These sources have minimal bias and use very few loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by using appeal to emotion or stereotypes).  The reporting is factual and usually sourced.  These are the most credible media sources. See all Least Biased sources.

• Overall, we rate Vote Smart Least Biased based on search engine content that is consistent regardless of the political party. We also rate them High for factual reporting due to proper sourcing and a clean fact check record.

Detailed Report

Factual Reporting: HIGH
Country: USA
World Press Freedom Rank: USA 45/180

History

Vote Smart, formerly called Project Vote Smart (PVS), is a non-profit, non-partisan research organization that collects and distributes information on candidates for public office in the United States. It covers candidates and elected officials in six basic areas: background information, issue positions (via the Political Courage Test), voting records, campaign finances, interest group ratings, and speeches, and public statements. According to their mission statement “Vote Smart’s mission is to provide free, factual, unbiased information on candidates and elected officials to ALL Americans.”

Read our profile on United States government and media.

Funded by / Ownership

Vote Smart is a nonprofit organization that is funded through donations. They claim they do not accept contributions from corporations, labor unions, political parties, or other organizations that lobby, support, or oppose candidates or issues.

Analysis / Bias

In review, essentially this website is a search engine to look up politician’s bios, votes, positions, ratings, speeches, and funding. For example, we searched a random politician such as Ted Budd, a Republican from North Carolina. The website produced accurate results for each category without bias. We tried the Democratic Politician Cory Booker and received the same accurate results. While the website does not produce original fact checks they do partner with FactCheck.org, PolitiFact and the Washington Post to expose the most egregious falsehoods. In general, this is a highly factual website that displays minimal bias.

Failed Fact Checks

• None in the Last 5 years

Overall, we rate Vote Smart Least Biased based on search engine content that is consistent regardless of the political party. We also rate them High for factual reporting due to proper sourcing and a clean fact check record. (D. Van Zandt 7/22/2016) Updated (5/23/2020)

Source: https://justfacts.votesmart.org/