Where’s your favorite information source stand on the political scale?
I’ve updated the following subjective chart based on information compiled from various sources and your feedback. Some sources have shifted left or right, others have been added including: ESPN, McClatchy, the Federalist, Conservative Review, Washington Monthly, Twitchy, Gateway Pundit and Conservative Treehouse.
Please note that outlets on left and right sometimes publish material that’s on the opposite side of the political spectrum, or that has no political leaning at all. The placement is based on perceived overall tone and audience. Position on the chart doesn’t necessarily imply credibility or lack thereof. Sources on far right and far left have, in many instances, produced excellent, factually correct information at times.
I have loosely placed more traditional information sources in the top half of the chart working down toward aggregators, fact-checkers, opinion sites and less news-related sources. (This posed some position challenges since most of traditional information sources are left-leaning.) I did not attempt to place individual programs or broadcasts.
Compiling such a chart is obviously difficult for many reasons, some of them having to do with space. The spacing should be considered relative and not an indicator of absolute position. A number of the information sources technically belong on top of one another.
You have contributed terrific ideas, such as sizing boxes based on audience, and dividing into quadrants. This is a work in progress. Thanks for your input!
Think a source should be moved? Want one added? Leave a comment!
For a larger view, click on the image and enlarge.
Alternate charts and opinions:
https://www.infowars.com/alternate-reality-viral-propaganda-chart-demonizes-independent-media/
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com
Preorder “The Smear: How Shady Political Operatives and Fake News Control What You See, What You Think and How You Vote.”
Relatively accurate overall. Mediaite Matters is a fair bit more to the left. As others have said so are the so called “Fact Checkers” more to the left. Reuters is maybe only marginally better than A.P, so again a bit more to the left. CNBC a tiny bit more to the center. Daily Beast more to the left. Regardless this is largely accurate and a good base line for the uninformed, especially those few that still somehow think the “mainstream media” is down the middle..
I would nudge AP over further to the left. They love to police speech.
And where is Reuters? So far left that they cannot fit on the chart? If so, bravo!
There is nothing central about CSPAN. . . it’s moderators all seem like leftists, their selecting phone calls based on party ruined the station for me more than a decade ago. The callers on
the GOP lines and those on the ‘RAT line are all ‘RATs. Geographic lines were much better.
I consider the network unwatchable except for Q&A and monthly Book Notes.
God starter,hill left,Brietbart left,where is Newsbud?
So much of what is considered “left of center” including the Clintons and the Democratic Party are at best center and I would even say rightist. Corporate hawkishness is the determining factor for me. I’d put RT, Truthout, Counterpunch, Democracy Now on the left. Mainstream media is rightist, even though they appear to be more liberal than what you have on the right. This kind of continuum as a fluid center which as it moves with time and zeitgeist shifts the definitions of right and left. Ike and Nixon would be left of center, now, and yet not at all leftist, per se.
Commentary Magazine?
Also I question how to include something like Reason, which explicitly rejects this left-right paradigm. That’s conceptually very different from “moderate.”
You need to size the icons to the number of hits. Millions are being propogandized by the WaPo, NYT, MSN, etc.
I think that’s a great idea to see what sites get most visitors. Doubt Sharyl has a research asst these days for that kind of dog work, tho!
ZeroHedge may be on the “Right” but not that far to the “Right”. More like Barrons .. just slightly right of center.
I DON’T SEE THE WASHINGTON TIMES, WASHINGTON EXAMINER, FREEBEACON & IF YOUR GOING TO INCLUDE INFOWARS YOU SHOULD THROW INTELLIHUB AS WELL!!!
NOT COUNTING THE ONES ON THE CENTERLINE I COUNTED 35 PLACES ON THE RIGHT SIDE & 62 ON THE LEFT SIDE (+/- 1). TO ME THAT MEANS SOMEBODY’S FUNDING A WHOLE LOT LEFT-WING IDEOLOGY! NO WONDER THIS COUNTRY IS AS BAD AS SHAPE AS SHE’S IN. WE KNOW GEORGE SORO’S IS FUNDING THE LEFT WITH LOTS OF CASH. SOME SAY THAT THOSE
TWO KOCH BROTHERS ARE HELPING OUT ON THE RIGHT BUT I DON’T BELIEVE AS MUCH AS PEOPLE THINK. WHAT SAY YOU???
SORRY I FORGOT SOMETHING! IF YOU WANT TO FIND OUT IF ALL OF THE WARS & REVOLUTIONS, DEPRESSIONS & LOTS OF OTHER BAD STUFF AS ALL BEEN PLANED OUT
THERE’S A BOOK CALLED “THE UNSEEN HAND”. YOU CAN CHECK IT OUT HERE.
https://www.amazon.com/Unseen-Hand-Introduction-Conspiratorial-History/dp/0961413506/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1491796369&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=A+CONSPHERERATORIAL+VIEW+OF+HISTORY%2F+RALPH+EPPERSON
Hey Jim, Is your CAPS KEY stuck? Please stop SHOUTING!
Daily Beast should change places with USNWR. The Economist conservative? Ironically the American Conservative should be nearer the middle right.
I think you can add the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Company) to the far left. Watched a Youtube of their 2016 election night. Everyone on the show looked as if their pet just died. They didn’t even try to hide it. It was pretty funny. Also as someone else mentioned, ESPN.
Are there any daily papers between either coast that deserve to be listed?
Chicago Tribune? Houston Post? They are the third and fourth most populous U.S. cities
CNBC on the left, add FOX Business (FBN) to the right
InfoWars is not “right.” They should have their own category for ‘Garbage.’
:-)!!!!
The Weekly Standard, National Review and Red State are establishment media. Not far right.
I like the idea of the second dashed line to delineate outright non-factual propaganda. I think the graphic might be better served as a quadrant matrix, i.e. left – right and then a second section below the line to indicate those bodies who actively collude with the political arms to promote stories, leak information, etc. Certainly CNN’s collusion in the 2016 elections (story vetting, debate questions, townhall setups, etc) would qualify it here.
The Hill is more to the left. WSJ is not right but rather left. Only the editorial page is right.
The Economist, as a British publication, is only “on the right” in the context of British politics. In the US, it is center-left, as it approves of all the center-left policies (nationalized health care, membership in the EU, deferral to “international organizations, etc.) that would make an American conservative puke.
The Wall Street Journal has a conservative editorial page (except for their open borders insanity), but the news division is leftist, equivalent to the Washington Post or Bloomberg.
The Intercept is far left.
Reuters is left-of-center, not in the middle. Numerous Reuters stories have been shown to be skewed over the years, again because it is based in Britain where “right” and “left” mean different things than in the US.
The Huffington Post should be middle-left, not far-left. They actually have some conservative voices, believe it or not.
Where should the Financial Times be placed in this chart?
The news side of Wall Street Journal most definitely belongs at least as far left as Bloomberg, if not further.
Telemundo should be a bit more to the left.
ESPN absolutely belongs to the extreme left.
The L.A. Times should be as far left as your graph allows.