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Should I Use Mediabiasfactcheck?

mediabiasfactcheck.com·Analyzed 2 hours ago·Based on 12 sources

Depends

Depends

Use it free as a first-pass check on a news outlet's bias and factuality — journalists and educators do.

Free human-run bias ratings for thousands of outlets; a starting point, not a verdict — rigor is disputed.

Confidence: Medium

97/100

AcademicHelp score

Fact-checking sites review, 2025

3.3/5

Trustpilot

4 reviews

2.2/5

SmartCustomer

14 reviews

Free

Starting price

API is custom-quoted

Value for money5

Free site; API is custom-quoted

Ease of use4

Simple outlet lookup journalists use routinely

Feature depth3

Bias, factuality, credibility ratings plus API; methodology thin

Pros

  • Free, 100% independent, human-driven ratings per its about page.¹
  • Rates political bias, factual accuracy, and credibility of news outlets.
  • Used as a lateral-reading tool by a university news-literacy program.10
  • Cited in a Nature journal study to classify source political slant.11
  • Rated 97/100 by AcademicHelp's fact-checking site review.

Cons

  • Critics say its method is neither rigorous nor peer-reviewed.
  • Accused of left-leaning bias by independent critiques.
  • Weak review base: 2.2/5 SmartCustomer (14), 3.3/5 Trustpilot (4).
  • Operates as a for-profit; funding transparency questioned by watchdogs.12

Gotchas

  • highMethodology called informal by scholars; treat ratings as a starting point, never a verdict.
  • mediumAPI pricing is custom-quote only — no public numbers for budgeting.²
  • mediumFor-profit funding; check its funding page before assuming neutrality.12
  • lowMirror domains with bot-check walls exist; verify you're on the real site.

Best for

  • Daily readers doing quick bias checks
  • Media-literacy educators
  • Researchers classifying outlet slant
  • Developers wanting a ratings API

Not for

  • Anyone needing peer-reviewed, auditable methodology
  • Newsrooms needing defensible, citable bias certification
  • People wanting one rating to settle what's true
  • Teams needing enterprise media monitoring or SLAs

Companies that use it

  • Penn State News Literacy Initiative10

Pricing

Website access

Free

  • Bias and factuality ratings per outlet
  • Daily vetted fact-check curation
  • Factual news feed

Data API

Not disclosed

  • Direct API access to ratings
  • Contact editor@ for pricing

Security

No known public vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.

What users say

Opinion is split: some journalists praise its breadth while critics and some reviewers dispute its rigor and neutrality.

It's not perfect, but IMO there's no close 2nd.
Reddit, r/Journalism
I use Media Bias Fact Check very often to check articles and their sources
Skeptics Meta Stack Exchange
Mediabiasfactcheck has been repeatedly caught in lies and distortion
SmartCustomer review

Alternatives

Compare Mediabiasfactcheck with each alternative.

Full analysis

Based on 24 public sources: official pages, review sites, Reddit threads, and academic coverage. Review volumes are small, so sentiment signals are weak.

Sources

  1. About - Media Bias/Fact Checkmediabiasfactcheck.com
    official
  2. MBFC's Data APImediabiasfactcheck.com
    official
  3. official
  4. review
  5. review
  6. review
  7. review
  8. news
  9. review
  10. news
  11. news
  12. news

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