Google’s news feature is loaded with Left-wing bias, study shows
A new Google feature that purports to allow users more control over news search results is promoting Left-wing news sources, a recent study from the Media Research Center (MRC) found.
On August 12th, Google rolled out its Preferred Sources feature allowing users to choose which news sources appear in the Top Stories section in search results. But when MRC analysts tested the feature by choosing Right-leaning news sources, they were fed stories from Left-wing publications instead. The researchers chose Fox News, The Daily Mail, and The New York Post as their preferred sources.
“Although all three of the outlets had recently covered Trump’s impending meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, only one appeared anywhere on the page,” MRC reported. “In fact, Google failed to show the part of the ‘Top Stories’ section labelled ‘From your sources’ section at all, merely placing a lone Fox News article to compete with nine left-leaning media results and two from the United Kingdom’s state-backed BBC.”
Even though the analysts had also chosen NewsBusters as a news source, not one NewsBusters story showed in the Top Stories section.
“Instead, Google’s results included stories from NBC News and Pew Research Center with previews highlighting negative polls about public confidence in the president’s handling of the Russia-Ukraine war. The latter’s headline appeared in the Google Search results as ‘Majority of Americans lack confidence in Trump on Russia,’” the report continued.
A history of Left-wing bias
Google has made little effort to hide its Left-wing bias. An MRC study in June 2024 analyzed the search rankings for the three presidential nominees in the 2024 race: Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Using a clean search environment free from cookies or search history that could influence the results, the researchers examined three combinations of phrases for each candidate ending with the words “presidential race 2024.”
They found that for the searches relevant to Trump, the Trump campaign website didn’t even make the first 100 search results. When the equivalent search was done for Biden, however, the Biden campaign website appeared as the first result. In a similar search, Robert F Kennedy, Jr’s campaign site took the fourth spot.
After Trump’s victory in 2016, Google CFO Ruth Porat promised employees that the corporation would use its “great strength and resources and reach” to push Leftist ideologies.
Although the tech giant continues to deny that it engages in election interference, analyses have shown otherwise. A study from MRC last year found that Google has interfered in US elections 41 times over the last 16 years, beginning with the 2008 general election that saw the rise of Barack Obama.
