A new analysis by the conservative Media Research Center (MRC) claims that some of the most heavily promoted news outlets on Apple News and Google News have overwhelmingly backed Democratic presidential candidates in their editorial endorsements over the past four decades.
The study argues that the pattern raises questions about the political diversity of news sources promoted by major digital news aggregators.
MRC: Top-promoted outlets backed Democrats in every election
According to the MRC analysis, the five most-promoted outlets on Apple News and Google News that have a history of presidential endorsements collectively gave 31 endorsements to Democratic candidates and none to Republicans across the 10 presidential elections from 1988 through 2024.
For Apple News, MRC identified 28 Democratic endorsements and zero Republican endorsements. USA Today was counted separately because it broke from its traditional non-endorsement policy in 2016 to issue an editorial warning against Donald Trump rather than endorse a Democratic candidate.
For Google News, the outlets recorded 27 Democratic endorsements and zero Republican endorsements, with USA Today again issuing an anti-Trump editorial rather than a formal Democratic endorsement.
The MRC describes the findings as evidence of a political imbalance among the news organizations most prominently featured by the platforms.
Which outlets did MRC examine?
For Apple News, the five most-promoted outlets with presidential endorsement histories were identified as:
The Washington Post
The New York Times, including The Athletic
The Guardian
USA Today
The Los Angeles Times
For Google News, MRC identified:
The New York Times
The Guardian
The Washington Post
USA Today
The Atlantic
The organizations have endorsed Democratic candidates in every presidential election covered by the study, according to MRC.
Those endorsements included Michael Dukakis in 1988, Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996, Al Gore in 2000, John Kerry in 2004, Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, Hillary Clinton in 2016, Joe Biden in 2020 and Kamala Harris in 2024.
MRC points to sharply worded Trump endorsements
The report also examined the language used by several publications when endorsing candidates.
MRC highlighted USA Today’s 2016 editorial opposing Trump, in which the newspaper said he lacked the “temperament, knowledge, steadiness and honesty” required of a president.
The New York Times’ 2024 endorsement of Kamala Harris similarly praised her as a “dedicated public servant” with “care” and “competence,” while describing Trump as “morally unfit” and “temperamentally unfit.”
The Washington Post’s 2020 endorsement backed Biden as “exceptionally well-qualified” and “deeply empathetic,” while describing Trump as “the worst president of modern times,” according to the MRC report.
The MRC argues that such language illustrates what it sees as a recurring contrast between favourable descriptions of Democratic candidates and highly critical portrayals of Republicans.
Long-term pattern highlighted
The analysis goes back to 1988, when The New York Times described Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis as a “disciplined and serious man” with “decent instincts.”
In 1992, The Washington Post called Bill Clinton the “only candidate” capable of reenergising the country and said then-President George H.W. Bush had “failed” the test of the presidency.
The Post endorsed Clinton again in 1996, despite describing his administration as “disappointing” and “deficient.”
The analysis says the pattern continued through the 2000s, with publications praising Barack Obama’s intelligence and judgment while sharply criticising Republican candidates John McCain and Mitt Romney.
MSN also shows a Democratic tilt, MRC says
The MRC analysis also examined Microsoft’s MSN, another major news aggregation platform.
Among the five most-promoted MSN outlets with presidential endorsement histories were USA Today, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone and the San Francisco Chronicle.
MRC found that these outlets issued 27 presidential endorsements since 1988, of which 25 went to Democrats and two to Republicans.
Both Republican endorsements came from the San Francisco Chronicle and were for George H.W. Bush, in 1988 and 1992.
Since then, according to MRC, the newspaper has endorsed Democratic candidates in every presidential election.
What the MRC methodology looked at
The analysis used the MRC’s Digital News Tracker to examine the top 20 stories promoted by Google News and MSN during specified periods between November 2025 and July 2026.
Researchers also examined the top 20 stories promoted by Apple News from November 2025 through July 2026.
They then identified the most-promoted outlets that had editorial boards with presidential endorsement histories and researched their endorsements over the 10 elections from 1988 through 2024.
The MRC said it used historical newspaper databases, the Wayback Machine, Newspapers.com and other open-source databases to establish the endorsement records.
What the findings do—and do not—show
The study documents the presidential endorsement histories of outlets promoted by the three aggregators. It does not, by itself, establish that Apple News, Google News or MSN intentionally promote those outlets because of their political positions.
Likewise, a newspaper’s presidential endorsement does not necessarily mean that every news story it publishes reflects the editorial board’s political views.
Still, the MRC argues that the concentration of outlets with Democratic endorsement histories is significant because news aggregators can influence which stories and publishers receive visibility among millions of users.
