Podcasters are Often News Influencers. You Can Search for Them on the Media Bias Chart®

Today we’re releasing the October edition of the Podcast/Audio Media Bias Chart®, which includes 43 of the 913 shows our team has fully rated. Many of the podcast logos in this image prominently feature the show’s host(s) either in the name and/or with a photo. The content covered in these podcasts are often directly linked to the hosts themselves, who are often considered to be “news influencers.”

We have identified news influencers as part of our process of rating the news for bias and reliability. Our NEW Interactive Media Bias Chart® now allows EVERYONE the ability to search all 4,900 sources our team has rated (websites, podcasts and TV/video) and filter the information by ownership, geographic location, and source and content topic.

One of the many ways to filter our data is by applying the source topic label of “news influencer.” We define news influencers as people with a large social media following and who talk about news, politics, current events, and culture.

More than 570 of the sources we’ve rated have been identified as having a host/author who is a news influencer. Most of those (422 of them) are podcasters. On the podcast chart we’re releasing today, you can find news influencers from all across the bias and reliability spectrum. Here are a few examples: Katie Miller (midrange right), Freddie Sayers (higher middle), Joe Rogan (lower right), Scott Jennings (midrange right), Thom Hartmann (lower left), Mona Charen (midrange center), and Ross Coulthart (lower center).

News influencers can determine what we know and how we understand what’s going on in the world around us. Like all sources of information, it’s important to know whether they are giving us the facts or leaving out parts of the story in order to influence our reaction to it. Are they repeating the talking points of leaders on the left or right or are they including viewpoints from all sides of the issue? Are their opinions based on proven facts or misleading or false information? 

Savvy news consumers will determine the reliability and bias of information without being swayed by the reputation of the person who is providing it. It’s the foundation of our content analysis methodology, and Ad Fontes Media is here to help you navigate through it all!

Sources in the green box have been rated by our team to provide information that is minimally biased and fact-based. Ten podcasts fall within the green box on the October edition of the Media Bias Chart® for podcasts:

• Cool Stuff Daily
• In Moscow’s Shadows
• NPR: On Point with Meghna Chakrabarti
• Political Gabfest
• Rational Security
• The Bret Baier Podcast – Common Ground
• The Dallas Morning News – Daily News Roundup
• The McCarthy Report
• The World and Everything In It
• UnHerd with Freddie Sayers Podcast

More podcasts fall within the green box, and we’ll feature those on future charts.

Ten podcasts are included on the chart this month for the first time:

• 2 Angry Men
• Andrew Schulz’s Flagrant with Akaash Singh
• Erick Erickson Show
• Hysteria with Erin Ryan and Alyssa Mastromonaco
• In Moscow’s Shadows
• NPR: On Point with Meghna Chakrabarti
• Rational Security
• The Briefing
• The Katie Miller Podcast
• UnHerd with Freddie Sayers Podcast

We’ve magnified a portion of the chart to make the logos as large as possible, but we know it can still be difficult to read the logos. You can find a list of the shows on this chart here.

If you’re interested in our ratings for a podcast not on this chart, you can search for it on our NEW Interactive Media Bias Chart®. EVERYONE can now search for data on all 4,900 web, TV/video and podcast sources we’ve rated! On the free versions of the chart you’ll have limits on how many times you can search (five searches all time on the free version, 10 searches per month if you create a free login). You can also now filter your search results by ownership, geographic location, and source or content topic.

For additional searching, you’ll need to subscribe for as little as $5 a month. Our subscriptions come with even more perks, like viewing how a source’s bias and reliability ratings have changed over time.

You can also search all sources we’ve rated on our free mobile app for Android or Apple (daily search limits apply).

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