Daily Source Bias Check: Crooks and Liars

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 Crooks and Liars strongly Left Biased based on story selection and editorial positions that almost always favor Liberal causes. We also rate them Mostly Factual in reporting due to reasonable sourcing and fact check record. However, due to the use of sensational headlines and loaded wording, as well as not strictly adhering to the consensus of science with GMO’s, we cannot rate them High for factual reporting.

Detailed Reporting

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

History

Founded in 2004 by John Amato, Crooks and Liars is a progressive news blog focusing on political events and the news coverage of them. According to their about page “Crooks and Liars is an award-winning site for progressive news and media criticism and was the first website to feature audio and video online, revolutionizing how political news is consumed and distributed on the Internet.” The current managing editor is Karoli Kuns.

Funded by / Ownership

The website is owned by John Amato and is funded through online advertising and reader donations. Crooks and Liars also collaborates with the liberal Blue America PAC.

Analysis / Bias

In review, Crooks and Liars typically publishes information favorable to the left, while denigrating the right. Headlines are usually loaded with sensational wording such as this: Fox News Host Laura Ingraham Made A Fool Of Herself Trying To Pwn The Libs. This story is sourced to video followed by opinion commentary from the author. In another loaded headline, they report negatively on President Trump with this: GOP Cancels Four Primaries; Is Trump That Weak? This story is sourced to MSNBC video, Politico and tweets. 

The website also has as section called CLTV, which publishes video clips from other sources such as MSNBC and Fox News. Regardless of which source is used, the video almost always portrays the right negatively. In the MediaBites section they typically publish a video clip from the above mentioned sources and provide a written transcript below.

When it comes to science, Crooks and Liars supports the consensus of science regarding climate change and vaccines. However, when reporting on GMO’s most articles report negatively. In general, news reporting is rooted in fact, though the use of strongly loaded language can be misleading and potentially sway the reader.

A factual search reveals they have made one factually Mixed claim.

Overall, we rate Crooks and Liars strongly Left Biased based on story selection and editorial positions that almost always favor Liberal causes. We also rate them Mostly Factual in reporting due to reasonable sourcing and fact check record. However, due to the use of sensational headlines and loaded wording, as well as not strictly adhering to the consensus of science with GMO’s, we cannot rate them High for factual reporting. (5/13/2016) Updated (D. Van Zandt 9/07/2019)

Source: https://crooksandliars.com