Apple News continues to push content from left-leaning news organizations and frame information about President Donald Trump in a negative light, according to studies conducted by the Media Research Center (MRC).
The MRC, a conservative media watchdog, previously found Apple News took a “decidedly leftist turn” after comparing content during the final month of former CEO Tim Cook’s tenure to the first month after new CEO John Ternus took control on Sept 1. The group then monitored Apple News through October and found the news aggregator continued to largely promote left-leaning outlets in the lead up to midterm elections.
Apple News promoted only 11 stories from right-leaning outlets out of a total of 504 published stories through the first 27 days of October, according to the MRC. More than two out of every three stories came from a publication that media bias rating site AllSides considers left-leaning, as 67.3% were from liberal outlets and only 2% came from right-leaning outlets.
The study found that Apple News, which comes preinstalled on every iPhone in America, was consistent with the percentage of stories from left-leaning outlets in each month since Ternus took control and noticed a slight bump in content from right-leaning outlets in his second month at the helm.
However, nearly half of the content from right-leaning organizations was framed negatively against either the Trump administration or Republicans in general, according to the MRC.
“For months the media has been claiming that Trump is on the ballot for the midterm elections. Given that Apple News has run only eleven stories from right-leaning outlets in October leading up to the election and nearly half were framed negatively against Trump, it’s apparent how Apple under John Ternus hopes the election turns out,” MRC Free Speech America Dan Schneider told Fox News Digital.
The MRC also examined Apple News stories related directly to President Trump and found that all of them were negative.
From Oct. 1 through Oct. 28, the MRC found that Apple News promoted 96 stories with Trump’s name in the headline and 49 of them framed the president negatively, while none framed him positively and 47 were considered neutral.
“The MRC found that Apple News has promoted some headlines that characterized Trump as an antisemite, an irrational bully of U.S. allies and a Russian sympathizer,” MRC editor Luis Cornelio wrote about his findings. “Other headlines promoted his administration’s legal setbacks, alleged failures to control prices and the outrage its policies have generated, all products of Apple News’s leftist tilt. In contrast, Apple News overlooked numerous available headlines that presented Trump, his administration and their policies in a positive light.”
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Apple News has long been accused of having a liberal bias, and Fox News Digital reported earlier this year that many of the company’s top executives and board members have made substantial contributions to Democrats in various election cycles. MRC President David Bozell doesn’t believe the latest studies will do anything to change the tech behemoth’s reputation.
“Ninety-six Trump headlines. Forty-nine negative. Zero positive. Apple’s editors choose the top stories by hand, and the scoreboard shows what they chose. Somebody at Apple owns the zero,” Bozell told Fox News Digital.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.