Thousands of pages of group chats from Young Republican groups in New York and other states were published by Politico last week. The messages contained comments such as “I love Hitler,” “Everyone that votes no is going to the gas chamber” and “Stay in the closet f—-t.” Our analysts rated media coverage about the messages and the immediate fallout in our Topic of the Week.

The most fact-based and balanced coverage from our content set was published by UPI and Newsweek. The articles received identical bias and reliability scores, in the categories of “middle/balanced” and “mix of fact reporting and analysis.” Both stories lead with the news that the New York Republican Party had disbanded the NY Young Republicans chapter in response to the messages. The articles provide the facts about the group chats and include reactions from both Republican and Democratic leaders equally.

ABC’s “The View” covers the story by focusing on the response from Vice President J.D. Vance. The hosts condemn the group chats and the reaction from Vance, who said that “kids” shouldn’t have their lives ruined because they made some bad comments. The hosts discuss the language in the messages and condemn those who make light of it, criticizing President Trump and Vance and concluding that these types of messages are typical from “the right.” Analysts rated the video as “opinion” with a “skews left” bias.

Scoring slightly lower was an article from The Nation, which also focuses on the reaction from Vice President Vance. The headline reads: “JD Vance Thinks That Tomorrow Belongs to Hitler-Loving Young Republicans. In a post-shame era, racist slurs and Nazism can be shrugged off.” But the article also rebukes Trump, stating that “his utter lack of shame” is what has reshaped the Republican Party. The article accuses Trump and Vance of being “paternal and protective” of these Young Republicans because they know they’re the future of the party. Analysts rated the article as “opinion” with a “strong left” bias.

The Gateway Pundit also leads with Vance’s reaction, stating that he is “lashing out, with good reason.” The article’s author, Jim Hoft, the founder of The Gateway Pundit, blames Democrats for “leading the charge to annihilate young Republicans for off-color ‘jokes’ in private group chats” while ignoring comments by Virginia Democratic attorney general candidate Jay Jones, who “fantasized about murdering Republican lawmakers and their children.” Hoft declares that “the media works for the Democrat Party” because it has downplayed Jones’ comments while featuring the messages from the Young Republicans. Analysts found the reporting to be “selective or incomplete” with a “hyper-partisan right” bias.

The lowest-rated coverage from our content set this week came in a video from the Mark Dice YouTube channel. The host starts by saying the media is trying to “hype up” the “artificial outrage” story in order to “demonize us normal people.” He scoffs at Democrats’ reaction to the messages and calls Republicans who denounce them as “weak” and “cowardly.” Dice downplays the language in the messages, calling it “edgy humor among friends,” and calls the person who leaked the messages a “traitor” and “vile.” Analysts noted several instances of name calling and insults in the video and rated it as “selective or incomplete” with a “most-extreme right” bias.

New Topics of the Week (an Advanced topic and a Starter topic) are posted on the website each Monday. Read and watch the articles and videos yourself and think about where you would place them on the Media Bias Chart®. Then compare your results with our analyst scores, which are published each Wednesday. Learn more here.