Overview

Ad Fontes Media rates The Intercept in the Strong Left category of bias and as Generally Reliable/Analysis OR Other Issues in terms of reliability. The Intercept is an online news source owned by First Look Media, funded by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. It also is funded by memberships. Its motto is to hold “the powerful accountable through fearless, adversarial journalism.” The Intercept was launched in February 2014 and shortly after published the leaked National Security Agency documents from Edward Snowden.

Overall Score

The following are the overall bias and reliability scores for The Intercept according to our Ad Fontes Media ratings methodology.

Reliability: 37.46

Bias: -14.10

Panels of analysts from Ad Fontes Media regularly review representative sample content to rate it for reliability and bias. Each panel of analysts comprises one left-leaning, one right-leaning, and one center-leaning analyst.

The team considers a variety of factors when rating content. To determine its reliability score, we consider the content’s veracity, expression, its title/headline, and graphics. We add each of these scores to the chart on a weighted scale, with the average of those creating the sample content’s overall reliability score.

To determine sample content’s bias score, we consider its language, its political position, and how it compares to other reporting or analysis from other sources on the same topic. We add each of these scores to the chart on a weighted scale, with the average of those creating the content’s overall bias score.

The bias rating, demonstrated on the Media Bias Chart^®️ on the horizontal axis, ranges from most extreme left to middle to most extreme right. The reliability rating, demonstrated on the chart’s vertical axis, rates sources on a scale from original fact reporting to analysis, opinion, propaganda and inaccurate/fabricated information.

Reliability scores for articles and shows are on a scale of 0-64. Scores above 40 are generally good; scores below 24 are generally problematic. Scores between 24-40 indicate a range of possibilities, with some sources falling there because they are heavy in opinion and analysis, and some because they have a high variation in reliability between articles.

Bias scores for articles and shows are on a scale of -42 to +42, with higher negative scores being more left, higher positive scores being more right, and scores closer to zero being minimally biased, equally balanced, or exhibiting a centrist bias.

Individual Content Sample Scores

These are the most recent content samples that Ad Fontes Media analysts have rated for this source.

Content Sample URL	Bias	Reliability
Leading News Outlets Are Doing the Fossil Fuel Industry’s Greenwashing	-15.33	51.67
The Story Behind the New York Times October 7 Exposé	-9.33	42.33
Columbia Law Review Remains Offline After Students Reject Disclaimer Undermining Palestine Article	-15.67	47.33
600,000 Palestinian Kids in Rafah Can’t “Evacuate” Safely, UNICEF Official Says	-14	39
Israel’s Ruthless Propaganda Campaign to Dehumanize Palestinians	-24	22.33
Leaked NYT Gaza Memo Tells Journalists to Avoid Words “Genocide,” “Ethnic Cleansing,” and “Occupied Territory”	-2.67	40.67
NBC Rejects Trump Voice but Embraces War Party	-20.67	33
CNN Runs Gaza Coverage Past Jerusalem Team Operating Under Shadow of IDF Censor	0	39.33
CNN and the IDF Censor	-7.33	39.33
This Is Not a War Against Hamas	-25.33	13.67
Blowback: How Israel Went From Helping Create Hamas to Bombing It	-11.33	37
Vulnerabilities in Cellphone Roaming Let Spies and Criminals Track You Across the Globe	0	45
Secret Pakistan Cable Documents U.S. Pressure to Remove Imran Khan	-2	48.33
AI Tries (and Fails) to Detect Weapons in Schools	-7.33	52
Christopher Miller, Trump’s Defense Secretary, Fights for Reputation	-12	43.33
The U.S. Is Unhappy That Mexico Is Spending Money on Its Own Citizens	-8	37.33
Obituaries for Nuremberg Prosecutor Erase His Beliefs About the U.S.	-6.67	37.67
Elon Musk Wants to Cut Your Social Security Because He Doesn’t Understand Math	-20.33	32.33
Behind Keith Ellison’s Tough-on-Crime Turn	-13	40.67
Hundreds Turn Out to Denounce Texas Republicans’ “Vigilante Death Squads Policy”	-7.33	38
Why Did Journalists Help the Justice Department Identify a Leaker?	2.33	35
Leaked Pentagon Document Shows How Ukraine War Is Bleeding Into Middle East	0	41.67
10 Years After My Cancer Diagnosis, the Right Is Still Trying to Kill Me	-16.33	32.33
Marianne Williamson, Fusing Bernie Sanders and (Early) Jordan Peterson, Is Taking Over TikTok	-11.67	38.33
Exactly Why and How Republicans Hate Ilhan Omar	-20.83	24.5