As one of the biggest names in news, ABC News is often classified as “mainstream media” and therefore has been the subject of some scrutiny in recent years. The news organization has substantial resources, an extensive network of reporters and journalists, and a clear commitment to journalistic principles, but it has also been accused of having a liberal bias. So, how reliable and biased is ABC News?
Note: This article is specific to online content from ABC News, not its television or other media presence.
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 239 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 ABC News?
ABC News scored an average Factual Grade of 67.7%, placing it in the 68th percentile in our dataset, above the average score of 62.5%. ABC News scores relatively well due to a number of factors, including its experienced authors, extensive sourcing, and neutral reporting. ABC has many reporters with dedicated areas of coverage, meaning they routinely cover the same topics and bring relevant expertise to their reporting. Articles from ABC News also provide thorough evidence to support their claims. Finally, ABC’s reporting is largely from a neutral perspective and tends to eschew sensational headlines and language.
Like any news source, scores for ABC News varied widely based on the four factors we analyzed. For example, some scored above 80%, while others scored below 60%.
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How Opinionated Is ABC News?
The Factual measures how opinionated an article is using a sophisticated natural language processing algorithm, producing a score called the Writing Tone. For this metric, the algorithm looks for signs of subjective commentary (e.g., first person pronouns, unnecessary adverbs), as well as the emotional nature of selected words, and sees how prevalent they are for a given length of text. Text which is less opinionated gets higher ratings, with “0” being the most opinionated and “1” being the most neutral.
ABC News had an average Writing Tone score of 0.84, the highest score for any site that we analyzed. This suggests that articles from the site tend to use exceptionally neutral wording.
What Is the Political Bias of ABC News?
The Factual classifies news sites by political bias as either Left, Moderate Left, Center, Moderate Right, or Right. This classification is derived from third-party assessments from media bias organizations such as AllSides and Media Bias/Fact Check (MBFC). Based on this data, The Factual assigns ABC News a “Moderate Left” bias.
AllSides assigns ABC News a “Lean Left” classification based on blind surveys, third-party analysis, independent research, and 56,248 community ratings. The most recent analysis, a 2021 blind survey, found that 1,147 people across the political spectrum rated ABC News as “Lean Left” on average. Other research, such as a cited 2014 Pew Research study, reinforces this assessment. The Pew study found that 37% of the site’s audience identifies as left-of-center or left and 41% identifies as mixed or center.
MBFC classifies ABC News as having “Left-Center” bias due to “story selection and word choices that moderately favor the left.” The site also receives a “High” score for factual reporting based on proper sourcing and very few fact-checking issues. MBFC supports this classification by providing evidence of biased headlines, such as “Trump: No regrets for praising Greg Gianforte for body-slamming reporter.”
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Who Owns ABC News?
ABC News is owned by Walt Disney Television and ultimately the Walt Disney Company. The close association between ABC's online and television content makes it difficult to characterize how this ownership might play a role. Following a recent controversy, Disney CEO Bob Chapek stated: “I don't really see Disney as characterizing itself as left leaning or right leaning, (but) instead standing for values, values that are universal, values of respect, values of decency, values of integrity and values of inclusion.” Elsewhere, Disney recently joined a growing list of companies that agreed not to make campaign contributions to politicians who voted against certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election.
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.
Note: This page was updated on September 13, 2022 to reflect new data.