Each week, Ad Fontes Media chooses a widely-covered trending news topic to share insight into how our analysts rank news coverage for the Media Bias Chart®. To do this, we select six articles reporting on the same story from different outlets to show how each treated the subject. Once we choose a set of articles, pods of analysts with diverse political perspectives (one right leaning, one center, and one left leaning) read each article and use Ad Fontes Media’s content analysis methodology to determine its bias and reliability. These ratings inform the articles’ placement on that week’s special Media Bias Chart.

This week, the articles were from WND (“House GOP starts review of evidence of Biden corruption”), National Review (“Scale of Alleged Biden Foreign Influence Peddling Unprecedented in History of D.C. Corruption, Impeachment Witness Testifies”), NPR (“The first impeachment inquiry hearing into Biden was six hours. Here’s what happened”), The Guardian (“Republicans struggle to provide proof of wrongdoing at Biden impeachment inquiry”), New Republic (“Republicans’ Key “Biden Corruption” Witness Torches Their Entire Claims”), and Daily Kos (“FEMA director-turned-congressman sums up GOP’s day: ‘I know a disaster when I see one’”). 

If you missed the story, here are the basics: the Republican-led House of Representatives held an impeachment inquiry to determine if President Biden benefited from his son Hunter’s business dealings, both domestic and international, using the Biden name as leverage (an impeachment inquiry is a process to produce impeachment charges, if the evidence supports them). The article set addressed the first day of the hearings, which took place as a possible government shutdown loomed. In this edition of our topic of the week blog, we’re going to look at two articles that mirrored each other on the chart: the WND piece, which sits at 19 for bias and 26 for reliability, and the Daily Kos article, which was rated -16 for bias and 27 for reliability. 

Ad Fontes Media rates WND’s overall source score in the Hyper-Partisan Right category of bias and as Unreliable, Misleading in terms of reliability. WND, formerly known as WorldNetDaily, is an independent news site dedicated to “exposing wrongdoing, corruption and abuse of power.” Founded in 1997 by Joseph Farah, the site has been accused of publishing conspiracy theories from a far-right perspective. The link above leads to the WND source page along with a sampling of recent articles and their ratings.

The headline of this article leaves little doubt as to its contents, flavoring the article with stating that Biden is corrupt and promising evidence. WND quickly gets to the heart of the Republican inquiry: “Whether it was lunches, phone calls, White House meetings, or official foreign trips, Hunter Biden cashed in by arranging access to Joe Biden, the family brand.” Our analysts called out that this piece has a strong right lean: “All quotes and social media clips are in opposition to Biden. The article is written as though Biden is already guilty, but this was only an impeachment inquiry” and it also quotes Rep. Jim Jordan as saying, “It’s a tale as old as time. A politician takes action that makes money for his family, and then he tries to conceal it.” There is no balance in this piece, much like we will see in the next one. It unabashedly presents one side of the story and mic drops, guiding readers toward the inevitable outcome of guilt.

On the other hand, Ad Fontes Media rates Daily Kos’s overall source score in the Hyper-Partisan Left category of bias and as Mixed Reliability/Opinion or Other Issues in terms of reliability. Daily Kos is a blog and internet forum for Democrats founded in 2002 by Markos Moulitsas. It publishes articles and opinions from a variety of bloggers and its registered users. Again, the link above leads to its Ad Fontes Media source page with a sampling of recent articles and their ratings.

This article paints the hearings – which by many measures fell short of uncovering the smoking gun that the Republicans were looking for – through the reaction of Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management from 2019 to 2021. After the hearings, he said, “What a day we are having here, isn’t it? I mean, listen, as a former director of emergency management, I know a disaster when I see one” and went on to say that “Donald Trump has half of the impeachments in American history. But you know what? He’s got 100% of the indictments… And that’s why we’re here. We’re here because of math. That’s what this is about. [Republicans] can’t save Donald Trump. They can’t take away the two impeachments and the four indictments. But they can try to put some numbers on the board for Joe Biden.”

This entire article is based around Moskowitz’s reaction, and it is as left leaning as the WND article is to the right, and for the same reasons. It is wholly one sided and offers no respite for the other political side. There is nothing redeeming in either article for members of the opposing party – or even of an opposing viewpoint. If you were to read just one of these sources, your mind would already be made up as to whether President Biden was guilty of profiting from his son’s business deals. 

Do either of these stories present facts with a side of analysis to let viewers carefully ruminate on and examine the story for themselves? No. They cater to audiences who don’t seem to care so much about facts as long as the other side looks foolish. 

This is why applying a level of critical thinking to what you read in the media is so important. Visit Ad Fontes Media’s website to learn more and to take a dive into our Interactive Media Bias Chart to see where your favorite news sources rank. 

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