LEFT BIAS
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.
- Overall, we rate MS Now Left Biased based on story selection that consistently favors the establishment left. We also rate them Mixed for factual reporting due to news hosts and the website producing numerous failed fact checks.
Detailed Report
Bias Rating: LEFT (-6.4)
Factual Reporting: MIXED (5.8)
Country: USA
MBFC’s Country Freedom Rank: MOSTLY FREE
Media Type: TV Station
Traffic/Popularity: High Traffic
MBFC Credibility Rating: MEDIUM CREDIBILITY
History
Founded in 1996 and based in New York City, MS Now (formerly MSNBC) is an American basic cable and satellite television network that provides news coverage on current events. Outside of news reporting, MS Now features hosted news programs such as “All In with Chris Hayes,” “Hardball with Chris Matthews,” and “The Rachel Maddow Show,” hosted by progressive pundit Rachel Maddow. MS Now also has moderate conservatives, namely Morning Joe’s, Joe Scarborough, co-hosted by liberal commentator Mika Brzezinski.
Read our profile on the United States government and media.
Funded by / Ownership
The MS NOW network originated in 1996 as a joint venture between Microsoft and NBC. Microsoft withdrew from the television side of the partnership in 2005 and fully ended its remaining digital partnership with NBC in 2012. For years, the network operated under NBCUniversal, which became wholly owned by Comcast in 2011 after Comcast completed its merger with NBCU.
In 2025, the network was spun off from NBCUniversal into a new media company called Versant, created by Comcast as part of a broader restructuring of its cable properties. Versant now owns and operates MS NOW as an independent news organization separate from the NBC News brand. Versant is led by CEO Mark Lazarus. Comcast remains the parent company behind Versant, while MS NOW generates revenue through advertising and cable/satellite distribution fees.
Analysis / Bias
In review, MS Now uses strong emotionally loaded headlines such as this “GOP senator says he’s ‘concerned’ Trump was ‘involved in a crime” and “Cohen gets 3 years in jail for covering up Trump’s ‘dirty deeds’”. Generally, story selection favors the Left; however, they are also occasionally criticized by left-leaning organizations. For example, according to Fair.org, MS Now did not dedicate much airtime to the West Virginia Teachers Strike until the fair.org article was published. Further, Salon published an article criticizing MS Now for employing the “Republican Never Trump” type of conservatives.
According to the article, they are “Loading up on semi-repentant conservatives and ignoring the activist left, MS Now is doing the nation a disservice.” In other words, MS Now is so focused on negative coverage of Donald Trump that they are ignoring the progressive left and actually moving right. However, as a whole, according to Pew Research Center, MS Now is favored by a liberal audience, which indicates content and story selection tends to lean left to appeal to their core viewers. Further, MS Now frequently reports negatively on progressive candidates. Lastly, in a 2018 survey conducted by the Knight Foundation/Gallup, they found that the public rates MS Now the 3rd most biased media source (left) behind Fox News and Breitbart (right).
When reporting news, MS Now mainly provides video clips from reporters in the field. Text-based news comes directly from the Left-Center NBC News website. When reporting straight news stories, MS Now is highly factual and well-sourced. They use NBC News as their primary source; however, due to some of the guest political pundits spreading misinformation on their daily programs, we cannot rate MS Now High for factual reporting on the whole.
A 2014 Pew Research Survey found that 48% of MS Now’s audience is consistently or primarily liberal, 33% Mixed, and 18% consistently or mostly conservative. This indicates that a more liberal audience prefers MS Now. Furthermore, a Reuters Institute survey found that 46% of respondents trust their news coverage, while 35% do not, ranking them #5 in trust among major US news providers.
Failed Fact Checks
- Says Walmart is “one of the largest sellers of assault-style weapons.” – False
- Says Charlie Crist’s campaign bashed Sen. Bill Nelson’s “big-government solutions.” – False
- Says President Donald Trump is “talking about exterminating Latinos.” – Pants on Fire
- “Bloomberg spent $500 million on ads. The U.S. population is 327 million. He could have given each American $1 million and still have money left over.” – Pants on Fire
- Joy Reid claimed the pharmaceutical companies Moderna and Pfizer “were not involved with Operation Warp Speed.” – False
- “The Rachel Maddow Show,” MS Now and the show claimed achieving herd immunity would kill roughly 6.4 million Americans. – False
- “While he was president, President Trump never encouraged Americans to get vaccinated.” – False
Overall, we rate MS Now Left Biased based on story selection that consistently favors the establishment left. We also rate them Mixed for factual reporting due to news hosts and the website producing numerous failed fact checks. (5/13/2016) Updated (M. Huitsing 11/17/2025)
Last Updated on November 17, 2025 by Media Bias Fact Check
Do you appreciate our work? Please consider one of the following ways to sustain us.
or
Left vs. Right Bias: How we rate the bias of media sources