Washington Post

The Washington Post is a major American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington metropolitan area and widely read around the country. The newspaper has won 47 Pulitzer Prizes. It employs around 800 journalists and had a 2015 daily circulation of 356,768. Its digital circulation was 1,000,000 in 2018.

Jeff Bezos bought the paper in 2013. Tensions between he and the newsroon have continued; in 2024 and 2025, multiple personnel resigned over the paper's non-endorsement of Kamala Harris and editorial changes advanced by Bezos.

• Washington Post Shows Story Choice Bias in 2025 Bias Analysis
• Washington Post Rated Lean Left in Jan. 2025 Small Group Editorial Review
• Washington Post Rated Lean Left in Dec. 2024 Blind Bias Survey
• Washington Post Fact Check Section Also Shares Lean Left Bias: July 2021 Editorial Review
• Washington Post Rated Lean Left in Feb. 2020 Blind Bias Survey
• Washington Post Rated Lean Left in March 2013 Blind Bias Survey

Washington Post 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 the Washington Post was the Trump Administration, appearing in 31% of 140 articles analyzed. The next three most prevalent topics were the Economy (27%), Immigration (14%), and Politics (11%).

The Washington Post often highlighted stories with a negative framing of the Trump administration, either through critiques of the administration’s handling of the economy, immigration, and other topics of interest. The outlet did not always engage in this bias framing however, affirming its Lean Left rating.

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.

Washington Post Rated Lean Left in Jan. 2025 Small Group Editorial Review

In Jan. 2025, a multipartisan AllSides panel conducted a Small Group Editorial Review, resulting in a Lean Left (-1.63) rating for Washington Post. 

Averaging this with the Dec. 2024 Blind Bias Survey that resulted in a rating of Lean Left (-1.01), the final rating for Washington Post is Lean Left (-1.63).

The panel identified multiple instances of story choice bias, subjective qualifying adjectives, bias by viewpoint omission/placement, and slant, all of which appealed to left-leaning perspectives.

Articles reviewed included but were not limited to:

• As Trump prepares to take power, MAGA can’t stop the ugly infighting
• A storied Black community fears wildfires will claim its history
• 4 takeaways from Pete Hegseth’s confirmation hearing
• A new kind of urban firestorm.
• Kash Patel, has vowed retribution. As FBI director, he could do it.
• Gazans eye ceasefire with mixed feelings: ‘What do we have left?’
• Musk's DOGE weighs recommendation to cut federal diversity programs
• What is an oligarchy? The warning Biden issued in his farewell, explained.
• This group says natural gas bans hurt minorities. It has gas industry ties.

Washington Post Rated Lean Left in Dec. 2024 Blind Bias Survey

In a Dec. 2024 Blind Bias Survey, Washington Post was rated Lean Left (-1.01).

Respondents who rated their own bias as Left or Lean Left rated Washington Post as Center, while respondents with a Center, Lean Right, or Right bias rated it as Lean Left on average. Democrats rated Washington Post as Center, while Independents and Republicans rated Washington Post as Lean Left. This confirmed AllSides Media Bias Rating™ of Lean Left at the time.

A total of 761 people across the political spectrum took the survey, including 73 with a Left bias, 192 with a Lean Left bias, 215 with a Center bias, 224 with a Lean Right bias, and 57 with a Right bias.

Washington Post Fact Check Section Also Shares Lean Left Bias: July 2021 Editorial Review 

The Washington Post fact check section has a Lean Left bias, according to a July 2021 Small Group Editorial Review by AllSides editors on the left, center, and right. 

Washington Post Rated Lean Left in February 2020 Blind Bias Survey

A February 2020 AllSides Blind Bias Survey found that the Washington Post maintains a Lean Left bias, though close to Center. During a Blind Bias Survey, people who hail from all sides of the political spectrum and a diverse array of ages and geographic locations rate the bias of content from a media outlet blindly, meaning all identifying branding and information is removed.

Our February 2020 Blind Bias Survey found that on average, participants rated content from the Washington Post as on the border of Center and Lean Left. However, a majority of respondents who identified themselves as Left or Lean Left indicated they believe the Washington Post is Lean Right, a puzzling and unusual outlier that impacted the overall average. Participants who describe themselves as politically Center, Lean Right and Right all rated Washington Post content as Lean Left. After assessing results of the blind bias survey, AllSides determined that Lean Left is still the best bias rating for Washington Post.

