It’s only May, and Google is already hard at work interfering in the 2026 midterm elections and doing clean-up for Democrats embroiled in fraud accusations.
Google News completely ignored multiple fraud scandals plaguing Democratic Party politics in its top 20 morning stories in April, hiding important information from voters as the midterm elections ramp up. From the infamous Southern Poverty Law Center indictment to the FBI raids on largely Somali-run day-care centers in Minnesota to a Democrat congresswoman found to have taken $5 million from taxpayers, mum was the word from Google.
There was no lack of stories on each of the scandals, but Google News shut them all down, including those published by some of Google’s favorite left-leaning outlets. Even still, these left-leaning sources dominated Google News while right-leaning outlets were once again denied visibility.
The pattern, according to MRC President David Bozell, was too consistent to be accidental. “It feels like Google convened its political operatives to figure out how to completely whitewash the entire set of stories that would reflect poorly on Democrats and radical progressives.”
Bozell further highlighted just how much power Google wields to make or break news outlets. “If Apple, Google, Microsoft or Yahoo put the kibosh on a story, it’s like the proverbial tree falling in the forest. Even when elitist media outlets like ABC News or NPR cover a story, it just does not get much traction without the News Apps promoting it.”
MRC’s Key Findings in Google News’s Top 20 Morning Stories in April:
- Google News included zero stories about key fraud scandals relevant to voters, including:
- The Justice Department’s bombshell indictment accusing the SPLC of wire fraud and other finance-related offenses.
- The House Ethics Committee determined Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL) had committed 25 counts of ethics violations.
- FBI raids in Minnesota sought evidence that child care centers receiving millions in taxpayer funding actually provided the publicly funded services they claimed.
- Google News once again sidelined right-leaning sources, showing only 15 stories (just under 3%) from right-leaning outlets out of 519 total stories from AllSides-rated outlets. As a result, important stories were hidden from voters using the tech giant’s feeds. Meanwhile, Google News platformed 361 stories (69.5%) from left-leaning outlets.
Google News Buries SPLC Scandal Out of Public View
Google News created the illusion of a media blackout when it offered no coverage of a federal grand jury indictment accusing the SPLC of wire fraud and other finance-related offenses.
The Department of Justice (“DOJ”) alleged in a press release on April 21 that the activist organization and fixture of Democratic Party politics did not properly inform donors that some contributions were “used to fund the leaders and organizers of racist groups at the same time that the SPLC was denouncing the same groups on its website.” SPLC pleaded not guilty to all the charges on May 7.
The original story was widely reported by outlets across the political spectrum, including: CBS, CNN, Fox News, New York Post, Politico, The Associated Press, The Daily Mail, The Hill, The New York Times, The Washington Post and USA Today. However, Google News did not present users with a single story from any one of these media outlets.
Google Hides Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick Fraud Accusations
Also on April 21, now-former Rep. Cherfilus-McCormick resigned from Congress after the House Ethics Committee issued a report stating that 25 counts of ethics violations “were proven by clear and convincing evidence.” Google News was also among the Big Four News Apps that failed to cover the Cherfilus-McCormick indictment during the height of the breaking news cycle, as previously revealed by the MRC.
Cherfilus-McCormick and her brother, Edwin Cherfilus, were charged with stealing $5 million in mistakenly overpaid FEMA funds granted to their family’s business, Trinity Health Care Services, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead of returning the money, she used some of it to fund her 2021 congressional campaign, funneling the money through several accounts to obscure its source, according to a grand jury indictment.
The congresswoman announced last week that she plans to run for public office again, making voter awareness of the charges and accusations against her even more important.
It’s worth noting that Google News handled former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-GA) resignation announcement very differently. Greene’s exit did not result from criminal charges or a House Ethics Committee probe, but the news aggregator included at least four stories about her resignation and another four stories on the special election for her replacement.
Again, Google News had no shortage of stories to choose from if the tech giant had wanted to provide coverage for the Cherfilus-McCormick scandal. AllSides-rated right-leaning outlets like Fox News and New York Post covered the story, but so did outlets labeled left-leaning like ABC News, Axios, CBS News, Politico, The Associated Press, The New York Times and The Independent. Google, however, ignored all of these stories in its top 20 morning editions in April.
The Minnesota FBI Raids on Child Care Centers Accused of Fraud
Google’s treatment of the Minnesota FBI raids tells a similar story.
Just shy of a week after the SPLC scandal and the congresswoman’s resignation, the FBI executed 22 search warrants against Minneapolis child care and autism facilities suspected of fraud. But voters reliant on Google News’s morning coverage to stay informed might never have known.
An investigation by local Minnesota outlet 5 Eyewitness News uncovered that payments to nine centers in particular “more than doubled” in the last two years. “[T]he records show dramatic financial growth at the nine centers, while the number of kids they served stayed relatively flat,” the outlet noted.
Google not only suppressed coverage of the story from outlets AllSides rates as right-leaning, like Fox News, New York Post, The Washington Examiner and The Washington Times, but it also excluded center and left-leaning outlets like ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Reuters, The Hill and Axios.
Google Continues Suppression of Right-Leaning Media in April
Google buried every major outlet when it came to stories that leave a stain on the Democratic Party, as voters decide which party will control Congress in November. But Google’s problem with omission goes deeper than that when it leaves right-leaning media out of the conversation nearly entirely.
Just 15 (3%) of the 519 stories Google News presented to users came from right-leaning sources. Meanwhile, 361 (69.5%) came from left-leaning sources and 143 (27.5%) came from sources AllSides rates as center.
Google News platformed multiple articles attempting to embarrass the Trump administration with headlines like “What international law says about Trump's threats to bomb Iran's bridges and power plants” from PBS, and “Trump accused of running ‘misogynistic administration’ after Bondi dismissal” from The Guardian.
The news aggregator similarly pushed stories that decried a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision preventing states from drawing congressional districts based on racial majorities and racist assumptions about how those majorities might vote. The tech giant, however, propped up stories from left-leaning outlets characterizing the decision itself as racist.
For example, Google News highlighted an absurd NPR headline, “Supreme Court paves the way for largest-ever drop in Black representation in Congress,” and the CNN headline “John Roberts’ effort to gut the Voting Rights Act is complete.”
Google News also promoted a glorified ad for The New York Times word game “Spelling Bee” twice.
Methodology: During the time period April 1 - 30, 2026, MRC researchers examined the top 20 stories featured on Google 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 Google News and analyzed the results. MRC researchers also specifically looked at the period following the news broke of the SPLC’s grand jury indictment, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick’s resignation announcement, the Minnesota FBI raids (April 22-30) and Marjorie Taylor Greene’s resignation announcement (Nov. 22-Nov. 29).
