With its headquarters in Washington D.C. and its rather newer date of founding just back in 2010, The Daily Caller is a news publication service providing its audience with original reporting and breaking news, as well as thought-provoking commentary. With its prime focus on political issues and politicians, this right-wing source pulls in an average of millions of monthly visits.
In turn, this article will analyze the website’s coverage to determine whether or not there is discernible bias present in articles. With this analysis, we will determine concretely whether or not The Daily Caller is biased by also shedding light on the factors that cause media bias.
How Does Biasly Rate News Sources?
Biasly’s algorithms produce bias ratings to help provide multiple perspectives on given articles. Biasly has analyzed 200,000+ news articles from more than 3,200 news sources through our A.I. technology and team of political analysts to find the most factual, unbiased news stories.
Biasly determines the degree of political bias in news sources by using Biasly’s Bias Meter Rating, in which Biasly’s team analyzes media sources’ reliability and bias and produces three scores, a Reliability Score that measures the accuracy of media sources; an A.I. Bias Score, evaluated by A.I.; and an Analyst Bias Score evaluated by political analysts. These scores are rated based on seven rating metrics including Tone, Tendency, Diction, Author Check, Selection/Omission, Expediency Bias, and Accuracy. These metrics help our analysts to determine the political attitude of the article.
Our A.I. machine-learning system employs natural language processing and entity-specific sentiment analysis to examine individual articles and determine their bias levels. By analyzing the key terms in an article such as policies, bias phrases, political terminologies, politicians, and their nicknames, the algorithms can rate the attitude of the text. Bias scores range from -100% and 100%, with higher negative scores being more liberal higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral.
Consider this survey from Pew Research, which suggests that the vast majority of people think it is never acceptable for news organizations to favor one political party over others when reporting news. Moreover, over half of people think that news organizations are currently doing well to report fairly on different political issues. Take a look:
Source: Pew Research Center
Is Daily Caller Politically Biased?
The Daily Caller has faced backlash, specifically from Media Matters, who criticizes the Daily Caller for “repeated interactions with white nationalists on its platform” and also its sexist commentary about famous women and making light of sexual assault against children. An example of their criticism can be found here.
Nonetheless, Biasly’s A.I. Bias Score for The Daily Caller sits at “Moderately Conservative” with a Policy Leaning score of “Moderately Conservative” as well. These scores mean that the source’s content is produced from an American conservative political perspective.
Before we begin, we need to discuss bias. Bias is a natural function of humans, and we can express it both consciously and unconsciously. Bias is one of the most fundamental forms of pattern recognition in humans. This isn’t to lower the bar and say that “all things are biased,” but to explain the process in which we may come to trust certain news organizations that display patterns of coverage.
On the media’s part, there is an incentive to retain audiences, encourage them to purchase subscriptions, and rate products positively. Bias is a two-way street, people want to see news stories about things they care about, and the media needs viewers to continue their operations. This creates a positive feedback loop that influences what stories are covered and from what perspective. This also explains the actions of more liberal news organizations.
Analysis of Daily Caller in Online Articles
Given the claims above, what does this mean as far as the source’s bias in their content? By analyzing several of The Daily Caller’s articles, we will be able to identify the presence of bias and how it is reflected in their articles.
First, common metrics to determine bias include Tone, Author, and Diction, which all have distinct meanings. The tone is the attitude of the writing in general, while the Author metric refers to the author of the article and their demonstrated stance reflected in current and past articles, as well as their background and social media. Lastly, Diction is the writer’s word choice, which helps to explain the tone of the article and identify the author’s stance.
The first article is titled “Biden Campaign Refuses To Commit To Debate With Trump.” Biasly has rated this article “Very Conservative”; by using the metrics identified above, we can determine the bias present in this article.
The tone is set in a way that puts the Trump and Biden administrations against each other, in a manner that creates a political divide:
“Biden’s campaign said that Trump doesn’t have to be at the debate for his ‘extreme agenda’ to be there.”
“The only thing that will be missed is the chaos, the disruption, the bullying, the name-calling of former President Trump.”
As a result, the attitude of the article portrays that the Biden administration is speaking poorly of their opposition, which is not a good look.
Author Diana Glebova is a White House Correspondent for the Daily Caller. Her personal Twitter account reveals many of her personal opinions and biases that lean right. Several of her tweets and retweets criticizing the Biden administration, such as:
Biden will travel to Maui on Monday, spending less than a full day on the Hawaiian island before flying back to an $18 million property in Lake Tahoe, Nevada.@DailyCaller https://t.co/7YF0jip71H
— Diana Glebova (@DianaGlebova) August 21, 2023
Biden has yet to personally address the House Oversight allegations of his family profiting $10 million while he was VP.
