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Fact check: What are the most widely read liberal online news sources in the US as of 2025?
Executive Summary
The available data indicate that, by 2025, mainstream national outlets commonly labeled “liberal” — notably The New York Times, CNN, and HuffPost (Huffington Post) — rank among the most widely read online news sources in the United States, with The New York Times often cited as the single most‑visited news site in several datasets. Traffic‑based rankings and media‑bias inventories produce overlapping but not identical lists, and differences arise from varying definitions of “liberal,” the metrics used (unique visitors, pageviews, time on site), and the inclusion or exclusion of broadcast and international outlets. These qualifications matter: raw visitor counts place CNN, HuffPost and NYT at the top in some compendia, while media‑bias charts and broader industry reports highlight other mainstream outlets (e.g., The Washington Post, MSNBC) as influential for liberal audiences, making any single ranked list an incomplete portrait [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. What the source claims reveal — the headline players and their positions
Multiple analyses converge on a short roster of widely read outlets that are frequently characterized as liberal by third parties: CNN, Huffington Post (HuffPost), and The New York Times appear repeatedly at or near the top of traffic‑based lists compiled around 2024–2025. One traffic ranking explicitly reports unique‑visitor figures — for example listing CNN with roughly 144.2 million, HuffPost with 125.5 million, and The New York Times with about 100.4 million unique visitors — signaling very large national reach for these properties [1]. Other compendia and monthly traffic trackers show The New York Times and CNN among the most visited U.S. news sites generally, which bolsters the case that these outlets are among the most widely read by American online audiences; the pattern across datasets is consistent even when exact numbers differ [1] [3].
2. How definitions and measurement choices change the ranking picture
Ranking “most widely read liberal online news sources” depends crucially on definitions and metrics: “liberal” is a label applied by media‑bias charts, surveys, and marketing lists rather than an objective classification, and “most widely read” can mean unique visitors, pageviews, active users, or audience engagement. A media‑bias chart that covers 122 sources recommends certain outlets like CNN and The New York Times as relatively reliable and places them on the left‑of‑center spectrum, but it does not provide visitor totals; traffic compilations provide numbers but rest on sampling and commercial analytics with differing methodologies [4] [5]. These methodological differences explain why outlets appear in different orders across sources; no single dataset resolves both ideological labeling and audience size simultaneously [4] [1].
3. Eyewitness metrics: what the traffic numbers actually show
Where traffic figures are published, they demonstrate substantial reach for the top outlets. The cited ranking lists specific unique‑visitor counts that put CNN and HuffPost in the triple‑digit millions and The New York Times also in the triple‑digit range — a scale that exceeds many purely digital native progressive sites and specialty progressive outlets. Monthly traffic snapshots produced by commercial trackers similarly place legacy national newspapers and cable news brands at the top of U.S. news consumption charts, with The New York Times repeatedly named as the most‑visited news site in some reports [1] [3]. These numbers underline that mainstream national outlets, even when labeled liberal, dominate online news consumption by scale.
4. Missing pieces and competing viewpoints that matter to interpretation
Traffic alone omits crucial context: trust, ideological audience composition, platform distribution, and social amplification. Industry reports and surveys in 2025 show declining trust in traditional news media overall and rising importance of social and video platforms for news discovery, which shifts how “most read” translates into political influence [5]. Niche progressive outlets (e.g., Common Dreams) and opinion‑focused brands are influential in activist circles despite smaller raw traffic; conversely, broad‑reach outlets may have ideologically diverse audiences. Any authoritative answer must therefore combine traffic data with audience demographics and platform behavior to capture influence, not just reach [5] [6].
5. Practical takeaway — how to interpret “most widely read liberal sources” going forward
For readers seeking a defensible short list in 2025, rely on a hybrid approach: treat The New York Times, CNN, and HuffPost as the leading candidates for “most widely read” when using broad traffic metrics, while recognizing that outlets like The Washington Post, MSNBC, and major digital natives may rank differently depending on the dataset and the ideological labeling scheme used. Industry trackers, media‑bias compilations, and periodic traffic snapshots should be consulted together; no single list is definitive. For research or reporting, cite the specific metric (unique visitors, pageviews) and date, and where possible triangulate across traffic reports and audience‑trust surveys to portray both reach and influence [1] [4] [3].