ABC News (Online)

Note: AllSides rates online content on ABCnews.com only. AllSides does not rate the bias of radio or TV content.

• ABC News Shows Story Choice Bias in 2025 Bias Analysis
• ABC News Rated Lean Left in Aug./Sept. 2024 Blind Bias Survey
• ABC News Rated Lean Left in Aug. 2024 Editorial Review
• ABC News Rated Lean Right in July 2024 Blind Bias Survey
• ABC News Bias Rated Lean Left, Close to Left in April/May 2021 Blind Bias Survey
• ABC News Bias Rated on Border of Left and Lean Left in Jan. 2013 Blind Bias Survey

ABC News Shows Story Choice Bias: AllSides 2025 “Shaping the Narrative” Bias Analysis

In April 2025, AllSides’ “Shaping the Narrative” bias analysis examined which topics were most frequently reported on in outlets across the political spectrum. The analysis revealed potential story choice bias — a form of media bias that reveals which perspectives, information, or angles the outlet perceives as most important.

The most prevalent topic covered by ABC News was the Trump Administration, appearing in 20% of 140 articles analyzed. The next four most prevalent topics were Immigration (17%), Politics (17%), and Crime (15%).

ABC News, displayed notable instances of bias against the Trump administration and offered favorable framing for immigration and Democratic politics-adjacent stories. While the outlet did not always display such bias, the outlet was sufficiently biased for a Lean Left label.

During a 14-day period from April 9 – 22, 2025, AllSides pulled the top 10 articles on each outlets’ homepage — 140 total articles per outlet. Read the entire report here.

ABC News Rated Lean Left in Aug./Sept. 2024 Blind Bias Survey

Note: In Sept. 2024, AllSides weighted three recent bias reviews to arrive at a final bias rating for ABC, Lean Left (-1.42). To arrive at this final rating, we weighted the July 2024 Blind Bias Survey by 15%, the Aug. 2024 Editorial Review by 60%, and the Aug./Sept. 2024 Blind Survey by 25%.

ABC News was rated Lean Left (-2.76) in an Aug./Sept. 2024 Blind Bias Survey. A total of 589 people across the political spectrum rated the bias of ABC News in this survey.

Respondents who self-identified being on the right rated ABC News as Left on average, while respondents in the center and on the left rated the outlet as Lean Left.

On average, Democrats and Independents rated ABC News as Lean Left, while Republicans rated it as Left.

ABC News Rated Lean Left in Aug. 2024 Editorial Review

An Aug. 2024 Editorial Review by an AllSides mulitpartisan panel resulted in a rating of Lean Left (-1.51) for ABC News.

In general, reviewers across the political spectrum said ABC News showed Lean Left story choice, with stories mostly focused on Democrats. ABC also appeared “more Center than they were expecting,” with some stories very balanced. Other stories, however, didn’t expand on the Republican or conservative side of issues sufficiently. The panel also flagged Lean Left word choice, such as “unhoused people,” “noncitizens,” “gender-affirming healthcare” and “sex assigned at birth.”

Some stories about Harris policies did not include criticisms of the policies. Panelists also noted “Project 2025” appeared at the very top of the page as a key topic; the project is often used as a way to criticize Trump, so this appeared as a Lean Left focus. 

Stories reviewed included but were not limited to:

• Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro on how Kamala Harris is appealing to his state's voters
• Judge says trans teen can play on girls' team
• 7 convicted of blocking access to abortion clinic
• Trump claims he's 'better looking,' continues personal attacks toward Harris
• MORE: What does 'woke' mean and why are some conservatives using it?
  • A Lean Right reviewer argued this piece did “not do a good job at all of explaining why conservatives are against it. In fact the definition they give makes it sound like conservatives are opposing something inherently reasonable — addressing systemic inequality. They gloss over that Republicans a) disagree that some of those inequalities are the result of policy or discrimination and b) that some of the progressive proposals would, in their view, create unfair playing fields by doing away with things like meritocracy or by implementing redistributionist policies, hiring based on identity characteristics, etc.”
• Russian authorities urge citizens to avoid social media, dating sites in areas where Ukraine is attacking
  • A Lean Left reviewer said this was “pleasantly unbiased. It refrained from giving the Ukrainians halos and the Russians horns, or vice versa.”
• Young kids with long COVID more likely to have headaches while teens struggle with fatigue: Study
  • A Lean Left reviewer said long COVID is “definitely more of a liberal concern.”
• Abortion-rights ballot measures may not help Democrats as much as they think
  • A Lean Left reviewer flagged a photo of pro-life supporters and called this “largely neutral and fact based, though headline framing could be interpreted as Lean Right: ‘may not help Democrats.’”

