A conservative media watchdog group says Apple News promoted more than 80 stories negatively framing Republican policy priorities in the weeks leading up to the midterm elections, while running no stories that framed those same issues positively.
The Media Research Center (MRC) reviewed Apple News’ top 20 stories each day from Sept. 15 to Sept. 30 and tallied how often the platform’s picks touched on 10 issues the group identified as Republican priorities based on recent polling: immigration and border security, the economy, law and order, reducing government spending, combating drug use, national security and foreign policy, taxes, countering terrorism, education and protecting the unborn.
According to the study, Apple News promoted 117 stories touching those issues during the review period. Of those, 84 stories, or 72%, carried negative headlines, and 33, or 28%, were neutral. None were found to present a Republican-aligned issue in a positive light.
MRC staffers Luis Cornelio and Madison Van Zant, who authored the study, wrote that the findings add to what they called a “growing body of evidence that the platform’s editors continue to curate its feeds to push a left-wing political agenda.”
They described the pattern this way: “In short, Apple News ensured that immigration was framed through court defeats and sensationalist stories; the economy through high gas prices; law and order through positive portrayals of police abolition; cuts to government through accusations of radicalism; foreign policy through portrayals of America’s adversaries as warriors; and efforts to curb waste through claims of unlawful cuts.”
MRC President David Bozell was blunt in his assessment of the results. “Apple News ran 84 negative headlines on Republican priorities and zero positive ones. Zero! My dentist finds more good news in a root canal,” he told Fox News Digital.
“Millions of voters open that app before they vote, and Apple’s editors are in there like a bartender who waters down only one party’s drinks. Come on, Apple, tell us who picks these stories and why Republicans got the whole bad-news buffet,” Bozell said.
Apple News comes preinstalled on every iPhone sold in the United States, giving it a wide reach among voters who use it as a source of daily headlines.
This is not the first time the platform has faced accusations of political bias. Fox News Digital previously reported that many of Apple’s top executives and board members have made substantial donations to Democrats over multiple election cycles. Some conservatives had hoped the platform might shift under new CEO John Ternus, but an earlier MRC study found that the percentage of stories from left-leaning outlets actually increased during his first month in charge.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest study.
