EXCLUSIVE: Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook may soon be out of a job following mortgage fraud accusations — but that has not stopped Google from propping up leftist sources in her defense, the Media Research Center can confirm.
An MRC study found on Wednesday that Google almost entirely excluded right-leaning sources from search results related to President Donald Trump’s move to fire Cook. The embattled Biden appointee is under DOJ investigation for allegedly claiming two properties as her primary residence to secure favorable loans.
Key Findings:
- Google News results overwhelmingly favored left-leaning sources.
- Coverage protected Cook and undermined Trump’s actions as a power grab.
- Right-leaning perspectives appear to have been systematically suppressed.
The search for “Lisa Cook fired” in the Google News tab produced 10 results, with only one coming from a right-leaning source, Fox Business. The remaining results largely came from outlets deemed left-leaning by AllSides, such as Politico, CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post, all notorious for their anti-Trump coverage. Even the two “center” outlets, CNBC and BBC, largely leaned toward defending Cook.
In general, the headlines and framing of the articles Google elevated in its News tab results worked to undercut Trump’s decision while boosting Cook’s credibility even in the face of a criminal investigation.
For instance, a CNBC article topped the results with the headline, “Fed responds to Trump effort to fire Lisa Cook, notes president needs ‘cause.’” The article framed Cook as a victim in Trump’s effort to control the Federal Reserve (Fed), parroting the agency’s defense while relegating the White House’s counterargument to the end of the piece.
Politico followed with a write-up claiming the U.S. Supreme Court may uphold Trump’s ousting of Cook, not due to legal authority but because of “judicial hesitancy”—suggesting judges are lazy or overly preferential to Trump’s whims. Throughout the article, Politico framed Trump’s decision to fire Cook as “likely” motivated by his desire to lower interest rates, although it provided no evidence to support this assertion.
A CNN headline was equally snarky: “How an obscure housing director launched Trump’s firing of Fed governor Lisa Cook.” The piece profiled Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the man who referred Cook’s case for criminal investigation. CNN smeared Pulte as an “attack dog against the Federal Reserve and many of Trump’s perceived political enemies,” even accusing him of spreading “false rumors” about Fed Chairman Jerome Powell.
BBC, a supposedly neutral outlet, featured a relatively impartial headline, but then showed its bias again in a subheader, emphasizing that “Cook will file a lawsuit challenging her removal,” rather than focus on what prompted her ouster.
Similarly, The Times used a comparable framing in its headline but went a step further by labeling the firing as "illegal." The headline specifically read, “Lisa Cook’s Lawyer Vows to Sue Over ‘Illegal Firing.’”
The Atlantic chimed in with “The Lisa Cook Case Could Be the Whole Ball Game,” spinning Trump’s firing of Cook as a power grab over the Fed. The leftist online magazine provided no evidence to support the claim that Trump’s decision was unrelated to Cook’s mortgage fraud scandal.
If that was not enough, Google then surfaced a Washington Post opinion piece warning, “What’s next if Trump can fire Fed leaders: Higher costs.” The piece absurdly claimed that Trump’s influence at the Fed would cause the public to distrust the agency. The author of the piece later acknowledged that this hypothetical scenario is more of a suggestion than a certainty.
“The negative impacts won’t show up right away. But when the next crisis arrives, the Fed’s leadership won’t be as trusted. It won’t be able to execute rescue maneuvers as easily. Many won’t realize what a treasure America had in its independent central bank till it’s gone,” wrote Washington Post contributing columnist Heather Long.
Reuters followed, backing Cook’s attorney Abbe Lowell by underscoring their lawsuit challenging Trump’s attempt to remove her. Its headline read, “Trump takes his Fed fight to new level with effort to fire Cook,” implying that the move was fueled by Trump’s desire to lower interest rates. The outlet also painted Trump's firing of Cook as “consistent with his style of breaking norms and prompting opponents to challenge him in court.”
ABC News was next, casting a skeptical eye on the nature of Trump’s move and seemingly framing it as radical. “Federal law says members can only be fired ‘for cause,’ which has been interpreted to mean inefficiency, neglect, or malfeasance while in office,” the outlet claimed. “No president has ever tried to terminate a member of the Federal Reserve for cause, and no court has ever been asked to weigh in on such an action.”
MRC is not surprised by the inclusion of these outlets in Google News tab results, as this seems to be the latest tool used to undermine the Trump administration, its policies and actions.
In August, Google pushed leftist sources in the search results regarding Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s bombshell revelations about the Obama administration's creation of intelligence to support the Russian collusion hoax after the 2016 election.
The study found that “Google quickly shut down the story by boosting articles on its News tab that, among other things, accused Gabbard in headlines of ‘lying,’ called her statements a ‘desperate move’ to distract from the Epstein claims, smeared her as pushing a ‘MAGA’ conspiracy, and claimed she was trying to ‘rewrite’ history. One article even mocked her evidence as ‘based on thin gruel.’”
A separate MRC test of Google’s “Preferred Sources” tool showed that even when users selected right-leaning outlets, leftist media still dominated the results.
Methodology: The Media Research Center conducted a search for "lisa cook fired" using the News tab on Google on Wednesday. Researchers utilized the Brave browser and its paid VPN feature to minimize the influence of cookies or previous search history on the results.
MRC counted the various news outlets displayed and referred to the media ratings firm AllSides for the classification of each outlet. For this study, MRC combined the left and lean left categories, as well as the lean right and right categories, for clarity and brevity.
The results were compiled into a spreadsheet for further analysis. MRC did not look beyond the first page, as estimates suggest that 99% of users remain there. Content beyond the first page is likely to be overlooked, according to a Backlinko SEO study.
Photo credit: Official Flickr channel of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.
