The Free Press

Note: The Free Press is not to be confused with advocacy group Free Press, which AllSides rates separately.

• The Free Press Rated Center in May 2026 Blind Bias Survey; Retains Lean Right Overall Rating
• The Free Press Rated Right in July 2025 Blind Bias Survey
• The Free Press Bias Rated Lean Left in Oct. 2024 Blind Bias Survey; AllSides Keeps Lean Right Rating Following Nov. 2024 Small Group Editorial Review
• The Free Press Rated Lean Right in Sept. 2024 Editorial Review
• The Free Press Rated Center in Dec. 2022 Independent Review
• Common Sense Rated Center in Oct. 2022 Independent Review

The Free Press Rated Center in May 2026 Blind Bias Survey; Retains Lean Right Overall Rating

The Free Press was rated Center (0.07) on average by 585 respondents in the May 2026 Blind Bias Survey.

Respondents in all bias categories rated The Free Press Center on average.

After weighing this result with data from previous analyses of The Free Press, the outlets’ overall AllSides Media Bias Rating moved slightly centerward, from 1.20 (Lean Right) to 1.10 (Lean Right).

The Free Press Rated Right in July 2025 Blind Bias Survey

A total of 859 people rated The Free Press in the July 2025 Blind Bias Survey; the average rating was Right (3.60).

Respondents in all bias categories rated The Free Press Right on average, except for respondents with a Center bias, which rated it Lean Right. Republicans rated it Lean Right on average; Democrats and Independents rated it Right.

After weighing this data with previous data, AllSides moved The Free Press' overall bias rating from 1.0 to 1.2.

The Free Press Bias Rated Lean Left in Oct. 2024 Blind Bias Survey; AllSides Keeps Lean Right Rating Following Nov. 2024 Small Group Editorial Review

The Free Press was rated Lean Left(-1.61) on average by Americans across the political spectrum in the Oct. 2024 Blind Bias Survey. In a Small Group Editorial Review in Nov. 2024, AllSides reviewers opted to keep Free Press' rating as Lean Right, but moved it slightly leftward, from 1.13 to 1.0, which is just on the border of Lean Right and Center. 

Respondents who rated their own bias as Left or Lean Left rated The Free Press as Center, on average, while respondents who rated their own bias as Lean Right, or Center, rated The Free Press as Lean Left. Respondents who rated their own bias as Right rated the Free Press as Left. Republicans and Independents rated The Free Press as Lean Left; Democrats rated The Free Press as Center. A total of 633 respondents rated the bias.

Some panelists argued Center is the best rating for FP; others argued for a Lean Right rating. The panel noted that The Free Press is similar to outlets like Reason magazine as it does not fall cleanly on a left-to-right scale. Its content is very pro-Israel and has a classical liberal bent. However, its coverage largely frames Democrats negatively and right-wing figures more positively, while not falling totally in line with the "MAGA right," or populist right-wing. 

Content reviewed included but was not limited to:

• What Made Ted Olson Great
• The One Video That Explains Why Harris Lost
• The Latino Democrats Who Flipped for Trump: A Report from the Border
• Rubio, Gabbard, and Gaetz. . . Oh My!
• How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Accept Donald Trump

The Free Press Rated Lean Right in Sept. 2024 Editorial Review

AllSides moved The Free Press' rating from Center to Lean Right following a Sept. 2024 Editorial Review. AllSides moved The Free Press' rating from Center to Lean Right on Sept. 30, 2024.

During the Editorial Review, a 6-person panel of reviewers on the left, center, and right rated The Free Press as just barely Lean Right (1.13) on average. The panel was split, with right-wing reviewers and one reviewer with a Center bias arguing The Free Press was Center; left-wing reviewers and the other reviewer with a Center bias argued the outlet was Lean Right. The average rating turned out to be Lean Right, though barely inside that category, which the panel agreed to.

