MRC Original: “I feel like I’ve been lied to my entire life about America,” an Australian entrepreneur recently proclaimed while visiting the United States, echoing a sentiment loudly heard in viral videos as the country hosts the FIFA World Cup.
Is Apple News participating in the cover-up this Australian tourist alluded to? New findings from the Media Research Center suggest a pattern of selective coverage on Apple News that directly reinforces that perception.
Tourists marveling at America have become one of the tournament’s biggest surprises, exposing the disconnect between the media’s portrayal of the United States and what foreign visitors actually experience. Yet Apple News, arguably the largest amplifier of media outlets behind that anti-American narrative, all but erased those viral stories from its June feed.
Of the 69 World Cup-related items it featured in its top daily feed, only one highlighted visitors encountering a very different America than the one often portrayed in the international media. Of the many impressions tourists shared, the only headline Apple News elevated about the experience highlighted something entirely different: the prevalence of air conditioning in America.
MRC’s Findings:
- Despite promoting 69 World Cup stories, Apple News featured just one about tourists’ overwhelmingly positive impressions of America. Instead, the news app promoted stories about topics such as travel, politics, and health concerns.
- The World Cup stories that Apple News featured in June exemplified recent polling showing that only 27% of Democrats express high levels of pride in being an American versus 93% of Republicans. Given that Apple News is a hard-left news app, it is unsurprising that it ignored a multitude of viral stories from right-leaning outlets that explained how much World Cup visitors have found they love America.
Out of 557 daily headlines from AllSides-rated outlets that MRC examined, Apple News promoted over 70% (393 stories) from left-leaning outlets and just under 2% (10 stories) from right-leaning outlets. Apple News showed slightly less bias against right-leaning news outlets in June compared to May, moving from a paltry 1% stories from right-leaning outlets in May to under 2% in June. Another 154 stories (nearly 28%) came from center-rated outlets.
Apple News Gave Limited Attention to Tourists’ Viral Praise of America
Tourists from around the world visiting the U.S. for World Cup matches have been pleasantly surprised by how much they have enjoyed America and its residents. Some tourists have rightfully blamed the elitist media for selling them a host of misleading and downright false narratives about the United States.
Apple News is one example. Of the 69 stories featured about the World Cup in its daily morning top stories, only one discussed the positive experiences of international visitors. Sadly, that positive story focused not on America’s freedom, beauty or culture, but on its air-conditioning: “European soccer fans enjoy a brief fling with America’s air-conditioned culture,” read the June 29 headline by The Washington Post.
Among the featured stories about the World Cup were many that focused on controversial issues, such as:
- “The World Cup Is a Petri Dish,” by Bloomberg on June 1.
- “How do you stop Ebola at the World Cup?” by Politico on June 7.
- “Somali referee is dropped from World Cup after turned back at US border,” by AFP News on June 9.
- “As FIFA forces stadiums to change names, one embraces its bland new brand,” by The Washington Post on June 11.
- “Frustrated Iran vents about restrictions after draw with New Zealand at World Cup,” by the Los Angeles Times on June 16.
- “Visa costs kept her from seeing her son’s star World Cup moment. Now she’s going,” by The Washington Post on June 18.
- “How migration, colonial ties and tweaks to FIFA eligibility rules have made this the diaspora World Cup,” by The New York Times on June 18.
- “FIFA revokes credentials of World Cup commentator after expletive-laden on-air rant,” by The New York Times on June 25.
Apple News Shuns Right-Leaning Outlets Covering Viral Tourist Reactions
Soccer fans from Europe, Asia, South America and Africa may have expected to find an inhospitable country when they travelled to the U.S. to watch the World Cup. After all, the elitist media's reporting reflects the growing dislike of America among Democrats and liberals. According to recent polling, 93% of Republicans are very proud or extremely proud to be Americans, while only 27% of Democrats said the same.
Apple News seemingly doubled down on this messaging, largely camouflaging the truth about America’s greatness and stories from international tourists about how much they surprisingly love America. It’s not as if there simply were no positive stories to promote. Apple News could have promoted headlines from some of the most-visited right-leaning news outlets in America, including:
- “Foreign Soccer Fans Are Discovering Something Many Americans Forgot,” by the Daily Wire on June 11.
- “World Cup fans fall in love with American culture, comfort food classics,” by Fox News on June 13.
- “World Cup tourists swoon over the real America – and they’re making us fall in love, too,” by the New York Post on June 15.
- “How European World Cup athletes have trained for US heat – as visitors admit: ‘We owe Americans an apology,’” by the New York Post on June 19.
- “Europeans Visiting U.S. for World Cup Fall in Love with America: ‘The Most Wonderful People in the World,’” by Breitbart on June 22.
- “Brits Visiting U.S. for ‘First Time for World Cup Apologize to Americans: ‘We Owe America a Huge Apology,’” by Breitbart on June 24.
- “Brits visiting US for first time during World Cup are apologizing to Americans: ‘We were wrong,’” by the New York Post on June 24.
- “Bill Maher lauds foreign visitors at World Cup: ‘They are reminding Americans this place is kind of awesome,’” by Fox News on June 27.
Apple News Once Again Focused Almost Entirely on Stories from the Left, Improving By Less than One Percent Since May
According to the latest Press Gazette rankings, seven right-leaning news outlets are among the most visited news sites in America, including the following (in order): Fox News, New York Post, Daily Mail, Breitbart, The Gateway Pundit, Newsmax and The Epoch Times. Apple News featured stories from only one outlet from this list.
Apple News promoted 557 articles from AllSides-rated outlets in the month of June. Of these, ten were from Fox News, the only right-leaning outlet featured by Apple News in June. This amounted to less than 2% of the daily top stories featured throughout the month.
Apple News’s habit of favoring the left matters. According to the Pew Research Center, 86% of Americans turn to their digital devices for news “at least sometimes.” With Apple News coming preinstalled on every iPhone, and with approximately 150.7 million iPhone users in the United States, millions of users are exposed to its leftist bias by default. The tech giant boasts 125 million visits per month.
MRC Free Speech America Intern Abel Jones contributed to this study.
Methodology: During the time period of June 1 - 30, 2026, MRC researchers examined the top 20 stories featured on Apple 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 Apple News and analyzed the results. MRC conducted manual reviews in search of World Cup-related stories.
