Be Aware of Election Mis/Disinformation
The League is a nonpartisan political organization; we endorse neither candidates nor political parties. Our mission, therefore, is to help educate the public and provide accurate information. Following are several strategies for countering mis/disinformation:
- For a quality resource on how to make decisions regarding candidates, be sure to read the League’s information on How to Judge a Candidate.
- Share accurate information with the publication of our voter guide on VOTE411.org (now also in Spanish at VOTE411.org/es).
- See Recordings/Past Events) to watch one of several recorded forums, such as Detecting Disinformation and “Pink Slime” Sites with Hannah Waltz of Pen America (November 9, 2021)
- Take a free course on Navigating Misinformation: How to identify and verify what you see on the web ⏤ this resource features course content from the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas massive open online course (MOOC), which they are making free and available to anyone interested in learning how to verify online content and responsible reporting in an age of disinformation.
- LWV Detroit takes a cue from its sister League in California, LWV of Torrence Area, offering a webpage devoted to political bias and how to identify it. Keep reading…
Below are charts to help you identify political bias in the news so you are better equipped to navigate an increasingly polarized media landscape. These charts also offer an easy way to identify different perspectives to get the full picture and think for yourself.
AllSides Media Bias Chart
The AllSides Media Bias Chart™ helps you to easily identify different perspectives so you can get the full picture and think for yourself. Knowing the political bias of media outlets allows you to consume a balanced news diet and avoid manipulation and fake news. Everyone is biased, but hidden bias misleads and divides us. The AllSides Media Bias Chart™ is based on our full and growing list of over 800 media bias ratings. These ratings inform our balanced newsfeed.
Unless otherwise noted, AllSides rates only online content, not TV, radio, or broadcast content. Our chart helps to free you from filter bubbles so you can consider multiple perspectives. Learn about the different types of media bias or view the AllSides Fact Check Bias Chart™.
The AllSides Media Bias Chart™ is more comprehensive in its methodology than any other media bias chart on the Web. While other media bias charts show you the subjective opinion of the one person who made it, our ratings are based on multipartisan scientific analysis. We use multiple methodologies to rate bias.
For more information on the AllSides Media Bias Chart, go to https://www.allsides.com/media-bias/media-bias-chart.
“All Sides” Balanced News: Right, Center and Left Points-of-View
Although unbiased news does not exist, look at a news item from different sides by checking out the “All Sides” news source. Don’t be fooled by media bias and fake news. Make up your own mind about an issue by putting aside preconceived notions and emotionalism and looking at it from different angles. Before we vote, we should do some homework by studying the important issues facing us from all sides.
The site “All Sides” claims to provide balanced news and civil discourse. Excercise your mind, by reading its articles from the right, left, and center points-of view. “All-Sides” home page: https://www.allsides.com/unbiased-balanced-news.
AllSides Fact Check Bias Chart & Ratings
The AllSides Fact Check Bias Chart™ is a companion to the AllSides Media Bias Chart™. Fact check websites like Snopes and Politifact reveal their bias in numerous ways. Often, fact-checkers will analyze information for the reader and conclude the meaning of the facts, which is subjective in nature. Other times, they’ll display bias based on what facts they choose to downplay or highlight. They also show bias based on story choice — for example, primarily fact-checking left-wing politicians or only fact-checking right-wing claims.
Why Are Some Media Outlets On The Chart Twice?
We sometimes provide separate bias ratings for a source’s news and opinion content. This is because some outlets, such as the Wall Street Journal, Fox News, and the New York Times, have a notable difference in bias between their news and opinion sections.
For example, on this chart you will see The New York Times Opinion is rated as a Left media bias, while the New York Times news is rated Lean Left. Fox News Opinion content has a Right media bias, while Fox News is Lean Right. And so on.
When rating an Opinion page, AllSides considers the outlet’s editorial board and its individual opinion page writers. The editorial board’s bias is weighted and affects the final bias rating by about 60%.
For example, the New York Times has a range of individual Opinion page writers who have a range of biases. We rate the bias of commentators individually as much as possible. Yet The New York Times Editorial Board has a clear Left media bias. We take into account both the overall biases of the individual writers and the Editorial Board to arrive at a final bias rating of Left for the New York Times opinion section.
See how we provide individual bias ratings for New York Times opinion page writers here.
Does AllSides Rate Which Outlets Are Most Factual or Accurate?
AllSides does not rate outlets based on accuracy or factual claims — this is a bias chart, not a credibility chart. It speaks to perspective only. We disagree with the idea that the more extreme an outlet is, the less credibility it has. There’s nothing wrong with having bias or an opinion, but hidden bias misleads and divides us.
INTERACTIVE Media Bias Chart by Vanessa Otero
- Use this link to view this interactive chart: Otero’s Media Bias Chart 5.0 (beta)
The chart was created by Vanessa Otero, a patent attorney, who delivered a webinar to librarians on Information Literacy. The license for using this chart in this LibGuide was granted in October 2018. Click on the chart below for an interactive and more recent version of Otero’s Media Bias Chart. On version 5.0 (beta) users can search individual newspaper titles to see where they fall on the spectrum of liberal or conservative, based on Otero’s/Ad Fontes Media’s evaluation system.