CBS and Daily Mail Ratings Shift on the Media Bias Chart

Currently we have 126 WEB sources displayed on our monthly static media bias chart where we highlight a few of the thousands of news and news-like sources we have rated. All together we have over 3K sources rated and it’s just not possible to display them all. However, we can do better. All of them are at your fingertips – search our Interactive Media Bias Chart for free (up to 5 free searches a day) and see where your favorite source lands!

Each month we highlight different sources on our static TV, Web, and Podcast charts. In this month’s Web edition, there are 10 new sources making their debut. If you’re familiar with them, take a look and see what you think:

• American Family Association
• Balloon Juice
• FrontPage Mag
• Fox 10 Phoenix
• Live Science
• RealClearMarkets
• Texas Observer
• The Daily Sceptic
• UpNorthNews
• WIRED

On the move

This month two sources have moved from their positions on last month’s June Web chart (subscribers only). 

CBS News dropped three points due to accountability. Article Accountability is AFM’s process for rating content that has been corrected by the source, by other sources, or by the public. If the original piece of content contains a correction, then we will often rate the original content piece and the corrected content piece. Due to article accountability, CBS had a article rated at 7 toward the bottom of the chart because of its factual inaccuracies:

Biden signs bill ending COVID-19 national emergency (The article has since been updated but without correction or editors note)

• Three of the four paragraphs contained factual errors.  
• It’s a month before Biden plans to end the emergency, not a day before. 
• It does not end the public health emergency. 
• It does not end Title 42, but the end of the Public Health Emergency will.

CBS News’ overall score dropped 3 points from a 44.09 to a 41.22 on our chart. This is a slight shift and keeps their score in the same range of “Mix of Fact Reporting and Analysis.”

Another source, Daily Mail, dropped almost a point and a half since last month’s Web chart. Like the CBS article, a Daily Mail article was rated toward the bottom of the chart at a 7 due to article accountability. This was in addition to another article that was rated only slightly higher at 16 for being misleading. This caused its overall score to drop from 34.49 to 33.17, keeping them in the same range of “Opinion or Wide Variation in Reliability” on the chart.

You may be wondering why articles that are rated as inaccurate or misleading do not have a larger impact on CBS’ or Daily Mail’s overall scores. The effect of inaccuracies on the overall score are dependent on the size of the source samples and how many low-rated articles are within those samples. CBS News and Daily Mail are both popular news sources and have relatively few low-rated articles in comparison to their large sample sizes. Consider then, for sources whose overall ratings are located toward the bottom of the Media Bias Chart, how many inaccurate articles it must have taken for that source to land there. 

Read more about how Ad Fontes rates the news and check back next month for more updates on your favorite Web sources!

Erin Fox-Ramirez is Director of Ratings and Research for Ad Fontes Media, a PhD student in Psychology researching media and conspiracies. She has a MA in Media Psychology from Fielding Graduate University and a BS from Pennsylvania State University. Her previous work includes the DoD, the USPTO, and the RAND Corporation. A native to the Washington D.C. area, she is passionate about improving the news for all and believes strongly in the mission of Ad Fontes. She is a proud aunt, pet parent, and spends her spare time hiking, reading or kayaking in the low country.