Apple News promoted 84 negative headlines about Republican policy priorities and not a single positive one during a September review, according to a study by the conservative watchdog Media Research Center.
MRC examined Apple News’s top 20 stories each day from Sept. 15 through Sept. 30. Of 117 stories dealing with Republican-aligned issues, MRC classified 84 headlines as negative, 33 as neutral and none as positive, which it said works out to roughly five negative stories a day. By MRC’s count, 72 percent of the relevant headlines were negative and 28 percent neutral.
“Apple News ran 84 negative headlines on Republican priorities and zero positive ones,” MRC President David Bozell said in a statement. “My dentist finds more good news in a root canal.”
MRC researchers Luis Cornelio and Madison Van Zant said they chose the issues based on recent polling. They included immigration and border security, the economy, law and order, cutting government spending, combating drug use, national security and foreign policy, taxes, counterterrorism, education and protecting the unborn. The researchers said the results add to a “growing body of evidence” that the platform’s editors curate its feeds to push a left-wing agenda.
According to the researchers, the imbalance spanned major policy debates. They wrote that Apple News framed immigration “through court defeats and sensationalist stories” and the economy “through high gas prices,” among other examples.
Bozell challenged Apple to explain its editorial choices. “Millions of voters open that app before they vote,” he said, adding, “Come on, Apple, tell us who picks these stories and why Republicans got the whole bad-news buffet.”
Apple News comes preinstalled on iPhones and has long faced criticism over alleged liberal bias. Some conservatives had hoped new CEO John Ternus would bring a change in direction, but an earlier MRC study found that the share of stories drawn from left-leaning outlets increased during his first month leading the company.
