These media sources are moderately to strongly biased toward conservative 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 conservative causes. Some sources in this category may be untrustworthy. See all Right Bias sources.
- Overall, we rate Townhall Right Biased based on story selection that always favors the right and denigrates the left. We also rate them Mixed for factual reporting due to the use of columnists that have poor fact check records.
Detailed Report
Factual Reporting: MIXED
Country: USA
World Press Freedom Rank: USA 45/180
History
Founded in 1995, Townhall is an American politically conservative website and print magazine that was previously published by the Heritage Foundation. In 2006, Townhall was purchased by Salem Communications. According to their about page “Townhall.com is the #1 conservative website. Townhall.com pulls together political commentary and analysis from over 100 leading columnists and opinion leaders, research from 100 partner organizations, conservative talk-radio and a community of millions of grassroots conservatives.” TownHall.com features commentary by various conservative columnists and guest commentary by politicians. Weekly contributors include Ben Shapiro, Michelle Malkin, Ann Coulter, Marina Medvin, John Stossel, Dennis Prager, and others. Guest contributors have included Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and Lara Trump. The current editor is Jonathan Garthwaite.
Funded by / Ownership
Townhall is owned by Salem Communications, which owns numerous right leaning Christian based radio stations across the USA. According to Open Secrets Salem Media Group donates 100% to Republicans and right leaning PACS. The website is funded through online advertising.
Analysis / Bias
In review, Townhall almost exclusively publishes news articles that favors conservatives and utilizes strongly loaded language such as this: Shove It, House Democrats: Another Trump-Russia Story Blows Up. This story is sourced to the left leaning Axios and right leaning Fox News. In another article with loaded language, by Rush Limbaugh’s brother David: Abortion Extremism Exposing Left’s Moral Contradictions, there is not a single source listed to support Mr. Limbaugh’s claims.
In general, Townhall presents story selection that almost always favors the right and uses negative wording to describe the left. There is little balance in story presentation with all information favoring the right without presenting a left perspective or counter argument. The opinion columnists associated with Townhall have poor fact check records such as Michelle Malkin, Ann Coulter and Ben Shapiro. Straight news reporting is generally sourced properly and factual, though worded to favor the right.
A factual search reveals a few failed fact checks, such as this and this.
Overall, we rate Townhall Right Biased based on story selection that always favors the right and denigrates the left. We also rate them Mixed for factual reporting due to the use of columnists that have poor fact check records. (7/19/2016) Updated (D. Van Zandt 2/1/2019)
Source: https://townhall.com/