The panelists noted The Free Press mostly publishes analysis and commentary; they agreed story choice was more of interest to the right; a Lean Right reviewer noted that the The Free Press trends toward classical liberalism, which is "increasingly becoming seen as slightly to the right in the US." A Center reviewer said there was "overall an absence of pretty much anything appealing to progressives/neoliberals." All panelists noted a strong pro-Israel bias. Stories that appeared above the fold often had a pro-Israel bent.

Pieces reviewed included but were not limited to:

• Inside America’s First-Ever Classical Jewish School
• WATCH ‘Hezbollah’s Hostages’: A Former Sex Slave Tells Her Story
• The Subversive Genius of Melania Trump
• How Wikipedia Become a Propaganda Site
• My French Teacher Was Beloved for 25 Years. Then She Was Asked About Hijabs.
• Did Tim Walz “Let Minneapolis Burn”?
• WATCH: Matt Walsh Talks DEI, Division, and Robin DiAngelo
• University Cancels Panel Because Author Is a ‘Zionist’
• How Harvard Divinity Teaches Hate
• How Long Can Kamala Harris Avoid the Press?
• The Myth of Degrowth
• Fight Club: Should the United Nations Be Abolished?
• Trump Should Be Running Away With the Election. Why Isn’t He?

The Free Press Rated Center in Dec. 2022 Independent Review

An AllSides Dec. 2022 Independent Review returned a Center bias rating for The Free Press.

An AllSides reviewer noted The Free Press runs primarily commentary. They noted an op-ed by former Trump administration Attorney General William P. Barr urging Trump to step back from a 2024 presidential run and a piece by The Free Press founder Bari Weiss on the 2022 midterms stating that Trump was "poison" in his endorsements of candidates. Prominent story choices included a focus on Judaism and Israel (perhaps because Weiss is Jewish), such as "The State of the Black-Jewish Relationship in America" and a conversation with Israel's new prime minister. Other pieces highlighted the U.S. culture war, such as a piece on "The Hijacking of Pediatric Medicine", which explored left-wing bias in the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). The piece begins with the disclaimer, "One of the main focuses of this newsletter’s reporting is the way time-honored institutions of American life have been hijacked or corrupted." A piece from a former investigative reporter in China explored the dangers of TikTok.

The reviewer noted that opinion and analysis pieces were not clearly labeled, however, the site does not publish original, breaking news, stating that it publishes "investigative stories and provocative commentary." Magazine or commentary-style publications often lack labels on content; labels are more important in publications that share both news reports and commentary.

Common Sense Rated Center in Oct. 2022 Independent Review

The Free Press was formerly a newsletter called Common Sense. An AllSides October 2022 Independent Review returned a bias rating of Center for Common Sense. 

Originally called Common Sense, The Free Press was founded by journalist Bari Weiss, former op-ed staff editor and writer on culture and politics at The New York Times. What began as a Substack newsletter grew into a media outlet that re-branded as The Free Press in Dec. 2022. In an introductory post, the outlet wrote [retrieved Dec. 12, 2022]:

As the gap between what we’re allowed to say in public and how we talk in private grows, so does our distrust—in power, in the press, and in one another.

Maybe your moment came while reading about school lockdowns. Or maybe it was the obvious political bias distorting even the most basic news stories. Maybe you’ve seen reporters being activists on social media, then feigning objectivity in their stories.

But at some point, you might have noticed that what you were reading didn’t reflect what you were seeing with your own eyes.  

At some point, maybe you noticed that the people paid to tell you about the world as it is were instead telling you about the world as they wished it to be.

At some point, maybe you noticed that rather than conveying complexity—even if it was inconvenient or uncomfortable—the press was in the business of giving their readers, their viewers, and their listeners confirmation. Confirmation that they were right, confirmation that their political opponents were wrong.

...

The Free Press is a media company built on the ideals that were once the bedrock of great American journalism: honesty, doggedness, and fierce independence. We publish investigative stories and provocative commentary about the world as it actually is—with the quality once expected from the legacy press, but with the fearlessness of the new.

We place a special emphasis on subjects and stories that others ignore or misrepresent. We always aim to highlight multiple perspectives on complicated subjects. And we don’t allow ideology to stand in the way of searching for the truth.