The Big Four News Apps, Apple News, Google News, MSN and Yahoo News, promoted an elitist media narrative on alleged mass resignations at the Justice Department in response to federal immigration enforcement. A Trump administration official, however, called out the “fake news media,” ripping the story as “bogus.”
Media Research Center researchers continue to find evidence of immense bias on Apple News, Google News, MSN and Yahoo News, with the latest example being a major failure to vet biased sources on Jan. 13 and 14.
MS NOW published a report on Jan. 12 headlined, “Top DOJ officials quit after their division refused to probe Minnesota ICE shooting.” The outlet asserted that “[a]t least six” officials at the DOJ Civil Rights Division resigned in protest after Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon decided not to investigate the fatal shooting of anti-ICE activist Renee Good. Dhillon reacted to the allegation, published by multiple outlets and promoted across the Big Four News Apps, by saying in an X post that the “mass resignation” narrative spread by the elitist media was “bogus.” Such details didn’t seem to bother Apple News, Google News, MSN and Yahoo News, who promoted the elitist media narrative across their news pages.
All four of the Big Four News Apps pushed what Dhillon called ”bogus” report from left-leaning media outlets in their top 20 articles in the afternoon on Jan. 13. Apple News was the worst offender, as its top two articles that day came from The Washington Post and The Minnesota Star Tribune with both articles featuring the mass resignation allegations. Furthermore, Apple News promoted the same Washington Post article in its top 10 the next morning, standing alone among the Big Four to highlight the “fake news” narrative two days in a row.
MSN promoted CBS News’s write-up of the “mass resignations” story on its home page on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Yahoo News’s top story for Tuesday afternoon was an article from the UK-based Independent about reported resignations of U.S. attorneys in Minnesota. The article also highlighted the DOJ resignations. Google News promoted a similar New York Times piece.
The mass resignation story perpetuated by the Big Four News Apps bolsters the apparent ongoing elitist media effort to smear federal immigration enforcement after anti-ICE protests ended in a fatal shooting.
On Jan. 7, activist Renee Good allegedly committed vehicular assault on an ICE officer, causing the officer internal bleeding. The officer later fatally shot Good during the incident. MS NOW’s mass resignations report created a narrative of internal dissent brewing at the DOJ after Dhillon declined to investigate the injured officer.
“Fake news media, foiled again! The news of ‘mass resignation’ was bogus, and now debunked. We have lots of work to do!” Dhillon posted on X Tuesday. Dhillon called on the media outlets who promoted the fake record—including MSNOW, Reuters, Washington Post, CBS News and Bloomberg—to publish retraction.”
As of 4:30 pm EST on Thursday, the fake news is still available on MSNOW’s website without a retraction or editor’s note. The Washington Post, CBS, The New York Times and The Minnesota Star Tribune did not issue retractions or corrections on their articles either. As noted above, Apple News still promoted the report on Wednesday morning in its top 20, even after Dhillon’s public refutation of the story as “fake news.”
Methodology: MRC researchers examined the top 20 AllSides-rated news stories featured on Apple News, Google News, MSN and Yahoo News each day at approximately 4:12 PM ET on January 13, 2026 and 8:30 AM ET on January 14, 2026. MRC researchers used the AllSides media bias ratings, which categorize an outlet as “left,” “lean left,” “center,” “lean right” or “right” to determine the overall bias presented by Apple News and analyzed the results.
