Which outlets do AllSides and Ad Fontes explicitly list as 'Lean Left' in their latest ratings?
Executive summary
bias-rating-systems">AllSides explicitly assigns certain mainstream outlets — including The New York Times and The Washington Post — to its “Lean Left” box, according to reporting that cites AllSides’ ratings [1]. Ad Fontes, by contrast, does not list those two outlets as “Lean Left” in the cited material: Ad Fontes rates The New York Times and The Washington Post as neutral, and its methodology and charting differ from AllSides’ [1] [2]. The sources supplied do not contain a complete exportable list of every outlet each organization currently labels “Lean Left,” so any claim beyond named examples would require consulting each group’s live charts or databases [3] [2].
1. How the two organizations label bias — and why those labels matter
AllSides frames its chart as a five-box spectrum (Left, Lean Left, Center, Lean Right, Right) focused solely on political bias and places outlets into those discrete categories based on a combination of blind surveys, editorial review and reviewer panels [4] [3]. Ad Fontes takes a different approach: it publishes an interactive chart that evaluates both bias and reliability, uses multi-analyst review panels with internal balance testing, and includes broadcast as well as online outlets — meaning direct label comparisons can diverge because the two projects have distinct methodologies and scopes [2] [1].
2. Concrete, documentable examples from the provided reporting
The clearest explicit example available in the reporting is that AllSides rates The New York Times and The Washington Post as “Lean Left,” while Ad Fontes rates those same outlets as neutral — a specific contrast cited in an analysis of Twitter’s amplification patterns [1]. That citation also notes AllSides treats The New York Times’ Opinion section separately and assigns it a more leftward label, illustrating AllSides’ practice of sometimes splitting outlets into distinct segments when labeling [1].
3. Why the two groups disagree on individual outlets
Discrepancies such as the NYT/WaPo labeling arise from methodological differences that are spelled out in the sources: Ad Fontes uses multi-analyst review panels calibrated by internal ideology tests and explicitly rates accuracy/reliability in addition to bias, while AllSides emphasizes a simpler left–center–right placement derived from blind surveys, editorial reviews and public input [4] [2]. Those structural choices — what gets measured, how samples are chosen, and whether an outlet’s opinion pages are separated — drive different placements for the same outlet [1] [3].
4. Limits of the available reporting and what cannot be claimed
None of the supplied sources provides a comprehensive, current enumeration of every outlet each organization labels “Lean Left”; the AllSides media-bias chart and Ad Fontes’ interactive chart are the canonical places to see full listings but the provided excerpts do not reproduce those full lists for verification here [3] [2]. Therefore, beyond the named examples that the reporting explicitly cites, it would be speculative to list other outlets as “Lean Left” for either organization without consulting their live charts or datasets [3] [2].
5. Interpretation and practical guidance for readers
Readers should understand that “Lean Left” on AllSides is a categorical placement on a political-bias axis, not an absolute judgment of accuracy, whereas Ad Fontes separates bias from reliability and may therefore place the same outlet differently [4] [2]. The documented NYT/WaPo divergence illustrates how different rating philosophies yield differing labels; anyone seeking a full list of “Lean Left” outlets should examine each organization’s interactive chart or database directly to obtain the updated, complete roster because bias ratings are periodically reviewed and revised [3] [2].