On Valentine’s Day, a surprising report came out of Russia — that Vladimir Putin was endorsing Joe Biden in the upcoming presidential election. This came as a bit of a shock for many, coming from a man who has in the past been more cozy with Biden rival and former president Donald Trump. Our analyst team examined coverage of this endorsement in our Topic of the Week.

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.

Our analyst team took a closer look at several articles from various media outlets on this topic: “Putin reveals who he wants to be the next US president” from The Independent, “Why Russia’s Putin backing Biden for the US presidency is not what it seems” from the BBC, “Putin Says He Prefers Biden over Trump Because He’s ‘More Predictable’” from American Greatness, “Putin Now Says He Prefers Biden over Trump. The White House Tells Him to Stop Stirring the Pot” from People Magazine, “Putin: Of Course We Prefer Biden” from Hot Air, and “Opinion: Is Putin serious about preferring Biden? Ask Fidel Castro” from CNN. 

The bias and reliability scores for each of these articles can be found on our Topic of the Week page. This week we are taking a look at the largely left-leaning media response to Putin’s words, from People Magazine, the BBC, and the CNN website. Our analysts rated coverage from these three outlets with a slightly left bias and in the fact reporting or analysis categories of reliability.

This snippet from a Russian TV interview broke the news:

“‘For us, who’s better, Biden or Trump?’ Russian TV correspondent Pavel Zarubin asked President Putin.

“‘Biden,’ Vladimir Putin replied in a flash. ‘He’s more experienced, he’s predictable, he’s an old-style politician.’” 

This interview set off a firestorm. The right-leaning news outlets were jubilant while the left-leaning outlets set to scratching their heads. 

People Magazine (reliable, minimally biased) reported, “After Trump was asked by NBC what he thought about Putin’s remarks, he said, per Politico, ‘Well, I like that he said that. Because that means what I’m saying is right.’” 

The BBC (reliable, minimal bias) stated plainly that “These words coming from a Kremlin leader whom President Biden has labelled ‘a murderous dictator’, ‘a pure thug’, and accused of having ‘a craven lust for land and power’ …  Mr Trump has called President Putin ‘smart’ and ‘a genius’. He has even suggested he would ‘encourage’ Russia to attack any Nato member that fails to pay its bills as part of the Western military alliance.” 

It certainly seems out of character for Putin to declare for Biden. Why make such a bold move?

The BBC broke down the story further: “Imagine Vladimir Putin had said publicly that he’d prefer a Trump presidency. What a gift for the Biden campaign. Donald Trump’s political enemies would have pounced on such an endorsement and accused the former US president of colluding with the Kremlin, of having ties to Russia two years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Hardly a vote-winner for the Republicans … Only now, Team Trump can point to these Kremlin comments about Biden and use them to deflect the inevitable accusations that Mr Trump is the Kremlin’s choice.” 

World affairs columnist Frida Ghitis wrote a piece for the CNN website (reliable, skews left bias) to deconstruct this issue, noting, “Deciphering Putin and his motives is a constant challenge. The former KGB agent is known for playing all manner of mind games.” 

To highlight that point, she referenced the recent interview that former Fox newscaster Tucker Carlson had with Putin: “Putin’s psychological games were on display when he sat down with Carlson. At one point, Putin ridiculed him, grinning sarcastically as he noted that Carlson tried to join but was rejected by the CIA … Carlson looked dumbfounded, while Putin appeared delighted.” Carlson’s ties to Trump add another layer to this perplexing moment, which Ghitis sums up as, “Putin may be trying to jinx the one he wants to lose.”

This is an interesting moment in the U.S. media landscape. Normally, this blog examines two sides of a national issue from different political viewpoints; this time, we got to look at the media’s analysis of an international player who appears to be trying to meddle in foreign politics, though to what end, we cannot yet be certain. Of the story, White House spokesperson Andrew Bates simply said, “Mr. Putin should stay out of America’s elections.”

If you want a look at the larger media landscape or are curious to see how our analysts have rated your favorite sources, head over to our website and check out the resources we have available. And don’t forget to come back for another examination of our Topic of the Week.

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Sara Webb is a cybersecurity consultant and former high school librarian from Philadelphia, PA. She holds an M.S. in Informatics and an M. Ed in School Library and Information Technology, and has been a media literacy educator for over a decade. Sara started with Ad Fontes Media in July 2020 as a Media Analyst, and she currently continues in that role and as in-house Media Literacy Specialist. When not engrossed in media literacy projects, Sara can be found at the barn with her ex-racehorse Homer, or training her corgis for dog agility competitions.