The GOP-led Indiana state legislature recently voted against a new redistricting map that was expected to result in two new red-leaning districts. President Trump had pushed for the change as part of a nationwide redistricting campaign prior to the 2026 midterm elections. Our analysts rated media coverage about the vote and Trump’s reaction to it in our Topic of the Week.

USA Today provided the most balanced and factful reporting from our content set. The article details the vote, Trump’s comments following it, and the pressure Republican lawmakers felt leading up to the vote, including death threats. Analysts found the reporting to be “a mix of fact reporting and analysis” with a “balanced” bias.

An article from Blaze Media received similar scores of “middle”  bias and “mix of fact reporting and analysis.” This is notable, because although rated articles from this website range from the top middle to the bottom right portion of the Media Bias Chart®, a weighted average of the content has put Blaze Media in the “opinion” category of the chart, with a “strong right” bias. Not so with this article, which focuses on reaction from the White House after the vote and includes many comments from GOP legislators from Indiana who voted against the redistricting measure.

This article doesn’t have a clearly right-leaning bias that one could attribute to the political positions of the quoted politicians. This is not uncommon with articles that highlight intra-party disagreements. In this particular case, a lot of center and left-leaning folks would agree with the positions taken by the Republican legislators who voted against the measure, but does that make their position center or left-leaning? Not necessarily. Further, in this article, the author himself does not insert any overtly biased interpretations or characterizations; this article is reported just about as straightforwardly as possible. For these reasons, the article received a bias score close to zero.

A video from the Chris Cillizza YouTube channel scored slightly lower for reliability, in the “analysis” category, but still within the “balanced” category of bias. The host expresses surprise that the redistricting effort failed because “Donald Trump over and over again has been able through intimidation and threats to get what he wants out of the … Republican parties around the country.” Because these GOP Indiana lawmakers knew what Trump wanted and voted against his wishes, Cillizza says, this is “an important moment.”

An MS NOW (formerly MSNBC) article written by Steve Benen, producer of “The Rachel Maddow Show,” was the only content rated as “opinion” by our team. The theme of the article is evident in its headline: “Trump pretends his power-grab flop in Indiana wasn’t humiliating (but it was).” The subhead calls the failed vote “one of the most brutal failures of the president’s second term.” The article describes Trump’s “threats” and “rants” toward Republicans who did not support his redistricting efforts, stating that the “severity of the presidential arm-twisting over the course of several months was extraordinary” even though Trump is now downplaying it. Because of the language criticizing Trump, the article was placed in the “strong left” category of bias.

In a video from the Dollemore Daily YouTube channel, the host lobs a lot of insults, calling Trump’s push for redistricting “fascist” and his supporters at the Heritage Foundation “little loyal Nazi soldiers.” He says Trump is a “weakling” who “can’t let go of the fact of how he was treated by his parents as a child.” The video details the pressure by Trump to pass the redistricting plan and scoffs at Indiana lawmakers who supported it. And Dollemore mocks others who continue to support Trump, speculating that Speaker of the House Mike Johnson believes Trump “is a great and mighty man with a one-foot penis that I love.” Analysts noted the frequent insults and vilification of Trump and his supporters, and rated the video as “unfair persuasion” with a “hyper-partisan left” bias.

The lowest-rated content from our set was this article published by The American Tribune. The article includes a summary of the redistricting vote and comments from both Democrats and Republicans in reaction to it. Analysts noted that the text of the article did not match the tone of its headline: “Red State RINOs Betray Trump, Fail To Help Republicans Add Seats To Win In 2026.” In addition, analysts found that the reporting was very likely AI-generated, pulling text from this article published by The Hill and rewording it. The author of the piece appears to be fictional. Because of undisclosed use of AI in the reporting and the bias detected in the headline, analysts placed this article in the “contains misleading info” category of reliability and the “skews right” category of bias.

This is our final Topic of the Week for 2025. Check the website for new topics beginning the week of Jan. 5, 2026.