First Draft News – Bias and Credibility

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

UPdate: This source is no longer publishing, but content is available in archive.

• Overall, we rate First Draft News as factually HIGH, Least Biased, and an excellent source for journalists.

Detailed Report

Bias Rating: LEAST BIASED
Factual Reporting: HIGH
Country: USA
Press Freedom Rank: MOSTLY FREE
Media Type: Organization/Foundation
Traffic/Popularity: Minimal Traffic
MBFC Credibility Rating: HIGH CREDIBILITY

History

First Draft News was launched by the First Draft Coalition in 2015. As one of the founding organizations, Google News Lab also assisted in developing and maintaining firstdraftnews.org, supported the creation of new content, and coordinated the community of practice. First Draft News is a nonprofit organization whose goal is to help newsrooms, scholars, fact-checkers, and journalism schools. According to their about page, their goal is “to raise awareness, perform research, and address challenges relating to trust and truth in media in the digital age.” Claire Wardle is the Executive Director of First Draft. In October 2017, First Draft moved to the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. It continues its work as a project of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy.

Funded by / Ownership

In 2019 First Draft became an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit. Donations generate revenue.

Analysis / Bias

First Draft News features training resources and a catalog for journalist industry news. It is designed both as a best practice guide and analysis focused on specific news such as elections worldwide. For example, the UK Election and German Election. They typically publish very well-sourced articles, and they utilize credible sources such as Columbia Journalism Review, shorensteincenter.org, NPR, and the New York Times. In their headlines, they typically use neutral language such as “Why we need to understand misinformation through visuals.” Further, First Draft News has a partnership with credible UK fact-checkers, Full Fact.

Failed Fact Checks

• None in the Last 5 years

Overall, we rate First Draft News as factually HIGH, Least Biased, and an excellent source for journalists. (M. Huitsing 2/15/2018) Updated (10/20/2022)

Source: https://firstdraftnews.org/