Overview

Ad Fontes Media rates Mercury News in the Middle category of bias and as Reliable, Analysis/Fact Reporting in terms of reliability. Mercury News , formerly the San Jose Mercury News, is a newspaper and website covering the Bay Area near San Francisco and the Silicon Valley. Founded un 1851 as the San Jose Weekly Visitor, the publication is part of the Bay Area News Group of Digital First Media, owned in part by Alden Global Capitol. It is based in San Jose, California.

Overall Score

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

Reliability: 44.83

Bias: -3.35

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
San Jose: Two more charged with murder in baby fentanyl death	0	45
Los Gatos: ‘Mr. Flip It’ headed to the big house after grand theft conviction	0	43
Arrest made in spate of Central Valley taqueria vandalisms	0	41.67
Tesla issues fourth recall in two weeks, the 11th in less than four months	-6	39.67
Mega-rare turtle dove in Palo Alto has birders flocking from far and wide	0	45
Editorial: On the death penalty, Gov. Newsom should go back to voters rather than dissing them	-8	34
South Bay executives vow to fight H-1B visa fraud charges	-1.33	46.33
Santa Clara County expands mobile mental health unit in West Valley	0	45.67
Homeless encampment grows on Apple property in Silicon Valley	0	44.67
Daylight saving time: When will twilight begin and end now?	0	47.33
I’m high-risk for COVID-19 and eligible for a vaccine starting Monday. What do I need to know?	0	50.67
When the COVID crisis hit, the Bay Area failed Latino residents. Here’s why	0	50.67
COVID: Here’s why fewer in the Bay Area qualify for stimulus payments	-6.33	47.67
Exclusive: Two worrisome coronavirus variants found in Bay Area	0	45.33
Warriors’ Klay Thompson feared to have torn Achilles tendon	0.67	37.67
35+ Bay Area restaurants that did not survive the coronavirus pandemic	1	44.67
Melania Trump’s not likely to dump Trump: ‘They deserve each other,’ Michael Cohen says in new report	-3.67	25
Operator of popular Bay Area pumpkin patch sells off more property	-0.33	41.33
Gov. Newsom’s French Laundry dinner raises question of what counts as outdoor dining	1.1	47.5
Trump calls off stimulus talks until after election; markets drop	-5	48.33
San Mateo County added to coronavirus county monitoring list as state continues deadliest stretch in pandemic	-1.67	52.5
Coronavirus: California breaks single-day death record, with fatalities all over the state	-1.33	52.83
San Jose tech firm to pay back wages after firing workers who sought coronavirus sick leave	-2.67	55.33
As coronavirus unemployment ends, sidelined Bay Area workers ask: What now?	-9.33	38
Coronavirus: Tech, biotech layoffs surface in Bay Area	0	51