EXCLUSIVE: Secretary of War Pete Hegseth sent the media into a frenzy after comparing their anti-American smears to the Pharisees’ plot against Jesus. His point wasn’t far off, but he left out a key piece: the Big Four News Apps amplified that same narrative.
The Media Research Center found that since the day after the Iranian conflict began, Apple News, Google News, Microsoft’s MSN and Yahoo News have launched a 50-day barrage targeting President Donald Trump and U.S. military operations against the Islamic regime with 634 articles from left-leaning outlets compared to a paltry 41 articles from right-leaning outlets. For example, Google News promoted a story from The New York Times headlined, “Trump’s Iran Threats Look Like Self-Incrimination for Potential War Crimes.”
Despite the unprecedented success of the U.S.-led action, the news aggregators’ curation of stories ensured that most Iran coverage in its top 20 morning editions from March 1 through April 19 came from left-leaning outlets, often using sensational, negative and fear-driven framing that undercut the United States and undermined the Trump administration’s efforts to win the war.
MRC’s Findings:
- The Big Four News Apps all but shut out right-leaning coverage of the Iran conflict, restricting it to under 5% of total stories on the war (897) from AllSides-rated outlets, as left-leaning and other outlets dominated the narrative. Outlets like CNN, The Associated Press, The New York Times, CBS, The Guardian, NBC, The Washington Post and even Al Jazeera, Bloomberg and Salon enjoyed prominent placements.
- Apple News: 232 stories — just 2 right-leaning vs. 143 left-leaning
- Google News: 371 stories — 10 right-leaning vs. 284 left-leaning
- Microsoft’s MSN: 136 stories — 22 right-leaning vs. 67 left-leaning
- Yahoo News: 157 stories — 7 right-leaning vs. 139 left-leaning
- The Big Four News Apps’ coverage distorted major developments in the conflict, portraying the Trump administration as unprepared.
- The stories rarely included in their headlines a mention of the unparalleled success of the military action, including the complete destruction of the Iranian military capabilities and the elimination of its top command.
In response to these findings, MRC President David Bozell said: “We’re looking at one of the most effective military campaigns in modern history, Iran’s navy crippled, its air force grounded, its leadership dismantled, yet the Big Four News Apps, alongside the elitist media, are working overtime to undermine President Trump. It should outrage every American that Trump and Secretary Hegseth are fighting an information war at home while preventing Iran’s regime from obtaining a nuclear weapon.”
How the Big Four News Apps Tilted Iran War Coverage Left, Suppressing the Right
Hegseth has long rebuked the elitist media for unfairly smearing the administration and peddling attacks against the military. The barrage has been relentless, ranging from false accusations about U.S. strikes on drug-trafficking vessels to distorted reporting on internal personnel matters and wartime casualties.
Trust in media is collapsing, perhaps thanks at least in part to the Big Four News Apps. The MRC has long documented persistent bias across these platforms, which wield outsized influence over how Americans consume news.
Drawing more than 550 million visits each month, Apple News, Google News, Microsoft’s MSN and Yahoo News act as powerful gatekeepers, amplifying the left’s agenda-driven narratives while largely sidelining conservative perspectives.
This pattern of bias has played out across major political fights, from spinning the issue of border security and covering up for California’s hospice fraud to hiding scandals connected to Democratic officials. This time, the Big Four News Apps’ focus has turned to the U.S. armed conflict with the Islamic Republic of Iran.
In total, MRC identified approximately 897 stories related to the U.S.-Iran conflict. Of those, more than 70% came from left-leaning sources, while fewer than 5% came from their right-leaning counterparts. The imbalance, including the suppression of center outlets, meant millions of Americans who access news on their phones, computers and digital devices were largely exposed to one-sided coverage of one of the most consequential geopolitical conflicts of the modern era.
Hegseth has been sounding the alarm on this for years. In his bestselling book, The War on Warrior, he laid out what he sees as a sustained cultural campaign against the U.S. military, driven in large part by the same elitist media institutions shaping public perception. Those outlets now enjoy prominent placement across the Big Four News Apps.
