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 reporting of information that may damage liberal causes. Some sources in this category may be untrustworthy. See all Left Bias sources.
- Overall, we rate HuffPost Left-Biased based on story selection and editorial positions that favor the left. We also rate them Mixed for factual reporting due to failed fact checks and the promotion of pseudoscience.
Detailed Report
Factual Reporting: MIXED
Country: USA
World Press Freedom Rank: USA 45/180 (2020)
History
Founded in 2005, HuffPost, also known as The Huffington Post is a news and commentary site headquartered in New York City. The Huffington Post was founded by Andrew Breitbart (Founder of Breitbart), Arianna Huffington (Former Executive Vice President of AOL Time Warner and Chairman of Betaworks and BuzzFeed), Kenneth Lerer (Chairman of Buzzfeed), and Jonah Peretti (CEO of BuzzFeed).
In March 2011, AOL acquired The Huffington Post for $315 million and Arianna Huffington was named as president and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post Media Group, which included AOL properties such as Engadget and MapQuest. In 2015, Verizon bought AOL and the Huffington Post became part of Verizon. In 2016, Arianna Huffington resigned as editor-in-chief and former New York Times Johannesburg Bureau Chief Lydia Polgreen became editor-in-chief. In 2017, The Huffington Post name was shortened to HuffPost.
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Funded by / Ownership
The HuffPost is currently owned by Oath Inc., which is a subsidiary of Verizon Communications. The website is funded through online advertising.
Analysis / Bias
Politico reports, that during the 2016 presidential elections, every article related to Donald Trump included a note at the bottom indicating Trump as being “racist”, “xenophobe”, “Misogynist”, however, after the election, HuffPost dropped the note.
In review, HuffPost publishes stories with strong emotionally loaded headlines such as “Comey Flips: ‘Vote for Democrats This Fall’” and “Trump Calls Female Reporter ‘So Obnoxious,’ Tells Her To Be Quiet.” HuffPost utilizes credible sources such as CBS News, New York Times, Politico, as well as blogs that are not known to us such as queensjewelvault.blogspot.com. Furthermore, HuffPost sources the Associated Press when covering world news such as “Mass Graves Suggest Systematic Killing Of Rohingya In Myanmar.” In general, a review of articles shows that more favor the left than the right. Finally, Science Based Medicine has criticized HuffPost for promoting dangerous, implausible pseudo-medicine.
A 2014 Pew Research Survey found that 59% of HuffPost’s audience is consistently or mostly liberal, 23% Mixed and 17% consistently or mostly conservative. This indicates that HuffPost is preferred by a more liberal audience.
Failed Fact Checks
- When meeting President Donald Trump in July 2018, Queen Elizabeth wore a brooch given to her by former president Barack Obama. – False
- “More Than 4,000 Died Within Six Weeks Of Being Deemed ‘Fit For Work’, Reveal Government” – False
- “The Senate is constitutionally required to review and vote on a president’s nominees, regardless of party,” – False
Overall, we rate HuffPost Left-Biased based on story selection and editorial positions that favor the left. We also rate them Mixed for factual reporting due to failed fact checks and the promotion of pseudoscience. (5/13/2016) Updated (M. Huitsing 05/13/2020)
Source: https://www.huffpost.com/
