Daily Source Bias Check: Twitchy

These media sources are moderately to strongly biased toward conservative 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 conservative causes. Some sources in this category may be untrustworthy. See all Right Bias sources.

• Overall, we rate Twitchy Right Biased based on story selection that always favors the Right. We also rate them Mixed for factual reporting due to the use of Twitter sources that frequently post false information. 

Detailed Report

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

History

Twitchy is an American Twitter curation and news website founded by conservative commentator Michelle Malkin in 2012. According to their about page “Twitchy is a ground-breaking social media curation site powered by a kinetic staff of social media junkies. We mine Twitter to bring you “who said what” in U.S. & global news, sports, entertainment, media, and breaking news 24/7. If it’s news, we’re on it.”

The website lacks transparency as they do not claim to have a political orientation, despite the entirety of the content being conservative. They also do not mention that the website was founded by Michelle Malkin.

Funded by / Ownership

Twitchy is owned by Townhall Media, an affiliate of Salem Media Group. Townhall Media properties includes Townhall, RedState, Hot Air, Bearing Arms, and Townhall Finance, all of which are rated right biased. Revenue is derived from online advertising.

Analysis / Bias

In review, Twitchy does not produce original content, but rather provides conservative commentary around tweets. Headlines are often sensationalized to denigrate the left such as this: Biden campaign reminds top donors to ‘dig deep’ so Joe can keep chartering jets to run for president and warn people about climate change. This story links to a variety of Twitter users and the New York Times. The stories published on Twitchy always favor the right and routinely mock the left. When it comes to sourcing they usually cite conservative Twitter accounts such as from Breitbart or the NRA. They also source completely unknown Twitter users. The bottom line is Twitchy is only as accurate as the tweets they are sharing, which includes President Trump, who often tweets falsehoods. This is essentially a right wing propaganda website.

A factual search reveals a failed fact check.

Photographs document 17-year-old shooting victim Trayvon Martin was a muscular, 6’2″ man. – FALSE

Overall, we rate Twitchy Right Biased based on story selection that always favors the Right. We also rate them Mixed for factual reporting due to the use of Twitter sources that frequently post false information. (10/2/2016) Updated (D. Van Zandt 10/27/2019)

Source: https://twitchy.com