CBS News (Online)

Note: AllSides rates the bias of online media only, not print, television, or radio content.

• CBS News Rated Lean Left in Jan. 2026 Editorial Review, Dec. 2025 Blind Bias Survey
• CBS News Rated Lean Left in Sept 2024 Small Group Editorial Review
• CBS Bias Rated Lean Left in May 2021 Blind Bias Survey

CBS News Rated Lean Left in Jan. 2026 Editorial Review, Dec. 2025 Blind Bias Survey

AllSides moved CBS News' bias rating slightly leftward, from -1.5 to -1.69, still in the Lean Left category, after conducting two in-depth bias reviews in Dec. 2025 and Jan. 2026.

In the Dec. 2025 Blind Bias Survey of Americans, 382 people across the political spectrum rated content from CBS News as firmly Lean Left, -1.52 on the AllSides Media Bias Meter™. 

An expert Editorial Review of CBS, in which a multipartisan panel trained to spot media bias assessed CBS News, was also Lean Left, or -1.92 on the AllSides Media Bias Meter.

After weighing this data with a review from Sept. 2024, the final, overall rating for CBS News remains Lean Left (-1.69).

CBS News Rated Lean Left in Dec. 2025 Blind Bias Survey

Across bias categories, CBS News results were consistent — for those who rated their own personal bias as Left, Lean Left, Center, Lean Right, or Right, and those who identified themselves as Republican, Democrat, or Independent, respondents in all bias categories rated CBS News as Lean Left on average.

Respondents in all age categories rated CBS News as Lean Left on average, too, except for respondents aged 25-34, who rated CBS News as Left.

CBS News Rated Lean Left in Jan. 2026 Editorial Review

A Jan. 2026 AllSides Editorial Review also resulted in a Lean Left rating for CBS News (-1.92 on the AllSides Bias Meter). 

While some CBS News articles were balanced and neutral, others showed slant, bias by omission, bias by viewpoint/information placement, story choice bias, and other types of bias. The panel concluded CBS News’ overall editorial approach still favors left-leaning narratives. Panelists identified Democratic perspectives appearing more often than conservative viewpoints.

A Lean Right reviewer said CBS News showed “major slant,” with “pro-Trump or conservative views largely absent.” The reviewer added that CBS News coverage was “slanted against Trump policies, ICE action, and Kristi Noem,” as the killing of Alex Pretti at the hands of ICE officers dominated the news at the time of review. The panelist noted CBS News was slanted against ICE, with “all perspectives critical of or against the Trump administration.”

While most panelists rated CBS News Left or Lean Left, one panelist who has a Lean Left bias rated it Center, but just barely inside that category (-0.9). The reviewer stated that CBS News’ bias varied by article.

A Center reviewer said CBS News showed “attempts at balanced word choice” and found parts of the shooting of Alex Pretti coverage to be “pretty balanced,” but concluded that “lots of left-leaning story choices keep it Lean Left.” The reviewer also flagged an increasing reliance on anonymous sourcing.

Here is a sampling of article-level bias analysis by panelists:

• Trump policies at odds with emerging understanding of COVID's long-term harm
  • Positions Trump administration as at odds with reality, instead of just laying out both sides objectively
  • Focus on Long COVID may be of more interest to the left.
  • Elite bias: Positions many researchers in opposition to Trump administration
  • Slant (emphasis ours): “Trump administration officials led by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have reduced access to COVID vaccines despite the lack of any new, substantiated evidence of harm. Though the shots were a hallmark achievement of the first Trump administration, which led the effort for their development, Kennedy has said without evidence that they are ‘the deadliest vaccine ever made.’”
• Josh Shapiro on a life of service and faith
  • Lean Left story choice bias
  • Panelists noted a “glowing” profile on the Democrat
• 5-year-old taken into custody by ICE has active immigration case, preventing deportation for now
  • Misleading headline: Makes it sound like ICE was targeting a 5-year-old
  • Slant: A Lean Right reviewer noted the following graf “makes it sound like ICE specifically targeted a 5 year old, when in reality the child’s father had fled, leaving the boy alone and forcing ICE to keep the child with them”: “The ICE operation that led Liam Adrian Conejo Ramos and his father to be taken into government custody, captured on videos and photos that have gone viral, has garnered national attention and raised questions about who exactly the Trump administration is targeting in its mass deportation campaign.”
  • Bias by Placement: Does not get to the official narrative — that the father, not the child, was being targeted — until paragraph 13.
• “"A terrible miscalculation": Officials' response to fatal Minneapolis shooting causes anger among some at DHS”
  • Slant/Subjective qualifying adjectives: “Soon after Minneapolis ICU nurse Alex Pretti was shot and killed by a U.S. Border Patrol agent, top Trump administration officials made sweeping, categorical statements about the deadly shooting before a full investigation had begun.”
  • Journalists should state what was said without interpreting it for the reader.
  • Bias by omission/spin words/subjective qualifying adjectives: “In Good's case, top Trump administration officials also made broad accusations early on, branding her a "domestic terrorist" and alleging that she had sought to injure the ICE officer. Lawyers representing Good's family have said the Minneapolis mother and her partner were observing ICE activity.”
  • Does not mention video of Good appearing to drive her car toward the agent. 
• Judge in Minnesota orders ICE chief to appear in court, warns of possible contempt proceedings
  • Bias by omission: Trump side not quoted at all. Judge who ordered the chief to appear in court is quoted throughout.
  • Center word choice: “immigrants who came to the U.S. illegally” 
• Growing number of Republicans criticize Trump officials' response to Alex Pretti's shooting
  • Lean Left story choice
  • No similar piece on Republican commentators who have argued protestors obstructing federal operations may lead to negative outcomes.
• American Academy of Pediatrics releases childhood vaccine recommendations that differ from CDC
  • Balanced: Ample quoting from different sides and from neutral observers, does not paint one side as right or wrong, gives the facts.
  • Word choice neutrality: Describes RFK Jr. as “vaccine critic” — more balanced than other Lean Left sources who say bluntly “anti-vaccine,” which removes the nuance of his stance.
  • Bias by viewpoint placement: Pro-vaccine viewpoints placed higher in the story
• Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro says Minneapolis immigration crackdown "must be terminated," says Noem should be fired 
  • Lean Left/Center story choice
  • Bias by viewpoint omission: A Lean Left reviewer said the piece “does little to explain arguments for keeping Noem in or reasons why people saw justification in the shooting of Pretti.” 
• Trump officials predict a 2026 economic boom. Here's what experts say. 
  • Center
  • Opens with quotes from Trump administration and justification around numbers
  • Provides skepticism from experts, seemingly well balanced. 

