Have any US news organizations’ neutrality ratings changed significantly from 2020 to 2025?
Executive summary
There is reporting in 2025 from organizations that maintain media-bias ratings (notably AllSides and Ad Fontes) and new public-opinion trust surveys (Pew, YouGov), but the supplied results do not include systematic, source-by-source comparisons of how individual U.S. news organizations’ bias ratings changed between 2020 and 2025 (available sources do not mention a comprehensive year‑to‑year list) [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. What the rating organizations cover — and what they don’t
AllSides publishes an extensive Media Bias Chart and a database of over 2,400 rated outlets and describes its methodology as balancing thousands of everyday ratings with a politically balanced expert panel; its site in 2025 presents current ratings but the material supplied here does not include a historical 2020 vs. 2025 comparison for individual outlets [5] [1]. Ad Fontes Media likewise produces a Media Bias Chart and interactive tool to rate outlets on bias and reliability, but the provided Ad Fontes home and app pages describe methodology and current charts rather than showing a systematic multi‑year shift table in the documents provided [2] [6].
2. What the polling organizations show about trust (not the same as bias ratings)
Recent polls document changes in public trust and partisan gaps: YouGov’s 2025 trust study reports which outlets Americans find trustworthy in 2025 and notes partisan differences, but that work measures public trust and usage rather than a formal editorial bias rating or how a rating changed since 2020 [3]. Pew Research’s June 2025 report compares a 2025 snapshot of familiarity, use and views across 30 news sources and notes it is not directly comparable to prior surveys because of methodological differences; it therefore cannot be used by itself to claim precise rating shifts in bias from 2020 to 2025 [4].
3. Why it’s hard to show “significant” rating changes across 2020–2025 with the available material
Neither the AllSides pages nor the Ad Fontes pages provided include a downloadable or cited year‑by‑year dataset comparing ratings in 2020 and 2025 for named U.S. outlets in the search results supplied here, so available sources do not supply the raw comparisons needed to demonstrate which organizations changed “significantly” [5] [1] [2] [6]. Polling sources show shifts in trust metrics and partisan perceptions, but those are conceptually distinct from third‑party editorial bias ratings and—per Pew—are not directly comparable across years without careful methodological alignment [3] [4].
4. What kinds of evidence would prove a change, and where to find it
To demonstrate significant rating changes you need (a) the rating system used (e.g., AllSides’ panel method or Ad Fontes’ analyst scores), (b) the numerical ratings or positions for each outlet in 2020 and in 2025, and (c) an agreed threshold for “significant” movement. Both AllSides and Ad Fontes publish methodologies and current charts that would permit this analysis if their year‑stamped archives or historical dumps are accessed — but those archives or a 2020 snapshot are not included in the sources provided here [5] [1] [2] [6].
5. Alternative indicators reporters use when direct rating comparisons are absent
When direct longitudinal rating data are unavailable, journalists often rely on proxy measures: public‑opinion trust trends (YouGov, Pew), documented editorial-policy changes or masthead shifts at outlets, and independent fact‑check or reliability scores. The provided YouGov and Pew pieces show that Americans’ trust and partisan gaps in trust changed by 2025, offering partial context for reputation shifts even if they aren’t direct bias‑rating deltas [3] [4].
6. Competing perspectives and limitations you should know
Rating systems disagree on methods and emphasis: AllSides emphasizes crowd and panel balance across thousands of ratings [5], while Ad Fontes highlights analyst-based reliability and bias scoring [2]. Those methodological differences mean a move on one chart may not appear on another. Also, Pew warns about comparability across years when survey questions or sampling frames differ [4]. These are not trivial caveats — they shape whether a detected “change” is a real editorial shift, a change in measurer methodology, or a change in public perception.
7. Bottom line and recommended next steps for a conclusive answer
Available sources show that organizations exist to rate bias and that public trust metrics changed into 2025, but the supplied material does not provide a source‑by‑source, 2020‑to‑2025 comparison of media bias ratings [5] [1] [2] [3] [4]. To answer your original question conclusively, obtain year‑stamped rating data from AllSides and Ad Fontes (or archival snapshots), then compare outlet positions using a pre‑defined significance threshold; use Pew/YouGov trust data as supplementary context for reputational shifts [5] [1] [2] [3] [4].