Daily Source Bias Check: Democratic Underground

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 Democratic Underground Left Biased based on story selection and political affiliation with the Democratic Party. We also rate them Mixed for factual reporting due to the use of poor sources and a few failed fact checks.

Detailed Report

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

History

Founded in 2001, Democratic Underground, also known as DU, is an online community for U.S. Democrats. Its membership is restricted by policy to those who are supportive of the Democratic Party and Democratic candidates for political office. According to their mission statement: “Democratic Underground is an online community where politically liberal people can do their part to effect political and social change by: Interacting with friendly, like-minded people; Sharing news and information, free from the corporate media filter; Participating in lively, thought-provoking discussions; Helping elect more Democrats to political office at all levels of American government; and Having fun!”

Funded by / Ownership

The website is owned by Democratic Underground LLC and funded through online advertising.

Analysis / Bias

In review, Democratic Underground is essentially a forum community that posts news and discussions from a liberal perspective. The website features the latest breaking news in which users publish snippets of news stories from other sources with a hyperlink to that source. For example, this story: Pence aide testified that Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine were ‘inappropriate’ provides a few paragraphs of the story and then links to the full story at the credible Politico.

News articles published in the forums are beyond the control of Democratic Underground with some coming from sources that are not credible. Again, this is not the fault of Democratic Underground, but does reveal that there may be false information published on this website. In general, the bias and level of factual content found on this website is determined by the individual posters and not Democratic Underground. 

A factual search reveals that false information has been spread on Democratic Underground.

• Paul Ryan nominated televangelist Joel Osteen as the new House Chaplain. – FALSE
• A photograph shows Bernie Sanders at a 1965 civil rights march with Martin Luther King, Jr. – FALSE
• George H.W. Bush once said: “If the people were to ever find out what we have done, we would be chased down the streets and lynched.” – FALSE

Overall, we rate Democratic Underground Left Biased based on story selection and political affiliation with the Democratic Party. We also rate them Mixed for factual reporting due to the use of poor sources and a few failed fact checks. (5/13/2016) Updated (D. Van Zandt 11/16/2019)

Source: https://www.democraticunderground.com/