About

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About Media Bias / Fact Check

Founded in 2015, Media Bias/Fact Check (MBFC) is an independent media-rating organization that promotes awareness of media bias and misinformation by evaluating the political bias, factual reporting, and credibility of media sources, large and small.

MBFC’s ratings are produced through human research and editorial review. Evaluators examine a source’s published content, sourcing practices, failed fact checks, ownership, funding, editorial positions, and other relevant evidence using MBFC’s publicly stated methodology. The process combines measurable criteria with structured editorial judgment because media bias cannot be determined through automated analysis alone.

Dave Van Zandt is MBFC’s founder and primary editor. He is assisted by named researchers, volunteers, and paid contractors who research and review many of the sources listed on the website. Research findings are evaluated under the same methodology, with final editorial decisions made by the primary editor to promote consistency across more than 11,000 source ratings.

MBFC also publishes occasional original fact checks and articles about media bias and curates fact checks from established fact-checking organizations worldwide.

Mission

The mission of MBFC is to educate the public on media bias and deceptive news practices. We inspire action and a rejection of overtly biased media resulting in a return to an era of straightforward fact-based news reporting. Our purpose is to give people the resources and tools needed to understand the bias and credibility of the sources they consume.

The AI Era (Not at MBFC)

The AI era is here, and automated content is increasingly common across the media landscape. However, MBFC does not use artificial intelligence to research sources, select evidence, calculate scores, determine bias, assign factual-reporting ratings, or make credibility decisions.

Every MBFC source rating is based on human research and human editorial judgment. We believe that evaluating bias requires an understanding of context, framing, omission, loaded language, story selection, and editorial intent that automated systems cannot consistently interpret on their own.

MBFC may use writing-assistance tools such as Grammarly or ChatGPT for limited copyediting, including grammar, clarity, and readability. These tools do not determine our findings, ratings, analysis, or conclusions, and all published material is reviewed and approved by a human editor.

Claims that MBFC’s ratings are AI-generated or algorithmically assigned are incorrect.

Funding

Media Bias/Fact Check funding comes from reader donations, third-party advertising, and membership subscriptions. We use third-party advertising to prevent influence and bias, as we do not select the ads you see displayed. Ads are generated based on your search history, cookies, and the current web page content you are viewing. We receive $0 from corporations, foundations, organizations, wealthy investors, or advocacy groups. See details on funding.

Credibility

The credibility of a media-rating organization should be judged by the transparency of its methodology, the evidence presented in its reports, the consistency of its evaluations, and its long-term record—not solely by the credentials or identity of its owner.

MBFC does not claim that media-bias analysis is perfectly objective or that its ratings constitute unquestionable scientific ground truth. Bias evaluation necessarily includes structured human judgment. For this reason, MBFC publishes its methodology, explains the reasoning behind individual source ratings, identifies its research team, discloses its ownership and funding, and provides a process through which readers and publishers can challenge ratings or submit additional evidence.

Over the last 11 years, MBFC has become a widely used resource for evaluating media bias and source credibility. MBFC has been referenced by major media outlets and fact-checking organizations, including USA Today, Reuters Fact Check, Science Feedback, The Washington Post, and NPR, among many others. It is also used as a resource by libraries, high schools, colleges, universities, researchers, technology companies, and members of the public.

Media Bias/Fact Check has also been used as a resource for research by the University of Michigan and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Further, we have been utilized by numerous print books such as these:

• The Rise of the Alt-Right
• Fake News, Propaganda, and Plain Old Lies: Find Trustworthy Information in the Digital Age
• Raising Humans in a Digital World
• Everyday Media Literacy An Analog Guide for Your Digital Life
• Hate Groups and Extremist Organizations in America: An Encyclopedia

A 2026 academic citation study identified Media Bias/Fact Check in 372 scholarly papers, including 263 papers focused on misinformation research. Google Scholar also returns more than 1,600 results for “Media Bias/Fact Check,” demonstrating MBFC’s broad use and recognition across academic research. Researchers should nevertheless describe MBFC accurately: it is a human-driven media-rating and analysis organization, not a conventional fact-checking organization or peer-reviewed journal. Its ratings should be used with an understanding of the published methodology, scope, and limitations. As with any media-rating dataset, researchers are responsible for understanding the methodology, limitations, and proper scope of the data before using it in their work.

About Dave Van Zandt

After years of encouragement to make his research publicly available, Dave created MediaBiasFactCheck.com in late 2015 as a free WordPress website, without outside investment. The site initially supported itself through third-party advertising and later expanded to include reader memberships, donations, data licensing, and other independent revenue.

Over the past 11 years, Dave and the MBFC research team have continually refined the methodology, expanded the documentation supporting source ratings, corrected errors when credible evidence warranted a change, and built a database covering more than 11,000 media sources. Dave retains final editorial authority, while named researchers, contractors, volunteers, and reader submissions contribute evidence and research to the review process.

Political Independence & Common Misconceptions

Media Bias/Fact Check is frequently mischaracterized by those who disagree with its ratings. To clarify: MBFC is not aligned with any political party, advocacy group, or ideology. Our focus is on transparency, evidence-based evaluation, and critical thinking—not political outcomes.

Founder Dave Van Zandt is a registered unaffiliated voter with no ties to political organizations. His only political donation was a one-time $10 contribution to Bernie Sanders in 2016, driven by a personal objection to corporate influence in politics rather than partisan loyalty. This remains his sole political contribution to date.

MBFC’s methodology regularly identifies bias across the political spectrum. We have rated and criticized both liberal and conservative media outlets when they fall short of factual accuracy or present extreme one-sided reporting. We expect disagreement with our ratings; however, personal attacks against individuals rather than critiques of our work reflect a misunderstanding of our mission.

We welcome scrutiny of our methodology and decisions, but we reject false political labeling designed to discredit independent analysis.

Disagreement with an individual rating does not, by itself, demonstrate that the methodology is politically motivated or inconsistently applied. Meaningful criticism should identify specific evidence that was overlooked, factual errors within a report, inconsistent scoring, or a failure to apply the published methodology. MBFC reviews such evidence and updates reports when a correction or rating change is justified.

While individual volunteers and contributors may hold personal political beliefs, as all people do,our methodology is standardized, consistent, and applied uniformly to all sources, regardless of ideology.

The Team

Dave Van Zandt – Editor/Founder

Mike Crowe – Extensions – Filtered Search – Factual Search – API (Mike creates all of our cool tools for free. Please send him some love by donating to him.) Donate directly to Mike.

Dennis Kelley – Research

Michael Allen – Research

McKenzie Huitsing – Research

Jemal Corliss – Research

And all the people who submit sources and question our ratings.  Your feedback is vital.

Learn more on our Frequently Asked Questions Page.

Please submit questions and concerns to: editor@mediabiasfactcheck.com

MediaBiasFactCheck.com is hosted by Automattic Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, California. Hosting and publishing operations are managed through this California-based platform.

Last Updated on July 27, 2026 by Media Bias Fact Check