Center for Media and Democracy (PR Watch) – Bias and Credibility

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 information reporting that may damage liberal causes. Some sources in this category may be untrustworthy. See all Left Bias sources.

Update: This source is now archived and lists exposedbycmd.org as the new domain.

• Overall, we rate the Center for Media and Democracy Left Biased based on editorial positions that always favor the progressive left. We also rate them High for factual reporting due to proper sourcing and a clean fact-check record.

Detailed Report

Bias Rating: LEFT
Factual Reporting: HIGH
Country: USA
MBFC’s Country Freedom Rating: MOSTLY FREE
Media Type: Organization/Foundation
Traffic/Popularity: Minimal Traffic
MBFC Credibility Rating: HIGH CREDIBILITY

History

Founded in 1993 by John Stauber, The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) is a non-partisan progressive watchdog group led by Lisa Graves. CMD manages this website and SourceWatch.org. As noted on SourceWatch’s sister site, PRWatch.org, CMD “strengthens participatory democracy by investigating and exposing public relations spin and propaganda such as corporate greenwashing and promoting media literacy and citizen journalism.”

CMD also manages the BanksterUSA website.  Some contend that CMD is not neutral. CMD has been criticized for having an anti-corporate viewpoint.

Read our profile on the United States government and media.

Funded by / Ownership

The Center for Media and Democracy is a nonprofit funded through donations. They claim on their about page that “We accept no funding from for-profit corporations or grants from administrative agencies.” However, they list funding from numerous left-leaning foundations such as Open Society Foundations, Ford Foundation, and Tides Foundation.

Analysis / Bias

In review, The CMD website covers news with a strong left-leaning bias. Headlines and articles contain loaded emotional wording such as this: Massachusetts Law Could Blunt the Effect of Janus’s Attack on Unions. Though biased, this story is properly sourced to the Boston Globe, SourceWatch, and .gov websites. Story selection often favors workers rights and fighting climate change with proper information sourcing. In general, story selection and op-eds favor the progressive left.

Failed Fact Checks

• None in the last 5 years

Overall, we rate the Center for Media and Democracy Left Biased based on editorial positions that always favor the progressive left. We also rate them High for factual reporting due to proper sourcing and a clean fact-check record. (8/15/2017) Updated (D. Van Zandt 01/05/2024)

Source: https://www.prwatch.org/