Washington Post Rated Lean Left in March 2013 Blind Bias Survey

A March 2013 AllSides blind bias survey found that The Washington Post has a Lean Left media bias.

Jeff Bezos Announces Washington Post Opinion to Focus on 'Personal Liberties and Free Markets,' Opinion Editor Quits

In February 2025, Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos announced a major shift in the paper's opinion section, stating that it would focus on "the support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets" moving forward. Bezos emphasized that while other topics would still be covered, dissenting views on these pillars "will be left to be published by others." Opinion Editor David Shipley, who had held the role since 2022, chose to step down following the decision.

Bezos argued that these values have been central to America's success. However, some Washington Post journalists, including White House economics reporter Jeff Stein, viewed the move as overreach, raising concerns about editorial independence.

The Washington Post Decides Against Endorsing a Presidential Candidate in 2024

The Washington Post has declined to endorse a presidential candidate for the 2024 election. This decision marks the end of the paper's 35-year tradition of endorsing presidential candidates, and has led to the resignation of several editorial board members. While the editorial board had drafted an endorsement for Vice President Kamala Harris, the paper's owner, Jeff Bezos, intervened to block its publication. He cited growing concerns over declining trust in the media and perceptions of bias as the primary reasons for the decision. 

Following the election, Bezos took to X to congratulate Donald Trump on his "extraordinary political comeback and decisive victory," adding, "No nation has bigger opportunities." 

Presidential Endorsements: The Post Endorses Democrats

The Post has endorsed Democratic presidential candidates for at least nine presidential elections and has never endorsed a Republican for president. In 2020, the Washington Post kept with precedent and endorsed Democrat Joe Biden for president.

Washington Post Audience Demographics

A 2014 Pew Research Center survey found the majority of the Washington Post audience — 61% — has left-of-center political views. Just 7% of Washington Post consumers are consistently conservative; 20% are of mixed political persuasion.

Third-Party Claims of Washington Post Bias

The Washington Post was sued for defamation on February 19, 2019, following allegedly biased media reporting on a viral video of Covington Catholic High School students in January 2019. Attorneys for Covington student Nick Sandmann claim the Post published seven "false and defamatory articles." The complaint states:

"... [T]he Post engaged in a modern-day form of McCarthyism by competing with CNN and NBC, among others, to claim leadership of a mainstream and social media mob of bullies which attacked, vilified, and threatened Nicholas Sandmann ("Nicholas"), an innocent secondary school child. The Post wrongfully targeted and bullied Nicholas because he was the white, Catholic student wearing a red "Make America Great Again" souvenir cap on a school field trip ...

[T]he Post knew and intended that its false and defamatory accusations would be republished by others, including media outlets and others on social media."

In December 2016, The Post published what some called "fake news" — a story that falsely claimed a Russian hacking operation had infiltrated the U.S. electrical grid.

The publication has been accused of both liberal and conservative biases over the years. American journalist and commentator Bill Moyers said that in the months leading up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Post ran "more than 140 stories on its front page promoting the [Iraq] war, while contrary information 'got lost,' as one Post staffer told [journalist Howard] Kurtz."

In a study published in April 2007, a group of Yale professors found that study participants who were given a free subscription to the Post were 7.9–11.4% more likely to vote for the Democrat candidate for governor than those assigned to a control group. However, people who received a free subscription to the Washington Times, a conservative paper, were also more likely than controls to vote for the Democrat. The study authors said a sampling error might have played a role, as well as the fact that the Democrat candidate had more conservative positions than is typical for a Democrat, and "the month prior to the post-election survey was a difficult period for President Bush, one in which his overall approval rating fell by approximately 4 percentage points nationwide. It appears that heightened exposure to both papers’ news coverage, despite opposing ideological slants, moved public opinion away from Republicans."

According to a 2009 Oxford University Press book by Richard Davis on the impact of blogs on American politics, liberal bloggers link to The Washington Post and The New York Times more often than other major newspapers; yet, conservative bloggers also link often to liberal newspapers.

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, the Washington Post 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 3.

In October 2013, Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post via his holding company Nash Holdings for $250 million in cash. Jeff Bezos, one of the richest men in the world, is the founder, president, and CEO of Amazon. The paper had long been controlled by the Graham family (Graham Holdings 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.