El Pais – Bias and Credibility

These media sources have a slight to moderate liberal bias.  They often publish factual information that utilizes loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by using appeal to emotion or stereotypes) to favor liberal causes.  These sources are generally trustworthy for information but may require further investigation. See all Left-Center sources.

• Overall, we rate El Pais Left-Center biased based on story selection and editorial positions that slightly favor the left. We also rate them High for factual reporting due to proper sourcing and a clean fact-check record.

Detailed Report

Bias Rating: LEFT-CENTER
Factual Reporting: HIGH
Country: Spain
Press Freedom Rating: MOSTLY FREE
Media Type: Newspaper
Traffic/Popularity: High Traffic
MBFC Credibility Rating: HIGH CREDIBILITY

History

Launched in 1976 by Jesus de Polanco, José Ortega Spottorno, and Carlos Mendo, El Pais is a Spanish daily tabloid newspaper based in Madrid, Spain. El Pais covers all aspects of Spanish life and culture as well as national and international news and politics, entertainment, business, technology, sports, culture, and lifestyle. El Pais’ English Edition curates news stories from Spanish to English.

According to its about page, The English-language edition focuses on “a wide-ranging and in-depth insight into Spain and current affairs; and a section on all the latest trends geared towards a younger readership.” The English language editor is Simon Hunter. José Luis Gómez Mosquera is the managing director of El País and Cinco Días. Soledad Gallego-Díaz is the editor. For more on corporate directors, please see here.

Funded by / Ownership

El Pais is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate Promotora de Informaciones, S.A (PRISA). Ignacio Polanco Moreno is the honorary Chairman. The Prisa Group also owns publications such as Cinco Días (Business and Finance newspaper), AS (Spanish daily sports newspaper focused on Football), and El Huffpost (Spanish version of Huffpost). 

PRISA owns Portugal’s leading media group Media Capital which controls the TV channel TVI and several radio stations. As of 2020, according to a press release PRISA Group “has sold 30.22% of Media Capital to Pluris Investments, a company owned by Portuguese businessman Mario Ferreira.”

El Pais’s revenue is derived from Subscriptions and Advertisements.  

Analysis / Bias

The Prime minister of Spain is officially called the “President of the Government” (Presidente del Gobierno). The current Prime Minister of Spain is Pedro Sánchez, who leans center-left.

Read our profile on Spain’s media and government.

In review, El Pais publishes articles written by experts with minimally emotionally loaded language, such as “Why science should revolutionize the world of politics” and articles related to national politics “After bitter debate in Congress, Spain’s PM secures extension to state of alarm.” El Pais typically reports all sides; for example, in the above-mentioned article, they report the Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez’s (center-left) perspective, as well as the opposition parties’ perspectives, such as the conservative People’s Party (PP) leader Pablo Casado’s and The leader of the far-right Vox, Santiago Abascal’s perspective.

When it comes to sourcing, El Pais international’s coverage utilizes both news agency material as well as foreign correspondents. El Pais also has collaboration agreements with other European newspapers such as Le Figaro (Center-Right from France), Le Soir (progressive from France), Die Welt (Right-Center From Germany), Gazeta Wyborcza (Conservative-leaning from Poland). La Repubblica (Left-Center from Italy), Tages-Anzeiger (Swiss newspaper that leans Left-Center ), and Tribune de Genève (Center-Left newspaper from Switzerland).

In covering the USA, most articles are neutral when reporting news such as this “Spain warns Trump that trade hostilities could endanger greater military cooperation”. In general, El Pais reports news factually and with a slight left-leaning editorial bias as they report from multiple angles and use a wide variety of left-leaning and right-leaning sources.

Failed Fact Checks

• None in the Last 5 years.

Overall, we rate El Pais Left-Center biased based on story selection and editorial positions that slightly favor the left. We also rate them High for factual reporting due to proper sourcing and a clean fact-check record. (8/12/2016) Updated (M. Huitsing 09/16/2022)

Source: https://elpais.com/