The Big Four News Apps blacked out right-leaning outlets in their coverage of the Temple Israel attack in Michigan, an incident that threatened the safety of more than 100 students and Jewish individuals.
The Media Research Center found Friday that none of the articles about the Michigan synagogue and school attack in the top 20 morning editions on Apple News, Google News, Microsoft's MSN or Yahoo News came from an outlet rated “right” or “lean right” by AllSides.
In total, the Big Four News Apps promoted six articles about the harrowing attack, with none of the headlines referring to the fact that the alleged perpetrator, Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, had family ties to terror group Hezbollah.
Notably, Microsoft's MSN was the only news aggregator not to promote an article on the attack in its morning top 20, while Google had the most at four stories from fifth to eighth place in its top 20. All of the digital news gatekeepers promoted inconsequential or outright silly articles, though, even while excluding right-leaning coverage of the major news about the synagogue attack.
Reports note that Ghazali, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Lebanon, crashed his vehicle into Temple Israel on March 12. His car was loaded with homemade mortar shells made from thousands of dollars’ worth of commercial-grade fireworks, which led to an exchange of gunfire. The vehicle caught fire upon impact, burning Ghazali’s body. Fortunately, no other fatalities were reported.
After the disturbing attack, Israel Defense Forces X account revealed that Ayman’s brother was the late Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Muhammad Ghazali of a specialized branch that launched hundreds of rockets at Israeli civilians.
While the targeted antisemitic attack generated headlines at outlets across the political spectrum on March 12, all of the Big Four News Apps chose left-leaning or centrist outlets for articles on the attack the next morning, with not a single right-leaning article among them.
Four of the articles came from left-leaning sites Yahoo News, The New York Times, CNN and ABC News. Google News also shared articles about the synagogue attack from Detroit News and Local4, two local outlets with an AllSides rating of “center.”
Both Apple News and Google News had only one article each from a “lean left” outlet.
Apple News’s fifth article on March 13 was ABC News’s “Truck ramming at synagogue being investigated as targeted act of violence against Jewish community: FBI.”
Yahoo News promoted its own story, headlined: “Michigan synagogue attack updates: Temple Israel suspect identified; FBI investigating as 'targeted act of violence against the Jewish community'” in sixth place.
None of the headlines referenced Ghazali’s reported Islamic terror ties. The attack on Temple Israel comes amid a surge in antisemitic incidents across America.
As mentioned above, the news apps also promoted articles less urgently important than balanced coverage of the synagogue attack. One of the most ridiculous was the Reuters article at third place on Yahoo News: “Mexico's heartthrob security minister now available as miniature doll, shirtless or dressed as Batman.”
Microsoft's MSN promoted the HuffPost article, “My dog killed my neighbor's cat. I had no idea how much my life would change because of it.” Apple News shared a Washington Post article discussing the relative cheapness of GLP-1s, which are weight-loss injections.
Methodology: On March 13, MRC researchers examined the top 20 stories featured on the Big Four News Apps (Apple News, Google News, Microsoft's MSN and Yahoo News) each day at approximately 8:30 AM ET. 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 the Big Four News Apps and analyzed the results. .
