Media Bias Alert: Axios, Kamala Harris, and the ‘Border Czar’ Moniker

Axios (Lean Left bias) came under fire on Wednesday for an article it published that tied “the Trump campaign and Republicans” to the dubbing of Vice President Kamala Harris as the “border czar.”

Axios wrote that Kamala “never actually had” the title. However, in a 2021 article titled “Harris to visit Mexico and Guatemala to address ‘root causes’ of border crossings,” Axios itself referred to Harris as the “border czar.”

After significant criticism on X, Axios amended Wednesday’s article with an editor’s note: “This article has been updated and clarified to note that Axios was among the news outlets that incorrectly labeled Harris a ‘border czar’ in 2021.”

For Context

The term “czar” is derived from the Russian word “tsar,” historically used to describe a monarch. Despite the historical connotation of the term, it’s been used more informally in American politics on both the right and left to describe “high-level officials who oversee a particular policy,” per Wikipedia.

For instance, in April 2022 President Biden appointed Nina Jankowicz as head of the Department of Homeland Security’s newly formed Disinformation Governance Board. Several conservative outlets such as Fox News (Right bias) and National Review (Lean Right bias) referred to Jankowicz as the “disinformation czar.” Politico (Lean Left bias) also used the term in 2023, after Jankowicz had stepped down and the Board was scrapped.

AllSides Analysis

At the time of publishing its 2021 article, Axios’ AllSides Media Bias Rating™ was Center. In 2023, however, a Blind Bias Survey and Editorial Review led AllSides to move the outlet’s rating to Lean Left.

Though the 2021 and 2024 articles were published by different authors, both remain on Axios’ permanent staff.

In its editor’s note on Wednesday, Axios said it was “among” the publications that used the “border czar” moniker “incorrectly,” though publications that have described Harris as the “border czar” appear to have mostly been on the right.

At the time of publishing on Google News, which AllSides has found to heavily favor the left, the query “Kamala border czar” from 2021 to 2023 returned coverage from The New York Post (Lean Right bias), Washington Examiner (Lean Right bias), and the conservative think tank Center for Immigration Studies.

Conversely, in April 2021, The Washington Post (Lean Left bias) ran the headline, “Republicans try to crown Harris the ‘border czar.’ She rejects the title.”

In another article from March 2021 about Biden’s appointment of Harris to handle border policy, Axios did not describe her as a “czar,” but rather as being “in charge.”

While it does appear that labeling Harris the “border czar” has primarily come from the right, the word “czar” itself in the American political context appears to be in more of a grey zone.

Nonetheless, critics have correctly pointed out that Axios is aiming to blame former President Trump and conservatives for “the ‘border czar’ narrative,” as it called it in this week’s article, despite previously embracing the term.

Andy Gorel is a News Editor and Bias Analyst at AllSides. He has a Center bias.

This piece was edited and reviewed by Henry A. Brechter, AllSides Editor-in-Chief (Center bias), Olivia Geno, News and Bias Assistant (Lean Right bias), and Evan Wagner, News Editor and Bias Analyst (Lean Left bias).