Top 10 Unbiased News Sources 2021
John Grisham
Sep 29th 2021
In this article, we will be discussing unbiased news sources in 2021. With the current climate of fake news, alternative facts, and media spin it is important to find news sources that can give you a clearer picture of what's going on in our world. To do this, we have compiled a list of 10 unbiased news sources for 2021. These are our top picks so far - if you think any others should be added to the list, please mention them below!
1. Reuters
For this list, I'm giving the title of most unbiased news source to Reuters. It has been providing unbiased national and international coverage for years. The news outlet is owned by Thomson Reuters a media organization that has won Pulitzer Prizes in the years 2014, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021. The Thomson Reuters Foundation is where core funds for this organization come from and they are very transparent in their funding structure and foundation backers.
There was a close tie here with the Associated Press both of which are located at the top of the Ad Fontes chart but I decided to give Reuter's first place because its agree score was higher on AllSides media bias rating community feedback.
Reuters publishes many news stories including topics such as:
Domestic Affairs
The topics include politics, business, education, health care, law enforcement, the environment, and more.
World News
Unbiased coverage on up to 150 countries which are divided into regional sections including Europe, Asia/Pacific, Middle East/Africa, and Americas.
International Affairs
Providing unbiased reports on global stories with some international news providers who subscribe to their service while other news sources are only available in the UK.
Sports News
News about all types of sports including baseball, basketball, football (American), hockey, and soccer.
Opinion/Commentary
Opinion articles cover various topics such as politics, human interest stories, business, and more.
Ad Fontes Reliability: 48.95
Ad Fontes Bias: -1.59
AllSides Bias: Center
AllSides Community Rating: Agree
2. Associated Press
The associated press continues to make lists like this and for good reason. This news outlet ranks at the top of the Ad Fontes chart as of the time of this writing, meaning it is considered to outrank all other news websites for fact-based reporting and impartial news bias. There are several good reasons for this, they have been breaking news stories for over 170 years since they were founded, and since then AP has won 56 Pulitzer prizes with 34 being in photography. The news outlet is a not-for-profit organization owned by its collection of newspapers and broadcasters. This allows them to be editorially independent and unbiased in their news content.
AP continues to set the bar for journalistic standards and ethical practices for other news sources. They cover a wide range of topics including politics, entertainment, international affairs and they offer some of the best fact-checking out there. All of that being said there are some things about AP news that causes it to rank below Reuters on this list. As AllSides notes in their description of the news organization, some reporting by AP has a tendency to lean left and their fact-checking is rated separately as lean left. In addition, independent news readers who have voted on the rating that AllSides gives AP only somewhat agree that it has a bias of center.
Ad Fontes Reliability: 49.51
Ad Fontes Bias: -2.12
AllSides Bias: Center
AllSides Community Rating: Somewhat Agree
3. BBC News
Coming in third place is the unbiased news source BBC. One strong advantage of news reporting from news organizations abroad is that they provide an outsider view of your counties politics. News organizations that are not located in the United States can provide unbiased coverage of U.S current events, but even unbiased newspapers can become biased sources when covering domestic affairs. Foreign news sources serve to counterbalance many of the inaccuracies found on certain domestic-based media outlets.
BBC news receives most of its funding from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office a department of the UK government. Other notable funders include the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. While the UK government influences the news reporting of BBC these other donors serve to keep BBC a more impartial news organization.
As far as its Ad Fontes position is concerned BBC lies just below AP, Reuters, and Voice of America. AllSides places it among other center-biased outlets in its media bias rating but acknowledges a left-leaning bias in story selection.
Ad Fontes Reliability: 46.42
Ad Fontes Bias: -2.54
AllSides Bias: Center
AllSides Community Rating: Somewhat Agree
4. Forbes
Nestled right below news websites The Economist and The Hill is on the Ad Fontes chart is Forbes. As the leader in business news, they are home to the work of over 2800 journalists. The news agency has won awards such as the Webby People's Voice Award for Business Blog/Website in 2020. Forbes is one of the most unbiased news sources for business and industry news.
Forbes media was originally owned by the Forbes family and they still hold a large stake in the business news media giant but in 2014 a majority stake was sold to a Hong Kong-based investment group. Of the news sources on this list, Forbes is possibly the most corporate-controlled and this is to be expected considering the focus of its news content. What makes Forbes different from other news outlets is its contributor network.
Unlike more traditional news sources Forbes accepts submissions from thought leaders and business owners who get paid for how well their work performs. You could even become a contributor by attempting to join their contributor platform. This functions almost like a free market for journalism, diverse opinions, and alternative news sources. So it should come as no surprise that Forbes gets most of its revenue from ads.
Of course, this funding model has its downsides as it means the platform doesn't have to adhere to all the journalistic standards that most unbiased news sources are supposed to abide by. Regardless, Forbes has a high agree score for its center bias on AllSides and can be counted among the least biased news sources for business news.