ABC News Rated Lean Right in July 2024 Blind Bias Survey

ABC News was rated Lean Right (1.18) in the July 2024 Blind Bias Survey. A total of 478 respondents rated the bias. This rating differed from AllSides’ current rating of Lean Left (-2.40) at the time, and triggered the Aug. 2024 Editorial Review.

AllSides speculates this outlier response is because the survey content was collected on July 15 and 18, 2024, which were just days after the July 14 assassination attempt of Donald Trump. 

The focus on Trump likely impacted the blind reviewers’ perception of ABC. For example, here are some of the headlines respondents reviewed:

July 15: 

• Trump shooting live updates: Building where gunman was found was officer staging area
• Judge dismisses Donald Trump's classified documents case
• Biden calls to 'lower the temperature in our politics' in wake of Trump shooting
• RNC 2024 Day 1 live updates: Trump makes VP pick, passes on Rubio and Burgum
• Truth Social stock soars after shooting at rally

And July 18: 

• Trump rally gunman purportedly left message on gaming platform before shooting
• Alabama man to be executed by lethal injection
• More Americans apply for jobless benefits
• What Trump shooter did in the hours before attack
• NTSB chief: People underestimate marijuana impact

This survey triggered the Aug. Editorial Review, which rated ABC News as Lean Left. The Lean Right rating was incorporated into the final rating for ABC News, but was weighted less to account for outlier conditions. 

Respondents on the left rated ABC News as Lean Right, on average, while respondents on the right and in the center rated it as Center, and on the right side. On average, Democrats rated ABC News as Lean Right while Independents and Republicans rated the outlet as Center, and on the right side.

ABC News Rated Lean Left, Close to Left in April/May 2021 Blind Bias Survey

The results of our April/May 2021 Blind Bias Survey returned a Lean Left rating for ABC News’ bias.

A total of 1,147 people across the political spectrum rated ABC News Lean Left on average.

People who self-identified as having a personal bias of Right rated ABC News as Left on average, and people with a Lean Right bias rated ABC as on the border of Left and Lean Left. All other bias groups rated ABC News as Lean Left on average. The average rating of all groups together was Lean Left.

A plurality of respondents who rate themselves as Lean Left rated ABC News as Center. Pluralities of people with a Left, Center, and Lean Right bias rated ABC Lean Left; a plurality of people with a Right bias rated ABC Left.

ABC Bias Rated on Border of Lean Left and Left in January 2013 Blind Bias Survey

The results from an AllSides January 2013 Blind Bias Survey found ABC News bias (website content only) lies on the border line between Lean Left and Left, with a flat normalized score of 1.83 and a raw score of 1.79.

ABC News was founded in 1945 and is now owned by The Walt Disney Company. ABC began as a radio network in 1943. The news and information channel has many different broadcast programs, including ABC World News Tonight, Nightline, 20/20, Good Morning America, and more. According to AllSides analysis and multiple third-party sources, ABC News is more "blue" than it is "red."

Third Party Analysis of ABC News Bias

A 2005 UCLA study, based on the television news program rather than the website, gave ABC News a Center rating though very close to Lean Left.

According to a study by The Economist, which looked at whether news outlets used words more often associated with Democrats and Republicans and assigned those outlets an ideological score, ABC’s evening news had a Democratic leaning of around 1.5 Democrat-leaning phrases per 10,000 in 2017. By 2022, its left-of-center slant had grown to 2.5.

Political Bias of ABC News Audience

According to the 2014 Pew Research Study, Where News Audiences Fit on the Political Spectrum, roughly 37% of ABC News readers hold political values to the left-of-center or left. About 41% of ABC News's audience is considered mixed or center (compared with 36% of all respondents to the survey). 21% of ABC News's audience is right-of-center or right (compared with 26% of all respondents to the survey).

Political Contributions by ABC Employees

The financial contributions of media outlet employees to political campaigns don't impact our ratings — we rate content only — but we add this information in the interest of transparency. During the 2008 election, 1,160 employees from ABC News and two other major broadcast television networks donated a total of $1,020,816 to the Democratic Party. A total of 193 donations were made, totaling $142,863, to the Republican Party, according to an analysis by The Washington Examiner of data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.

The Walt Disney Company owns the ABC television network. In 1995, Disney acquired the ABC television network in a $19 Billion merger with CapCities. The Walt Disney Company owns other cable networks including, ESPN and Lifetime and numerous other radio stations, publishing and production companies. Disney is publicly traded. Robert Iger is the Executive Chairman and Chairman of the Board of the Walt Disney Company.

Financing and ownership information last updated February 22, 2021. If you think this information is out of date or needs to be updated, please contact us.