❓WHAT HAPPENED: Apple News featured more left-leaning stories than any other major news app in March, according to a study by MRC.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Apple News, MRC Free Speech America, and major outlets categorized by AllSides media bias ratings.
📍WHEN & WHERE: March 2026, Apple News platform.
💬KEY QUOTE: “Apple News just took the crown from Yahoo as the most radical news app, even after the FTC delivered an official warning to the company.” – Dan Schneider, Vice President of MRC Free Speech America
🎯IMPACT: Apple’s bias raises concerns as it comes preinstalled on millions of devices, influencing a vast audience by default.
Research by MRC Free Speech America shows that Apple News promoted more stories from left-leaning outlets than any other top news app during March 2026. Throughout March, Apple News featured stories from left-leaning outlets in 434 of the 592 articles that appeared in the top 20 positions of its morning editions. This is higher than Yahoo News (400 left-leaning stories), Google News (382), and Microsoft’s MSN (226).
The study uses AllSides media bias ratings to classify the political slant of the outlets. Notably, Apple News gave very little space to right-leaning outlets, running just five such articles in March—down from an already low eight the previous month. By comparison, Yahoo News carried 70 right-leaning pieces, MSN ran 58, and Google News featured 12.
Dan Schneider, Vice President of MRC Free Speech America, said the results were striking: “Apple News just took the crown from Yahoo as the most radical news app, even after the FTC delivered an official warning to the company. I think Tim Cook is sending a clear message to President Trump and to Chairman Ferguson: Apple is far more interested in pushing radicalism than in providing Americans with balanced news.”
The app heavily favored outlets such as The Guardian, Vox, The Atlantic, and The New York Times for its lead stories. Michael Morris, Director of MRC Free Speech America, commented: “Apple News did more than just double down on its leftist bias in March. The app’s poor showing in February, promoting only 2% right-leaning outlets, versus a reduction to less than 1% from right-leaning outlets in March, highlights Apple’s blatant ideological bias. Despite FTC scrutiny and MRC’s exposure, it’s the worst among the Big Four News Apps. Americans deserve a fairer news distributor.”
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