in 40 years.
“Silicon Valley has engineered these news feeds to quietly tilt public debate, insulating voters from conservative reporting while treating partisan, left-wing outlets as the nation’s default news authority.”
Microsoft’s MSN showed a somewhat less lopsided record, according to the study, although Democratic endorsements still overwhelmingly dominated among its most frequently featured publications.
MSN’s five leading outlets — the Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone and USA Today — collectively endorsed Democratic presidential candidates 25 times since 1988, compared with two endorsements for Republican nominees.
Both Republican endorsements came from the San Francisco Chronicle, which supported George H.W. Bush in his presidential campaigns in 1988 and 1992.
Google declined to provide a new response to the findings. The company has previously said it “refutes the methodology” used in MRC studies.
Apple and Microsoft representatives did not respond to requests for comment on the latest analysis.
MRC researchers compiled their findings by monitoring the 20 leading stories displayed on Google News at a designated time each morning between Nov. 1, 2025, and Jan. 12, 2026. Apple News was examined over a substantially longer period, with researchers recording its top 20 stories from Nov. 3, 2025, through July 31, 2026. MSN’s leading stories were tracked between Jan. 13 and July 31, 2026.
Researchers then determined which publications appeared most frequently in prominent positions on the three platforms and examined the presidential endorsement histories of outlets whose editorial boards had made such endorsements. Publications that did not endorse presidential candidates were left out of that portion of the analysis.
Using publicly available information, MRC compiled the endorsement records of the identified news organizations across all 10 presidential elections held between 1988 and 2024.
The findings come as major news aggregators face growing scrutiny in Washington over the enormous influence they wield in determining which articles millions of smartphone and computer users encounter.
That scrutiny has intensified since President Trump returned to office, with conservatives arguing that the algorithms and editorial systems used by technology companies can significantly influence which political viewpoints receive the greatest visibility.
In February, Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson sent Apple CEO Tim Cook a warning letter following an earlier MRC report alleging that Apple News disproportionately promoted left-leaning publications.
That report prompted concerns about whether political favoritism within a major news aggregation platform could potentially raise consumer-protection issues.
Additional research released in April produced similar concerns. AllSides, a nonpartisan organization that rates news organizations according to their political leanings, examined Google News, Apple News and other major aggregators and concluded that only a small share of their featured articles came from right-leaning publications such as The Post and Fox News.
{Matzav.com}
