Is The Federalist a Reliable News Source? 

The Federalist is an online conservative news website founded in 2013 that has seen its popularity grow in recent years, particularly during the Trump administration. According to the New York Times, The Federalist leans “headfirst into the culture wars,” questioning the Me Too movement and routinely contradicting medical and scientific expertise during the Covid-19 pandemic. So, how reliable is The Federalist as a news source?

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 The Federalist? 

The Federalist scored an average Factual Grade of 56.0%, placing the site in the 19th percentile of our dataset. Several factors contribute to these low overall scores. First, articles rarely include links to supporting evidence, and when such links do appear, they often direct readers to other content from The Federalist. Second, articles from the site generally produce low scores for author expertise, suggesting that authors rarely cover a topic consistently or have only published other low-scoring articles on the same subject. Finally, most articles are very or moderately opinionated, rather than neutral in tone.

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

How Opinionated Is The Federalist?

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.

The Federalist had an average Writing Tone score of 0.42, placing it in the 24th percentile in our dataset. This suggests that articles from the site are often written in a highly opinionated manner. Articles often incorporate emotionally loaded language in their reporting, suggesting they are seeking to elicit a specific response from readers rather than neutrally convey information. This can be seen in article title such as “Dems Enabled Biden’s Border Crisis. Now They Are Paying With Elections” and “Republicans Should Treat Fauci Like Democrats Treat Republicans.”

What Is The Federalist’s Political Bias?

The Factual classifies news sites by political bias as either Left, Moderate Left, Center, Moderate Right, or Right. This classification comes from third-party assessments from media bias organizations such as AllSides and Media Bias/Fact Check. Based on this data, The Factual assigns The Federalist a “Right” bias. 

AllSides assigns The Federalist a “Right” classification based on independent research and 12,681 community ratings. Before August 2018, AllSides rated the site as “Lean Right,” though they give no explanation for the change in classification. Instead of the typical editorial analysis used to justify a site’s classification, AllSides points to the words of Ben Domenech, The Federalist’s founder, as evidence of its political bias. In a founding message in 2013 that pulled from principles that initially drove Time magazine at its founding in the 1920s, Domenech noted the site’s intention to lean to the “political right, with a small-c conservatism equipped with a populist respect for the middle class reader outside of New York and Washington.” Likewise, he espoused principles like distrust in growing interference by government, “prejudice against the rising cost of government,” and “a respect for the old.”

Media Bias/Fact Check (MBFC) rates The Federalist as having a far-right bias and as falling into the “Questionable Source” category. Sources in this category exhibit one or more of the following: “extreme bias, consistent promotion of propaganda/conspiracies, poor or no sourcing to credible information, a complete lack of transparency, and/or is fake news.” Specifically, they point to editorial positions that consistently favor the right and to content that promotes propaganda and conspiracy theories. Likewise, MBFC documents that The Federalist has numerous failed fact-checks, resulting in a “Mixed” rating for Factual Reporting. While MBFC does give some credit to the site for largely using credible sources, they also note that articles from the site contradict scientific consensus, such as on climate change, or offer completely false information, such as regarding the efficacy of masks against Covid-19. Additionally, The Federalist falsely made claims of large-scale election fraud while ballots were still being counted in the 2020 presidential election.

Who Owns The Federalist?

The Federalist is an independent division of FDRLST Media, founded by Ben Domenech and Sean Davis in 2013. While the site is funded partially through advertising, critics point out that this is insufficient to support its staff, and the site refuses to disclose its funding sources. There is some indication that Dick Uihlein, a billionaire packing supply magnate and ally of former president Trump, may be a major backer. A lack of transparency about the funding structure has led some to question what or who may be driving the site’s agenda.

Why Does It Matter?

News articles always have some 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.