CBS News Rated Lean Left in Sept. 2024 Small Group Editorial Review

CBS online news was rated Lean Left (-1.5) in a Small Group Editorial Review by three reviewers on the left, center, and right on Sept. 30, 2024, confirming AllSides' rating for CBS online news at the time.

Reviewers noted that there was "constant negative framing of [Republican presidential candidate Donald] Trump; more neutral/positive coverage toward [Democratic candidate Kamala] Harris." Election coverage overall was more willing to frame Trump negatively and Harris positively. 

Coverage reviewed included but was not limited to:

• Trump and allies mischaracterize data on immigrants with criminal convictions. Here's context on what the numbers actually show.
• A top DJT investor says it has sold most of its shares in Trump Media 
  • Negativity bias toward Trump- related matters.
• Trump levies more personal attacks on Harris in Wisconsin rally
  • Reviewers noted there were no comparable articles stating Harris was "attacking” Trump
• Harris vows to keep Biden's border crackdown
  • A Lean Right reviewer said this piece was "Lean Left, because whether or not Biden has ACTUALLY cracked down is subjective. Many people believe he hasn't."
• Wyoming may tweak law allowing killing of wolves with vehicles
  • A Lean Left reviewer said this had "Lean Left story choice and framing; makes it seem like "hicks" are cruel to animals."
• What to know about JD Vance's views and policy record before the VP debate
• Election officials say threats are escalating ahead of 2024 vote: "A heightened state of anxiety" 

CBS News Rated Lean Left in April/May 2021 Blind Bias Survey

On average, people across the political spectrum rated CBS news as Lean Left in our April/May 2021 Blind Bias Surv

A total of 1,455 people rated the bias of CBS in this survey. The average rating for CBS News from people across the political spectrum — people who identified as Left, Lean Left, Center, Lean Right, or Right — was Lean Left.

Among the groups of people who self-identified as Left, Lean Left, Center, or Lean Right, a plurality of respondents rated CBS News as Center. A plurality of respondents who rated themselves as Right rated CBS News as Lean Left. The second most common response for CBS from people with a Right bias was Center; the second most common response from people from all other bias groups was Lean Left.

How Many Americans Trust CBS: 2025 Data

According to Pew Research Center's data on news trust:

• 39% of Americans say they trust CBS as a source of news
• 23% of Americans distrust CBS

Among political groups:

• 23% of Republicans/Lean Rs trust CBS
• 56% of Democrats/Lean Ds trust CBS
• 40% of Republicans/Lean Rs distrust CBS
• 6% of Democrats/Lean Ds distrust CBS

Third-Party Accusations of Bias

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, CBS’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 Contributions by CBS Employees: 2008 Data

In the 2008 election, CBS employees, along with the employees of two other two major broadcast television networks, donated $1,020,816 to the Democratic Party, while donating $142,863 to the Republican Party, according to an analysis by The Washington Examiner of data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. (AllSides does not factor this data into its media bias ratings for these networks, but provides them as an FYI to our readers).

Political Bias of CBS News' Audience: 2014 Data

According to the 2014 Pew Research Study, Where News Audiences Fit on the Political Spectrum, 40% of CBS News’s audience holds political values to the political left or left-of-center. About 20% of CBS News's audience holds right or right-of-center political values (compared with 38% of all respondents to the survey). Roughly 39% of CBS News's audience is considered to have mixed or center-aligned political values (compared with 36% of all respondents to the survey).

About CBS

According to Wikipedia, "CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the CBS Evening News, CBS This Morning, news magazine programs CBS News Sunday Morning, 60 Minutes, and 48 Hours, and Sunday morning political affairs program Face the Nation."

CBS news is owned by ViacomCBS. ViacomCBS “has operations in virtually every field of media and entertainment, including broadcast television, cable television, local television, radio, advertising, publishing, music and motion pictures.” Bob Bakish is the president and CEO of ViacomCBS. CBS is publicly traded

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.