Huffington Post (HuffPost) – Bias and Credibility

These media sources are moderate 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.

• 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

Bias Rating: LEFT
Factual Reporting: MIXED
Country: USA
Press Freedom Rank: MOSTLY FREE
Media Type: Website
Traffic/Popularity: High Traffic
MBFC Credibility Rating: MEDIUM CREDIBILITY

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. Arianna Huffington was named president and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post Media Group, including AOL properties, Engadget, and MapQuest. In 2015, Verizon bought AOL, and The Huffington Post became part of Verizon. Then, 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’s name was shortened to HuffPost.

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Funded by / Ownership

The HuffPost is currently owned by Oath Inc., a Verizon Communications subsidiary. In November 2020, Buzzfeed acquired the Huffpost; however, they will maintain separate newsrooms. The website generates revenue through 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.” They utilize credible sources such as CBS News, New York Times, Politico, and blogs unknown 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.” 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 primarily liberal, 23% Mixed, and 17% consistently or mostly conservative. This indicates that a more liberal audience prefers HuffPost. Further, a Reuters institute survey found that 36% of respondents trust their news coverage and 36% do not, ranking them #10 in trust of the major USA news providers. In general, a review of articles shows that more favor the left than the right. While HuffPost primarily relies on credible sources of information, they have failed fact checks and promoted pseudoscience earning a Mixed factual reporting rating.

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 – 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 03/23/2022)

Source: https://www.huffpost.com/