Just two days after Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson wrote a warning letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook in response to a bombshell report by the Media Research Center, Apple News hit a dubious milestone: 100 days to highlight a single article from a right-leaning outlet in its morning editions.
It took 100 days for Apple News to promote an article from a right-leaning media source. It has published 1,379 stories from left-leaning outlets in that same time period. Only after the story went viral yesterday, following numerous MRC studies, did Apple News finally publish a right-leaning article from Fox News. Tellingly, the article — headlined “James Van Der Beek’s death highlights alarming colon cancer rise in younger adults” — steered clear of politics completely.
On Nov. 5, 2025, Apple News editors last selected a story from a right-leaning outlet, the London-based The Telegraph, about the Sudanese genocide. To make matters worse, the article was placed behind the Apple News+ subscription service that requires users to pay in order to read the article.
MRC President David Bozell addressed the tech giant’s overt bias, saying, “Apple News isn’t just another website. It’s preloaded on millions of iPhones and quietly shapes what tens of millions of people see every day. If conservative voices are systematically excluded, that directly shapes public perception at scale.”
FTC Chairman Ferguson’s letter to Cook came after President Donald Trump shared a New York Post report based on a recent MRC study. In the letter, Ferguson expressed concerns regarding “whether Apple News is acting in accordance with its terms of service and its representations to consumers, as well as the reasonable consumer expectations of the tens of millions of Americans who use Apple News.”
In a statement about the tech giant’s blatant bias throughout the month of January 2026, an Apple spokesperson told the New York Post that its news app “provides access to news spanning a wide range of topics from more than 3,000 publications including the Wall Street Journal, Fox News, Bloomberg, USA Today, Washington Examiner, New York Post, CBS News, local outlets, and more.”
“Apple News users can tailor the app to their interests by choosing to follow or block specific publications or topics,” the spokesperson added.
In response to Apple’s claims, MRC Free Speech America VP Dan Schneider commented, “Not only did Apple make assertions that every state Attorney General will find interesting, but federal regulators should investigate the company for unfair deceptive trade practices and for illegal restraint of trade.”
Schneider added, “The facts are undeniable. For 100 mornings in a row, Apple News has promoted a total of 1,379 left-leaning outlets, while suppressing right-leaning outlets. 1,379 to one speaks for itself.”
As for Apple News’s claim that users have the ability to “follow or block specific publications or topics,” MRC Free Speech America looked into that too.
Apple appears to refute its own claim.
As a test, MRC researchers attempted to block The Wall Street Journal on the Apple News feed and were presented a message that read, "If you block The Wall Street Journal, News will stop showing stories from this channel, except when selected by the Apple News editors." The same held true for other outlets MRC researchers tested, including The Telegraph and The Washington Post.
While a Reuters Institute report noted that the use of online aggregators like the Big Four News Apps (Apple News, Google News, MSN and Yahoo News) is growing, an Enders Analysis report underscored the potential growth for Apple News in particular as the use of artificial intelligence continues to surge.
Methodology: During the time period Nov. 3, 2025 - Feb. 13, 2026, MRC researchers examined the top 20 news stories featured on Apple News between Nov. 3, 2025 - Jan. 11, 2026 each day at approximately 10:00 AM ET and the top 20 news stories featured on Apple News between Jan. 12 - Feb. 13, 2026 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.
Free speech is under attack! Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
MRC Free Speech America Associate Editor Luis Cornelio contributed to this report.
