Is Fox News Biased?
Executive summary
Major media-watchers and academic studies identify Fox News as having a conservative or right-leaning editorial posture, with evidence that its programming and opinion shows have influenced voting and public trust; independent ratings place Fox News in “Skews Right” or right‑biased categories, while internal documents and lawsuits have highlighted episodes of false or misleading coverage [1] [2] [3] [4]. Public perception is polarized: Pew finds 56% of Republicans trust Fox News while many Democrats distrust it, and research suggests Fox News entry modestly raised Republican vote share in some markets [5] [3].
1. What the ratings and watchdogs say — “Measured as right-leaning”
Media evaluators give Fox News a consistent rightward bias rating. Ad Fontes classifies the Fox News website in the “Skews Right” category and flags reliability caveats for analysis and other issues [1]. AllSides’ media-bias tools rate Fox News opinion content as right‑leaning and its overall online coverage shows a bias-meter value indicating a tilt; AllSides’ blind surveys and editorial reviews are cited in its methodology [2] [6]. These third‑party ratings converge on a characterization of Fox News as ideologically conservative rather than centrist [1] [2].
2. Academic evidence of political impact — “The Fox News effect”
Scholarly research finds measurable political consequences where Fox News became available. Economists DellaVigna and Kaplan, summarized by the NBER, concluded that the arrival of Fox News in cable markets produced a small but statistically significant boost in Republican vote share in presidential elections between 1996 and 2000 — evidence that media slant can affect voting behavior [3] [7]. That study is widely cited in debates about whether outlet bias changes political outcomes [7].
3. Internal documents and legal scrutiny — “Behind-the-scenes contradictions”
Court filings and documents released in the Smartmatic defamation litigation have exposed internal tensions at Fox. Reporting on exhibits and internal surveys shows staff concerns about political alignment and raised questions about editorial practices after the 2020 election; those materials are central to Smartmatic’s suit over false broadcast claims [4] [8]. The disclosure of text messages and emails in related reporting suggests a gap between some on-air assertions and what company leaders or employees privately acknowledged [9] [4].
4. Criticism for false or partisan reporting — “Patterns cited by critics”
Critics, academics and watchdog groups have repeatedly accused Fox News of favoring Republican positions and portraying Democrats negatively; Wikipedia’s synthesis of reporting notes identification of biased and in some instances false reporting in favor of conservative causes [10] [8]. Media Bias/Fact Check characterizes Fox News as right-biased and, in an updated 2025 assessment, raises concerns about promotion of conspiratorial or poorly sourced claims in some opinion-driven content [11]. These critiques focus largely on editorial decisions and opinion programming rather than day‑to‑day beat reporting [11].
5. Audience trust and political polarization — “Trusted by some, distrusted by others”
Public attitudes reflect partisan sorting: Pew found Fox News is the most trusted source among Republicans — 56% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents said they trust Fox News, while Democrats are more likely to distrust it [5]. Roughly 38% of Americans said they regularly get news from Fox in a 2025 survey, illustrating significant reach even amid polarized trust [5].
6. Alternative viewpoints and limits of the record — “What the sources don’t say”
Available sources document bias allegations, ratings and political effects, but they also show nuance: Ad Fontes and AllSides assess different parts of the outlet (website vs. opinion shows) separately, and scholars debate methods for measuring bias [1] [2] [7]. Sources do not present a single, uncontested metric that proves “biased” in all output; instead they differentiate straight reporting from opinion programming and provide mixed judgments about reliability and influence [11] [1]. Available sources do not mention a definitive, source-wide score that quantifies bias for every Fox output.
7. Bottom line for readers — “How to judge Fox News”
If your question is whether Fox News is politically neutral, the balance of external ratings, scholarship and recent litigation strongly supports the conclusion that the network skews conservative and its opinion programming aligns with Republican perspectives; those elements also appear to have had electoral impact and produced legal scrutiny over false election claims [1] [3] [4]. At the same time, Fox retains large audiences and trust among Republicans, and some straight news reporting is evaluated separately from opinion shows [5] [11]. Choose stories with source checks, compare coverage across outlets, and treat opinion programming as advocacy rather than neutral reporting [11] [1].