LEFT BIAS
These media sources are moderately to strongly biased toward liberal causes through story selection and/or political affiliation. They may utilize strong loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by using appeal to emotion or stereotypes), publish misleading reports, and omit information reporting that may damage liberal causes. Some sources in this category may be untrustworthy.
Overall, we rate MSNBC Left Biased based on story selection that consistently favors the establishment left. We also rate them Mixed for factual reporting due to news hosts and the website producing 3 pants on fire claims. ...
...Analysis / Bias
In review, MSNBC uses strong emotionally loaded headlines such as this “GOP senator says he’s ‘concerned’ Trump was ‘involved in a crime” and “Cohen gets 3 years in jail for covering up Trump’s ‘dirty deeds’”. Generally, story selection favors the Left; however, they are also occasionally criticized by left-leaning organizations. For example, according to Fair.org, MSNBC did not dedicate much airtime to the West Virginia Teachers Strike until the fair.org article was published. Further, Salon published an article criticizing MSNBC for employing the “Republican Never Trump” type of conservatives.
According to the article, they are “Loading up on semi-repentant conservatives and ignoring the activist left, MSNBC is doing the nation a disservice.” In other words, MSNBC is so focused on negative coverage of Donald Trump that they are ignoring the progressive left and actually moving right. However, as a whole, according to Pew Research Center, MSNBC is favored by a liberal audience, which indicates content and story selection tends to lean left to appeal to their core viewers. Further, MSNBC frequently reports negatively on progressive candidates. Lastly, in a 2018 survey conducted by the Knight Foundation/Gallup, they found that the public rates MSNBC the 3rd most biased media source (left) behind Fox News and Breitbart (right).
When reporting news, MSNBC mainly provides video clips from reporters in the field. Text-based news comes directly from the Left-Center NBC News website. When reporting straight news stories, MSNBC is highly factual and well-sourced. They use NBC News as their primary source; however, due to some of the guest political pundits spreading misinformation on their daily programs, we cannot rate MSNBC High for factual reporting on the whole. ...
...Failed Fact Checks
Says Walmart is “one of the largest sellers of assault-style weapons.” – False
Says Charlie Crist’s campaign bashed Sen. Bill Nelson’s “big-government solutions.” – False
Says President Donald Trump is “talking about exterminating Latinos.” – Pants on Fire
“Bloomberg spent $500 million on ads. The U.S. population is 327 million. He could have given each American $1 million and still have money left over.” – Pants on
Fire
Joy Reid claimed the pharmaceutical companies Moderna and Pfizer “were not involved with Operation Warp Speed.” – False
“The Rachel Maddow Show,” MSNBC and the show claimed achieving herd immunity would kill roughly 6.4 million Americans. – False
“While he was president, President Trump never encouraged Americans to get vaccinated.” – False
...Overall, we rate MSNBC Left Biased based on story selection that consistently favors the establishment left. We also rate them Mixed for factual reporting due to news hosts and the website producing 3 pants on fire claims. (5/13/2016) Updated (M. Huitsing 03/23/2022)