Daily Citizen (Focus on the Family) – Bias and Credibility

The Daily Citizen is a Christian news website published by Focus on the Family, an American Christian conservative organization founded in 1977 by psychologist James Dobson, based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It actively promotes an interdenominational effort toward its socially conservative views on public policy.

According to their about page, “Focus on the Family’s The Daily Citizen provides a faith-based perspective to counter the mainstream media’s anti-Christian bias.”

Read our profile on the United States government and media.

Funded by / Ownership

The Daily Citizen is owned and published by Focus on the Family, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, which prevents them from advocating for political candidates. However, they are politically active as they are affiliated with groups that can donate to political candidates, such as Family Policy Alliance, though the two groups are legally separate. This group allows money to be donated to candidates who are 100%, Republican. Revenue is derived through donations.

Analysis / Bias

The Daily Citizen, like Focus on the Family, promotes creationism, abstinence-only sex education, adoption only by heterosexuals, school prayer, and traditional gender roles. It opposes pre-marital sex, pornography, drugs, gambling, divorce, and abortion. It lobbies against LGBT rights, including LGBT adoption, LGBT parenting, and same-sex marriage.

Focus on the Family has also published misinformation claiming, “Abortion has been linked to an increased risk for post-abortive women being diagnosed with breast cancer.” According to the American Cancer Society, “After adjusting for known breast cancer risk factors, the researchers found that induced abortion(s) had no overall effect on the risk of breast cancer. The size of this study and how it was done provide good evidence that induced abortion does not affect a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer.”

Further, during the Coronavirus pandemic, they have promoted misinformation such as this Chinese Virologist Claims COVID-19 was Intentionally Manufactured and Released by China. Thus far, there is no evidence to support this claim. Finally, they have promoted misleading information regarding the abortion pill and gay adoption.

Editorially, the Daily Citizen strongly favors the right with stories such as this Back Off Leftists, Amy Coney Barrett Can Keep Her Faith and Serve as a Judge Too. In general, the Daily Citizen is a vehicle to promote news that favors the positions of Focus on the Family. Finally, they have been criticized by the Human Rights Campaign based on their stances on LGBTQ.

Failed Fact Checks

• “Among his (Obama’s) pet projects is a bill … which would commit the U.S. to spending 0.7 percent of gross national product on foreign aid.” – False
• Abortion is available at any point of pregnancy and for any reason in Alaska, Colorado, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon and Vermont. – False

Overall, we rate the Daily Citizen as extreme Right Biased and Questionable based on the promotion of Right-Wing Christian propaganda that is not rooted in science, as well as poor sourcing and false claims. (D. Van Zandt 12/08/2022)

Source: https://dailycitizen.focusonthefamily.com/