Apple News, Google News, Microsoft’s MSN and Yahoo News have promoted some centrist and, to a very limited extent, right-leaning outlets within their top 20 selections, including Fox News. Still, the overall presence of center and right-leaning voices is relatively small in the broader dataset compared to the volume of elitist media outlets and wire services, most of which skew their reporting to the left. In coverage of the Iran conflict, the Big Four News Apps promoted the following outlets the most:
- Reuters — 81
- Yahoo-owned sites — 76
- CNN — 67
- The Associated Press — 66
- The Wall Street Journal — 55
- The New York Times — 45
- CBS News — 44
- The Guardian — 40
- Fox News — 38
- NBC News — 33
- The Washington Post — 32
- Al Jazeera — 27
- Bloomberg — 26
- BBC — 22
- Apple News-owned pages — 22
- Salon — 19
- The Hill — 18
- CNBC — 18
- Axios — 18
- Newsweek — 18
- NPR — 16
- ABC News — 15
- Politico — 14
For Iran war coverage in particular, the Big Four News Apps did not promote the following outlets a single time over 50 days: the New York Post, The Daily Wire, The Washington Times, The Federalist, American Spectator, American Thinker, National Review, Washington Examiner and Washington Free Beacon, to name a few.
MRC found that many of the headlines and sources elevated by the digital news gatekeepers reflected consistent partisan framing, often aligning with narratives more commonly associated with Democratic talking points than neutral, fact-based reporting.
For instance, on April 16, Google News featured The Atlantic to explain the Trump administration’s rationale for its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. The piece by The Atlantic, however, offered little in the way of explanation and instead tore into the administration’s move. By contrast, several other outlets covering the same development were excluded. The New York Post, American Thinker and Hot Air all had strong analyses to explain what The Atlantic purported to address, but failed.
This pattern spans nearly every major aspect of the conflict. Coverage from right-leaning sources is virtually nonexistent across the Big Four News Apps. Instead, coverage on Apple News, Google News, Microsoft’s MSN and Yahoo News — including oil prices, inflation, national security developments and broader international implications — was shaped by a predominantly left-leaning media ecosystem.
The Big Four News Apps’ Coverage Distorted Major Developments in the Iran Conflict
Some of the headlines promoted across the Big Four News Apps painted an apocalyptic view of the conflict by emphasizing terror alerts in the U.S., while other headlines painted the Trump administration as unprepared or unhinged.
On Apple News:
- “Democrats grow bolder on talk about removing Trump from office after his Iran threats,” by Associated Press, promoted April 10.
- “US faces elevated terrorism threats against backdrop of Iran war and cuts at FBI, Justice Department,” by The Associated Press, promoted March 15.
- “Iran war puts many in US on high alert, but synagogue attack shows limits,” by Reuters, promoted both March 14 and March 15.
On Google News:
- “‘Whole region is going to burn’: Iran's ‘living hell’ warning to US amid Donald Trump's threats of striking power plants,” by the Hindustan Times, promoted April 6.
- “Trump Humiliated by Allied Pilot Who Downed $100 Million Worth of U.S. Jets,” by The Daily Beast, promoted March 5.
- “How Trump and His Advisers Miscalculated Iran’s Response to War,” by The New York Times, promoted March 11.
On Microsoft’s MSN:
- “Trump’s Chances of Being Removed by 25th Amendment Climb,” by Newsweek, promoted April 6.
- “Pete Hegseth’s panicky, angry, weirdly religious Iran war briefing was painful to watch,” by The Independent, promoted April 17.
- “'Disgusting and evil.' Trump faces MAGA backlash on Iran,” by USA Today, promoted March 3.
On Yahoo News:
- “Trump’s new plan for Iran doomed to backfire,” by Salon, promoted March 5.
- “Trump’s misguided ‘Christian’ war is anything but,” by Salon, promoted March 8.
- “You Can Smell It Now: The Trump Presidency Is in Total Free Fall,” by The New Republic, promoted April 6.
- “No One Is Intimidated by Trump Anymore,” by The New Republic, promoted April 7.