Ad Fontes Reliability: 43.74
Ad Fontes Bias: -3.04
AllSides Bias: Center
AllSides Community Rating: Agree
5. Axios
Axios is a website launched in 2017 by Axios media Inc, co-founded by American billionaire and philanthropist, Mike Allen. The founders of the company wanted to develop a news platform to reestablish trust and sanity in the news landscape. In addition, they were also interested in developing a platform that would provide high-quality content that was free from advertising and clickbait.
The website has been able to provide unbiased coverage of major issues such as the Paris Climate Agreement and Brexit. They have been able to provide unbiased coverage of these events because of their commitment to accurate reporting and unbiased analysis in the form of the Axios Bill of Rights. They appear to be transparent about their funding as well, citing that every employee is an owner in the organization. However, not every employee has equal say at Axios media Inc because they do have a 7 person board of directions controlled by the co-founders.
Like many other news sites, Axios gets most of its revenue from on-site ads. In addition to ad revenue, they incorporate sponsored events, membership fees, and third-party partnerships to provide a more diverse funding model. This mission statement and funding model do seem to be working for them as Ad Fontes recognizes them along with other highly factual news outlets, giving them a slightly negative bias score. The newsgroup does have a slightly disagree community rating on AllSides with an average number of users reporting the outlet to have a right-leaning bias.
Ad Fontes Reliability: 45.92
Ad Fontes Bias: -3.73
AllSides Bias: Center
AllSides Community Rating: Somewhat Disagree
6. NPR (Online News)
Although I'm listing this one below the previous unbiased news sources I have to acknowledge that the order of these ratings could be changed based on many interpretations since these sources rank so closely to each other on reliability and bipartisan coverage that it made ranking them difficult. I put NPR below Axios because it has a slightly more biased score on Ad Fontes but it could easily have been placed ahead of Axios because its community rating on AllSides is higher.
NPR is an unbiased, nonprofit news organization that was established by the U.S Congress in the 1970s by the public broadcasting act of 1967. Most of the stations under the conglomerate are owned by government entities and the government contribution still accounts for about 10% of NPR's funding. In addition in 2010, it was disclosed that about 50% of NPR news revenue comes from fees charged to member stations for distribution but there are also several sponsors including Angie's List and GM.
Like other reliable news sources, NPR has a series of ethical guidelines that it abides by. It's important to note that the source I'm listing here is specifically the online written news section of NPR, not radio or the opinion section both of which are rated separately by AllSides. The rating given for the online news portion is a center bias but just barely below the threshold for left-lean bias.
Ad Fontes Reliability: 46.23
Ad Fontes Bias: -4.73
AllSides Bias: Center
AllSides Community Rating: Somewhat Agree
7. The Hill
The Hill is a media organization that provides unbiased coverage of the inner workings of Capitol Hill. They've been giving non-partisan coverage of congressional news and business affairs since 1994. In addition to their unbiased coverage of politics, they also provide business and tech news. For anyone interested in following what's going on behind the scenes in Washington D.C., The Hill will be a good source of information for you.
Just this year it was announced that Nexstar Media Group acquired The Hill for $130 Million. Before this, the organization received most of its funding via advertising and subscriptions but the acquisition may change how the source gets funding going forward.
AllSides gives The Hill a center bias but just like other neutral news sources on this list community ratings put the source near the border of the center and lean left. Nonetheless, you should look no further than the Hill for neutral news coverage of Capitol Hill.
Ad Fontes Reliability: 44.85
Ad Fontes Bias: -0.50
AllSides Bias: Center
AllSides Community Rating: Somewhat Disagree
8. Christian Science Monitor
Founded in 1908 by Mary Baker Eddy, The Christian Science Monitor is a non-profit news source that attempts to provide unbiased news coverage as well as opinion pieces from multiple perspectives along the political spectrum. The news and opinion pieces are published daily on their website.
According to the Christian Science giving subdomain, the outlet doesn't accept donations from government entities, elected officials, or any other party that could cause a conflict of interest, but donations are accepted regularly from other contributors. The Christian Science Monitor also has a daily publication that is sent to its subscribers for free. The paper format of the Monitor is offered through the use of paid subscriptions. Readers can get a copy delivered to them by mail or they can subscribe and have it delivered electronically.
Between the years 2013 and 2016 CSM's community rating on AllSides stayed overwhelmingly center but the current rating appears to be "somewhat disagree" at the time of this article. The Monitor has garnered much praise for unbiased reporting including 7 Pulitzer Prizes.
Ad Fontes Reliability: 45.47
Ad Fontes Bias: -2.57
AllSides Bias: Center
AllSides Community Rating: Somewhat Disagree
9. PBS News
The non-profit Public Broadcasting System (PBS) offers unbiased news coverage as well as unbiased opinion pieces from a variety of political perspectives. PBS is funded by the American people with tax dollars, corporate underwriting, and individual donations. This unbiased reporting has been recognized through multiple awards including 10 Emmy Awards for excellence in children's programming. Additionally, they have received the most Peabody Awards of any organization (currently 6).
It's worth noting that PBS has a very high-reliability score but also has a larger negative bias score according to Ad Fontes. On AllSides PBS news has a center bias with a community feedback rating of somewhat agree.
