How Reliable Is Al Jazeera?

Al Jazeera stands out on the international stage as one of few popular, non-Western English-language news organizations. Since its founding in 1996, it has catered to Arabic audiences as well as an ever-growing international audience. However, its reporting has not been without controversy, not least because of its close relationship with the Qatari government. This leads The Factual to ask two questions: how reliable is Al Jazeera and how biased is its coverage?

How Does The Factual Rate News Sources? 

The Factual analyzes more than 10,000 news stories every day to help readers find the most informative, least-biased articles. Our news-rating algorithm scores each article along four metrics: (1) cited sources and quotes, (2) publication history, (3) writing tone, and (4) author expertise. These scores combine in a weighted average we call a Factual Grade, which ranges from 0–100%. (See our How It Works page to learn more about our algorithm.)

For this study, we analyzed ~1,000 articles each from 240 news sources. The average Factual Grade for the entire dataset was 62.5%. Based on these averages, we can compare the performance of news sites across the media ecosystem. The entire dataset can be explored in greater detail here.

How Factual Is Al Jazeera?

Al Jazeera scored an average Factual Grade of 59.3%, placing it in the 23rd percentile in our dataset. In Al Jazeera’s case, these below average scores can be attributed to articles that lack an identifiable author and therefore receive a low score for author expertise. Many articles also lack hyperlinks to other stories on the same topic, lowering the overall score for source quality. However, articles from Al Jazeera do largely use unbiased language.

Like any news source, scores for articles from Al Jazeera varied widely based on factors like author expertise and cited evidence. For example, some scored above 80%, while others scored below 50%.

How Opinionated Is Al Jazeera?

As part of each Factual Grade, The Factual measures how opinionated an article is using a sophisticated natural language One of the metrics The Factual uses is the Writing Tone, which measures how opinionated the writing is in an article. For this metric, the algorithm looks for signs of subjective commentary (e.g., first person pronouns and unnecessary adverbs), as well as the emotional nature of selected words, and sees how prevalent they are for a given length of text. More neutral text receives higher ratings, with “0” being the most opinionated and “1” being the most neutral.

Al Jazeera had an average Writing Tone score of 0.73, placing it in the 85th percentile in our dataset. This suggests that articles from Al Jazeera typically have a highly neutral tone. This neutral approach can be seen in article title such as “Colombia to suspend aerial bombings against armed groups” and “Turkey resumes gas exploration in the eastern Mediterranean.”

How Biased Is Al Jazeera?

Assessments from media bias organizations such as AllSides and Media Bias/Fact Check lead The Factual to assign Al Jazeera a “Moderate Left” bias. 

AllSides gives Al Jazeera a “Lean Left” bias due to independent research and 11,329 community ratings. AllSides changed the rating from “Center” due to the omission of right-leaning viewpoints and the tendency to frame such points negatively. Many pieces exhibit bias through “emotionalism, slant, spin, and bias by omission.” AllSides also notes the presence of anti-Western, anti-Israel, and anti-Shia biases.

Media Bias/Fact Check (MBFC) assigns Al Jazeera a “Left-Center” bias due to story selection that at times favors the left. This includes a “Mixed” score for factual reporting due to two failed fact-checks, neither of which received corrections. However, Al Jazeera does receive credit for reporting “news with minimally loaded wording” in their headlines. “Pentagon chief Mattis quits, cites policy differences with Trump” is an example of balanced coverage of former president Trump. They note, however, that Al Jazeera exhibits bias against “Israel and right-wing ideologies,” particularly in its opinion section. 

Who Owns Al Jazeera?

The company’s ownership is perhaps the biggest point of contention. The government of Qatar is the primary funder of Al Jazeera. As a private foundation for public benefit, it allegedly retains its editorial independence. Critics suggest that the Qatari government directly influences the news organization’s output. Proponents note, however, articles that are critical of Qatar. Media organizations like the National Press Club and Reporters Without Borders also defend Al Jazeera’s journalism on the world stage. 

Al Jazeera was central to a diplomatic standoff beginning in 2017 between Qatar and several neighbors, led by Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The crisis was due to Qatar’s connections to Iran and alleged support for terrorist organizations and the Muslim Brotherhood. Al Jazeera was cited as a mouthpiece for Qatari propaganda and accused of spreading extremist viewpoints. Defendants argue that these countries, which demanded Al Jazeera’s closure, are endangered by its popular independent journalism. The standoff eventually ended with Al Jazeera intact.

How to Mitigate Bias

Al Jazeera provides a useful example of why knowing about the media landscape is essential to interacting with daily news. While the organization is known for high journalistic standards, its numerous controversies warrant closer scrutiny. Likewise, though the organization has a left-leaning bias, it still produces quality news stories and introduces new perspectives to Western audiences. 

News articles are bound to have bias because all authors have some frame of reference within which they describe a story. Political bias ratings are helpful in understanding this framing. However, it can be more beneficial to know how factual an article is based on quantifiable metrics that can be seen across the media ecosystem, such as cited evidence, author expertise, and writing tone. This is what The Factual ascertains. 

Reading several, highly rated articles from across the political spectrum helps counter the bias of any news source or story. To have the day’s most factual news stories delivered to your inbox every morning, subscribe to our daily newsletter.

Article updated on September 15, 2022 to reflect new data.