Is The New York Times Biased? Where It Stands, How Reliable It Is and Who Funds It

By Aplomb Editorial Team · Updated · 3 min read

Short answer

The New York Times leans left of center but is rated reliable for news. AllSides rates its news coverage Lean Left, Ad Fontes Media scores it Skews Left and Reliable, and Media Bias/Fact Check rates it Left-Center with High factual reporting. Its opinion section is run separately from its newsroom.

Political leanLeans left
LeftCenterRight
ReliabilityHigh
Mostly factualVery high

Teal dot: average of 3 raters. Ticks: each rater. How we combine them

  • AllSidesLean Left
  • Ad Fontes MediaSkews Left
  • MBFCLeft-Center, High factual
The New York TimesNewspaper · United States
Lean
Lean Left (AllSides)
Reliability
High factual reporting (MBFC)
Founded
1851
Headquarters
New York City
Owner
The New York Times Company
Funding
The New York Times is owned by The New York Times Company, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and controlled by the Ochs-Sulzberger family through a trust holding nearly all of its Class B voting shares.
On this page

Is The New York Times Left or Right?

Raters place The New York Times left of center: Lean Left (AllSides), Skews Left (Ad Fontes Media) and Left-Center (Media Bias/Fact Check). The Opinion section, which includes columnists from both left and right, is managed separately from the newsroom.

See where The New York Times sits next to other outlets on our media bias chart.

How Reliable Is The New York Times?

Media Bias/Fact Check rates its factual reporting High and Ad Fontes Media rates it Reliable for analysis and fact reporting. The paper publishes corrections every day, and its Opinion section is run separately from the newsroom.

How The New York Times Handles Corrections

The New York Times publishes daily corrections and its Ethical Journalism guidelines, which govern how the newsroom handles errors and conflicts of interest.

The New York Times corrections page

The New York Times Bias: What the Ratings Show

AllSides rates The New York Times Lean Left; Ad Fontes Media scores its bias at -7.80 (Skews Left) and its reliability at 40.87 (Reliable, Analysis/Fact Reporting); and Media Bias/Fact Check rates it Left-Center with High factual reporting.

Compare The New York Times with every other outlet on the media bias chart.

The New York Times Bias Rating From Independent Raters

The New York Times: each rater, and our average
AllSidesLean Left, -2.20 on a -6 to +6 scale
Ad Fontes MediaSkews Left, -7.80 on a -42 to +42 scale
Media Bias/Fact CheckLeft-Center, -4.1 on a -10 to +10 scale
Aplomb averageLeans left, -1.87
LeftCenterRight

All bars use one shared scale: the shaded band is each rater's own center zone, lined up. How we combine the raters

Ratings as published by each rater, checked October 14, 2026. Ad Fontes Media scores bias from -42 (left) to +42 (right) and reliability from 0 to 64.
RaterBias ratingFactual / reliability
AllSidesLean LeftNot rated (lean only)
Ad Fontes MediaSkews Left (-7.80)40.87: Reliable, Analysis/Fact Reporting
Media Bias/Fact CheckLeft-Center (-4.1)High, High Credibility

Who Funds The New York Times?

The New York Times is owned by The New York Times Company, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and controlled by the Ochs-Sulzberger family through a trust holding nearly all of its Class B voting shares. Digital-only subscriptions brought in about half of its $2.8 billion revenue in 2025, with advertising and print making up most of the rest.

Source: The New York Times on its funding and ownership

Why The New York Times Is in Aplomb

The New York Times meets all six of our source criteria: original reporting from a large newsroom, daily public corrections, a separate Opinion section, transparent ownership as a listed company, and High factual ratings. What to watch for: raters place its news coverage to the left of center. Aplomb shows its news videos only, not Opinion content.

Looking for other apps that take bias seriously? See our comparison of the best unbiased news apps.

Watch The New York Times next to Reuters, BBC and AP, one swipe at a time.

Latest Videos From The New York Times

Video thumbnail: How James Talarico Plans to Tackle Gas Prices and The Iran War 0:55

The New York Times · Newspaper ·

How James Talarico Plans to Tackle Gas Prices and The Iran War

Visit The New York Times

Compare The New York Times With Similar Sources

The New York Times FAQ

Is The New York Times left or right?

Left of center: Lean Left (AllSides), Skews Left (Ad Fontes Media) and Left-Center (Media Bias/Fact Check).

Is The New York Times reliable?

Yes. Media Bias/Fact Check rates its factual reporting High and Ad Fontes Media rates it Reliable.

Who owns The New York Times?

The New York Times Company, a public company controlled by the Ochs-Sulzberger family through a trust that holds nearly all of its Class B voting shares.

What is The New York Times bias rating?

AllSides: Lean Left. Ad Fontes Media: Skews Left (-7.80), Reliable (40.87). Media Bias/Fact Check: Left-Center, High factual reporting.

Aplomb Editorial Team
Aplomb Editorial Team

Aplomb's editorial team selects and reviews the newsrooms in the app, checks every bias rating against the rater's own published page, and writes our source profiles and app comparisons. We follow our published editorial policy and log every correction in public. More about our editorial team

Sources: The New York Times ethics and standards, The New York Times corrections, The New York Times funding and ownership. Ratings: AllSides, Ad Fontes Media and Media Bias/Fact Check, linked in the rating table.

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