CNN Article Rating

Fact check: As wildfires rage, Trump lashes out with false claims about FEMA and California water policy

  • Bias Rating

    2% Center

  • Reliability

    80% ReliableGood

  • Policy Leaning

    10% Center

  • Politician Portrayal

    -33% Negative

Bias Score Analysis

The A.I. bias rating includes policy and politician portrayal leanings based on the author’s tone found in the article using machine learning. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral.

Sentiments

Overall Sentiment

-33% Negative

  •   Liberal
  •   Conservative
SentenceSentimentBias
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Bias Meter

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Bias Meter

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

52% : "Trump continued: "Now the ultimate price is being paid.
45% : "There is no connection between environmental protection in northern California and low-flow fire hydrants in Pacific Palisades.
44% : Newsom and a 'water restoration declaration'Trump blamed Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom for the wildfire crisis - claiming in a social media post that Newsom "refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way.
37% : But there is no apparent link to the particular question Trump has repeatedly invoked and was discussing again in this social media post - which is about how much water should be sent from the north to Central Valley farms that are separated from the Los Angeles area by a mountain range.
24% : For years, Trump has littered his statements on California wildfires and other disasters with inaccurate assertions.
23% : Trump made similar false claims about FEMA being out of money in the wake of Hurricane Helene in the fall.
17% : In the same social media post, Trump continued that Newsom refused to sign the supposed declaration because the governor "wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt, by giving it less water (it didn't work!), but didn't care about the people of California.
15% : As of early Thursday morning, Trump's presidential transition team had not provided a response to CNN's request from Wednesday afternoon to identify what Trump was talking about.

*Our bias meter rating uses data science including sentiment analysis, machine learning and our proprietary algorithm for determining biases in news articles. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral. The rating is an independent analysis and is not affiliated nor sponsored by the news source or any other organization.

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