This means that several people who have feedback on PBS news think it leans center. This is a good example of how there might be more than one correct answer when talking about bias and objectivity. PBS News provides unbiased coverage while also publishing some opinion pieces from a variety of political perspectives which makes the network unbiased but not neutral in tone.
Ad Fontes Reliability: 48.87
Ad Fontes Bias: -4.79
AllSides Bias: Center
AllSides Community Rating: Somewhat Agree
10. The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an unbiased and factual newsgroup founded in 1889. The Wall Street Journal mainly reports on business, finance, and the state of the economy but also provides unbiased coverage of political topics. Since its creation, the newspaper has been no stranger to journalistic ethical standards which makes The WSJ a very unbiased news source and excellent source for unbiased information.
The newspaper itself is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp and is a division of Dow Jones. The Journal uses mediums such as print, web news, and smart device applications. The paper is among the Three highest circulating in the U.S, according to the Pew Research Center.
The news and media commentary that The Wall Street Journal provides aren't free and haven't been for most of their lifespan. With most of its revenue coming from subscriptions, there is a level of accountability that the WSJ has to its readers. This can be both a good and bad thing in journalism with an argument to be made that it can cause newsrooms to pander more to their readerships' biases. Luckily the Journal has developed a reputation for being impartial and fair which is a reason why so many readers have subscribed.
Ad Fontes places The WSJ with a positive bias which they denote as right-leaning and it has the highest deviation from a neutral score of zero amongst the sources on this list. AllSides rates the WSJ as having a center bias but has a community score of somewhat disagree. As of 2016, this community disagreement was evenly split between voters who thought this bias was right-leaning and left-leaning which is probably a good indicator that is deserving of this center bias rating.
Ad Fontes Reliability: 46.02
Ad Fontes Bias: 5.01
AllSides Bias: Center
AllSides Community Rating: Somewhat Disagree
Is There Such a Thing as Unbiased News?
The short answer, not really. Since news is written by people and people have biases then no news source can be completely unbiased but some are certainly more biased than others. It's important to know how unbiased a news outlet is before you take the information they are presenting as fact. To better understand what unbiased news looks like we will ask a different question, what makes a news source biased?
Spotting Fake News and Biased News Sources
Several things contribute to news bias, but first and foremost it comes down to who owns the company running or hosting the website. How does the news site receive funding? Is it mostly through ad revenue, subscriptions, or donations? The second thing would be what topics news outlets cover or don't cover. Finally, to recognize biased news source reporting we have to look at how media companies cover the news. Do they use deceptive headlines or media spin that supports a broader narrative? Biased news sources are guilty of using these tactics to draw more traffic to their news sites.
How to Find Unbiased News Sources
Now that we know what not to look for we can focus on discovering less biased news. There are some great resources out there for determining the bias of news sources and we'll be using them to figure out which news sources to include in this list.
AllSides Bias Rating
You can think of AllSides as more of a news media aggregator than a news outlet itself. This website has a patented media bias rating system called the AllSides Bias Rating™ which makes it easy to see how unbiased their articles are. There are five possible ratings, Left, Lean Left, Center, Lean Right, and Right - so reading news articles with one rating isn't very helpful.
However, when there are multiple articles on the same topic with different ratings it's an easy way to get more balanced news coverage of events that happened recently or might be ongoing in the world today. For this article, I'll be using the AllSides media bias rating system to determine the general bias of news sources. If you want to know more about how AllSides categorizes news bias you can check out their website.
https://www.allsides.com/unbiased-balanced-news
Ad Fontes Media Chart
Another way to determine unbiased news sources is by using the Ad Fontes Media news bias chart which graphs news outlets along two axis, fact-based reporting, and political bias. This forms a bell curve that places the least biased sources at the top center.
The general idea is less biased news outlets will present the facts without much editorial commentary or spin. Ad Fontes rates bias as either negative or positive numbers, with negative numbers denoting left-leaning bias and positive numbers representing a right-leaning bias. There are some outliers on this chart, however, and not all content produced by these news sources will adhere to this chart. You can think of it almost like a weather forecast, this afternoon partly factual with a 20% chance of scattered bias this evening. It's important to still think critically about what you read and be aware of how biased news articles are.
Conclusion
This concludes our list of most unbiased news sources for 2021. These media outlets are a great place to get unbiased information on what's going on in the world today and they help you stay informed of current events without being swayed by biased opinions or media spin. To stay up to date with unbiased reporting from these news programs and publications, consider subscribing to their newsletters or becoming paid members. This will ensure that these organizations can continue providing unbiased coverage which is more valuable than ever with the current climate of fake news and alternative facts circulating throughout our society!
Please let me know if there are any other unbiased news sources that you think should belong on this list or if you disagree with my bias assessments. All organizations fall victim to bias specifically news organizations so it's important that you read news segments from several sources to get a more holistic viewpoint on the news. You can find additional news organizations from across the political spectrum via Ad Fontes, AllSides, and by subscribing to our newsletter where you can read multiple news sources that you otherwise might have missed in an easy-to-digest 5-minute read.
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