Is Fox News Biased? Crowd-Sourced Ratings + Methodology in 2026
Short answer: yes, Fox News has a measurable bias. The interesting answer is that "Fox News" is really two outlets — a news desk that scores closer to center-right, and a primetime commentary block that scores significantly further right. Below: what four major rating systems show, why they agree, and how to read Fox News content responsibly if you do.
The 30-second answer
Four independent rating systems agree on the direction:
- AllSides: Right
- Media Bias / Fact Check: Right bias, factual reporting Mixed
- Pew Research (2024): 67% trust from Republicans, 13% trust from Democrats — a 54-point partisan gap
- Web Jury: Right, trust score ~48/100, accuracy ~58%
Direction: right. Magnitude: large. Reliability on factual reporting: mixed (and crucially, varies a lot between Fox News reporting and Fox News opinion).
Why "Fox News" is really two outlets
The single most important thing to know about Fox News bias ratings: the news desk and the primetime opinion shows are different products with different reliability profiles.
- Fox News reporting (the news desk, daytime news segments, foxnews.com news articles) → Web Jury reviewers rate this around trust 56/100, right bias, accuracy 65%.
- Fox News primetime opinion (the 8pm-11pm blocks, opinion segments) → reviewers rate this around trust 38/100, far-right bias, accuracy 45%.
- Aggregate when reviewers don't distinguish → blends to trust 48/100, right bias, accuracy 58%.
The 18-point gap between Fox News reporting and Fox News opinion is the largest news/opinion gap of any major US outlet. CNN's equivalent gap is 16 points; NYT's is 8 points.
What Fox News gets right (per crowd ratings)
- Coverage of stories underplayed by other outlets. A consistent reviewer finding is that Fox News breaks stories — particularly on government accountability and institutional-failure topics — that center-left outlets are slow to cover.
- Reader engagement with their audience.Fox News maintains a more direct line to its core readership than its peers. Whether that's a feature or a feedback loop depends on your priors.
- Wire service usage. News-desk Fox stories sourced from AP / Reuters / wire services rate at parity with other US outlets using the same sources.
What Fox News gets wrong (per crowd ratings)
- Opinion-as-news framing. The primetime lineup presents opinion content with news-style framing (chyrons, expert panels). Reviewers consistently flag this as the largest reliability concern.
- Correction transparency on opinion content. When opinion-side claims are later proven false, on-air corrections are rare. The Dominion lawsuit settlement is the most-cited example.
- Headline-vs-body gap on politically charged stories.Same pattern as CNN — headlines are more loaded than the story body warrants. Reviewers flag this for both outlets; the pattern isn't partisan.
How Fox News compares to other major outlets
| Outlet | Web Jury bias | Trust score | Accuracy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reuters | Center | 88/100 | 95% |
| WSJ (news) | Lean Right | 76/100 | 85% |
| The Dispatch | Right | 71/100 | 80% |
| National Review | Right | 66/100 | 72% |
| Fox News (overall) | Right | 48/100 | 58% |
| CNN | Lean Left | 64/100 | 70% |
| MSNBC | Left | 47/100 | 58% |
Full Fox News Web Jury page: /outlet/fox-news/bias. Notable parallel: Fox News and MSNBC are within a single point of each other on overall trust. Polarized opinion-led news clusters together regardless of which side it leans.
If you read Fox News, what should you do?
- Separate the news desk from the opinion shows. Daytime news coverage rates materially higher than primetime commentary. Treat them as different sources.
- Cross-reference politically charged stories with a wire service. If a Fox News claim matches Reuters or AP, confidence is high. If it doesn't — dig before sharing.
- Sample at least one left-of-center outlet on the same story.Same advice we'd give a CNN reader about a right-of-center source. The point isn't balance; it's exposure to framing you're otherwise missing.
Why the rating systems agree on Fox News when they disagree on others
AllSides, MBFC, Pew, and Web Jury rarely give the same outlet identical ratings. They cluster tightly on Fox News for one reason: the news/opinion gap is so visible that every methodology catches it. Editorial reviewers, single researchers, partisan-tabulated polls, and trust-weighted crowd voters all converge on the same finding.
For most outlets, the right move is to triangulate across systems. For Fox News, the systems are already triangulating with each other.
Add your own review
Web Jury's Fox News score updates as readers contribute. If you read Fox News — even occasionally — your review shapes the public number. We weight new accounts less than long-tenured reviewers, so a single brigade can't shift the score. Rate Fox News in 30 seconds.