Does not stop for a question from me for @DailyCaller: pic.twitter.com/LrMwrt7WDX
— Diana Glebova (@DianaGlebova) May 15, 2023
In turn, the author has an incentive to cater to her conservative audience, as indicated by her tone and diction in the article. Other examples of Glebova’s articles are titled “Biden Hires New White House Counsel Amid Hunter Legal Troubles” and “Trump World Expects Court Drama To Push Him To Victory.”
While the diction of the article is not extreme, there are cases where the author uses words and phrases suggesting he does not support the Biden administration. For example, the author uses words such as “…refused to say whether the president would commit” or “the Biden campaign did not immediately respond” to create uncertainty and paint the Biden administration in a way that lacks confidence.
In summary, while the author does talk about both political campaigns and their stances on the debates, the article overall was right-leaning and sought to paint the Biden administration with uncertainty as well as bringing up Biden’s argument of Trump’s “extreme agenda.” This shows the importance of looking for the signs of bias, such as Tone, Author and Diction in any article.
An example where limited bias is present is titled “‘The Mandates Are Coming’: Fauci Says Full FDA Approval Will Inspire A Flood Of Vaccine Requirements”. Biasly’s A.I. rating is “Center,” as the language throughout is cut and dry and avoids involving any emotionally loaded language that could sway a reader’s opinion:
- “Dr. Anthony Fauci said Friday that businesses and schools across the country will issue vaccine mandates as soon as the Food and Drug Administration issues full approval of the COVID-19 vaccine.”
- “About 70% of adults in the United States have received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control.”
Along with this, all of the author Melanie Wilcox’s articles for The Daily Caller are structured in the same way with an emphasis on delivering factual news reporting rather than inputting emotional language.
Analysis of Daily Caller in Opinion Articles
There is a distinct difference between news articles and opinion articles. While the goal of reporting news is intended to be neutral and provide information for readers, opinion articles allow columnists to insert their own opinions and personal views on topics they choose. While we saw elements of both genuine reporting above, our analysis of The Daily Caller’s opinion articles will determine whether or not authors are implementing heavy amounts of bias in their articles.
First, consider this opinion article titled “PORTER: The 17 Word Constitutional Amendment We Need Now To Avert Another Biden Disaster.” The title is loaded with bias in associating President Biden with “disaster.” The preemptive criticism in the title already indicates to readers that their opinion will strongly be against the Biden administration. Another example of emotionally loaded language in the article includes:
“We certainly hope Mr. Biden lives long, but it is time to take away the car keys before we all get hurt. The numbers are against him completing another term, and mental capacity will be an issue if it isn’t already.”
On the contrary, the article “New York Jets Wide Receiver Corey Davis Retires at 28” has an objective title and informs the reader rather than pushing an agenda. Reliable articles are marked with neutral language and facts from credible sources. Just based on the title alone, you can safely assume that the article has much less bias than the previous one.
These articles, in addition to the ones above, only represent a small portion of The Daily Caller’s content. Nonetheless, they indicate that opinions and bias are prevalent in their news articles, which represents the importance of being able to recognize the differences between reporting and subjective writing.
Who Owns the Daily Caller?
The Daily Caller was founded in 2010 by Tucker Carlson and Neil Patel. Tucker Carlson was an analyst of Fox News, which perhaps also explains why the source leans right.
As explained on The Daily Caller’s About Us page, the source has a self-proclaimed center-right bias:
“The Daily Caller committed to telling the truth and adhering to all the standards of journalism coming from a center-right perspective, which we believe is needed to balance out the more left-leaning perspective found in the vast majority of American news.”
Beyond this, The Daily Caller also reports that its political reporting is “thorough and tough on members of both political parties.” Lastly, as a for-profit and independent news outlet, the source also has an incentive to cater to its right-leaning audience.
Neil Patel
Tucker Carlson – Source: Wikipedia
How to Evaluate and Uncover Bias
It can often be difficult to tell if the news you watch is biased. If you have settled on a news channel, it’s usually because you trust the information you are gaining. Unfortunately, many trust the information they are hearing because it confirms what they already believe. This is referred to as “confirmation bias.” It is important to challenge your beliefs and get third-party verification that what you are hearing is the full story. This is why we recommend using Biasly to compare different news stories side-by-side using our bias ratings to figure out what both sides think of a political issue.
Although Biasly gave The Daily Caller a “Moderately Conservative” bias score, remember that bias varies between articles, authors, and subjects. Additionally, some articles will have more or less bias than others just because of the nature of their topics. So, whether or not you find bias in every article you read, it is critical to use Biasly’s News Check to help you determine the bias of what you are reading.