New Zealand Herald – Bias and Credibility

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

• Overall, we rate the New Zealand Herald on the right side of Least Biased based on story selection that very slightly favors the right. We also rate them High for factual reporting due to proper sourcing and a clean fact-check record.

Detailed Report

Bias Rating: LEAST BIASED
Factual Reporting: HIGH
Country: New Zealand
MBFC’s Country Freedom Rating: EXCELLENT
Media Type: Newspaper
Traffic/Popularity: High Traffic
MBFC Credibility Rating: HIGH CREDIBILITY

History

Founded in 1863 and headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand, The New Zealand Herald or NZ Herald is a daily newspaper published by New Zealand Media and Entertainment (NZME). Murray Kirkness is the editor and Jane Hastings, CEO of the New Zealand Herald.

NZ Herald covers “NZ News, Regional News, World, Business, Opinion, Sport, Entertainment, Life & Style.”

Read our profile on New Zealand media and government.

Funded by / Ownership

The New Zealand Herald is owned by NZME, which is a New Zealand newspaper, radio, outdoor advertising, and digital media business. It was launched in 2014 as the formal merger of the New Zealand division of APN News & Media and The Radio Network, part of the Australian Radio Network. It operates 32 newspapers, 8 radio networks, and several websites in twenty-five markets across the country and reaches over 3 million people. The paper is funded through advertising and subscription fees.

Analysis / Bias

In review, NZ Herald has a right-center bias in word choices in their opinion pieces and is critical of the current labor government, such as: “Political Roundup: Lifting the lid on lobbying in politics” and they use emotional language in their headlines such as “Who needs friends like Labour’s coalition partners.” However, their editorials have a more neutral tone regarding NZ Politics, such as:  “Simon Bridges is National’s answer to Jacinda Ardern” (National is the opposition party to Labor and they are considered Center-Right). Although some of their articles are sourced through quotes and some use national sources that are not known to us, such as thespinoff.co., in their world news they utilize credible sources such as the Washington Post.

When it comes to US politics, they have left-leaning word choices, such as in this article, regarding Barack Obama’s visit to New Zealand on 18 March 2018 “Obama represents the dignity of the high office he won, the first African-American elected to it, and the respect it ought to command.”  And here they criticize Trump’s Trade policy “A trade war would hurt the US as well as the world.”

Failed Fact Checks

• None in the Last 5 years

Overall, we rate the New Zealand Herald on the right side of Least Biased based on story selection that very slightly favors the right. We also rate them High for factual reporting due to proper sourcing and a clean fact-check record. (M. Huitsing 3/24/2018) Updated (05/18/2013)

Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz