Daily Source Bias Check: CounterPunch

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 reporting of information that may damage liberal causes. Some sources in this category may be untrustworthy. See all Left Bias sources.

• Overall, we rate CounterPunch Left Biased based on story selection and editorial positions that favor the progressive left. We also rate them Mixed for factual reporting due to the use and endorsement of poor sources.

Detailed Report

Factual Reporting: MIXED
Country: USA
World Press Freedom Rank: USA 48/180

History

Founded in 1994, CounterPunch is a bi-monthly magazine published in the United States that covers politics in a manner its editors describe as “muckraking with a radical attitude”. It has been described as left-wing by both supporters and detractors. The current editors are Jeffrey St. Clair and Joshua Frank.

During the 2016 presidential election, CounterPunch published the writings of Alice Donovan who purported to be a freelance writer but was in fact a pseudonymous employee of the Russian government. Following this, CounterPunch wrote a follow-up article in which “St. Clair and Frank exposed a network of alleged trolls that operated a site called Inside Syria Media Center promoting a pro-Bashar al-Assad and pro-Russian view of the Syrian Civil War. St. Clair and Frank speculated that the website was connected to the same network of trolls as Alice Donovan.”

CounterPunch has also been accused of Antisemitism, which stemmed from an interview with Roger Waters.

Funded by / Ownership

CounterPunch is owned by The Institute for the Advancement of Journalistic Clarity who’s “mission is to help readers make informed and balanced assessments – vital for a healthy democratic society – on the public issues of the day. It does this by providing credible reporting and commentary in its magazine CounterPunch, on its website (www.counterpunch.org) and by publishing non-fiction books.” CounterPunch generates revenue through book sales, donations, grants and advertising.

Analysis / Bias

In review, CounterPunch presents news and opinions with a strong progressive left bias in story selection. Most stories favor the left and use loaded language such as these: The Blob Fought the Squad, and the Squad Won and The Immoral Silence to the Destructive Xenophobia of “Just Leave”. This latter piece does not indicate it is an opinion article and provides zero hyperlinked sources to vet those opinions. CounterPunch also regularly praises and highlights Julian Assange of Wikileaks, who outright lied and created the Seth Rich conspiracy theory. When it comes to politics, CounterPunch favors Democratic Socialism such as this: Bernie Sanders, Anti-Imperialism and Venezuela. The general editorial position of CounterPunch is Left.

A factual search reveals they have not failed a fact check, however as a source that utilizes Wikileaks as a reference, we must list them as Mixed for factual reporting due to Julian Assange directly lying on the Wikileaks website.

Overall, we rate CounterPunch Left Biased based on story selection and editorial positions that favor the progressive left. We also rate them Mixed for factual reporting due to the use and endorsement of poor sources. (5/13/2016) Updated (D. Van Zandt 7/19/2019)

Source: https://www.counterpunch.org