Founded in 2005 by a French businessman, the International Business Times launched with aspirations to provide global coverage for business and commerce. Initially publishing for just the United States and Europe, the IBT now publishes for various global regions including Australia, the UK, Singapore, and India. Since its humble beginnings, the International Business Times has received multiple awards across the years but featured some controversy in 2014 as two ex-journalists reported that the news source seemed to be more interested in high-volume output rather than producing quality articles as a result of earnest journalism. Nonetheless, the IBT receives, on average, 40 million visitors each year.
Does the International Business Times have a bias? And if so, whom does it favor? In this article, we will analyze the newspaper’s coverage and editorial decisions to determine if there is a discernible political bias in their reporting. Through our analysis, we hope to provide a comprehensive answer to whether The International Business Times is biased and shed light on the factors that contribute to media bias in general.
Understanding Bias in a Professional Setting
Although bias may already hold a certain definition in your head, the concept is quite an abstract one and can significantly change when looking at it through a more professional lens. How can critically acclaimed news sources that receive tens of millions of visitors each year have bias? The answer is quite simple. Everyone, including authors of accredited news sources, have biases.
The Media Bias Chart Source: Biasly
With this in mind, it is important to note that producing honest journalism that accurately reflects world conditions is possible. Simply put, bias is just a slant or inclination towards something over things or a partiality or preference for one point of view over others. Bias is neither bad nor good and learning to understand and recognise bias can be crucial to better understanding another person’s side of the argument. 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.
Measuring bias in a news source oftentimes simply means comparing the amount of opinion-based articles to journalistic ones, looking and analyzing the tone or voice in the article, searching for and identifying word choice, and the use of polarising words and divisive language.
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. a 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 and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral.
How We Measure Bias in the International Business Times
Biasly’s rating for the IBT Times gives the paper a Bias Score of Center. Biasly’s bias analysis focuses on the leaning of tone, opinion, and diction of the author, and their respective tendencies. For example, Biasly’s AI rated its anti-discrimination laws and affirmative action policies to be in the center and typically represents them in a more neutral manner. It also found that conservative politicians such as Donald Trump and others were covered in a negative light.
Biasly has assigned a Center score as the Analyst Bias Score. Typically, alongside the Computer Bias Score, Biasly presents an Analyst Bias Score. This score is curated based on a review of at least 15 articles by a team of analysts representing liberal, moderate, and conservative viewpoints. Different types of bias in articles, preferences for liberal or conservative politicians and policies, all factor into generating these scores. The more articles the Biasly analyst team reviews and rates, the more precise the analyst score becomes.
For example, of the five most recent articles to be analyzed by Biasly from the International Business Times, all of them were rated as slightly conservative with many of them containing negative politician portrayals. However, the overall rating for the International Business Times remains as center with a 2% leaning in the conservative direction due to its balance of neutral, liberal, and conservatively rated articles.
Analysis of Bias in International Business Times Articles
We will begin by looking at the reader demographics for IB Times. Its audience is 64.65% male and 35.35% female. The largest age group of visitors are 55 – 64 year olds.
When determining bias, some of the most common metrics used include Tone, Tendency, Author, Diction, and Expediency Bias, which are the primary metrics we’ll focus on below.
- Tone: This represents the attitude of the writing, formed distinctively but related to the author’s word choices or diction.
- Diction: The specific words chosen by the writer.
- Author: A metric related to the article’s author, taking into account their history of stance on issues based on past articles and social media posts.
- Tendency measures how consistently an author shows bias in their work, including factors like their tone and perspective.
- Expediency Bias relates to the immediate impression created by elements like the article’s headline, images, or summary, indicating if they favor a particular viewpoint.
Let’s start with a sample article published by the International Business Times:
The International Business Times, 2025
This article maintains a very neutral and matter-of-fact tone throughout. Even the headline reads as more of a fact than an eye-catching title meant to draw readers in. The use of subject extraposition – moving the subject of the sentence to the end – does give the effect of a punchline here in both the headline and subheading, but it doesn’t deviate from a very informative tone. The images also serve the sole purpose of putting a face to a name and do not paint the political figures in any one way or another.
The picture of Donald Trump barely has a background and the picture of Jack Smith is simply of the American flag. Consequently, the article is pretty immediately rendered as the center due to these neutral factors. However, bias is most commonly found in the actual content of articles. Below is a key case study on how this article can be more closely analyzed to show potential points of bias. Additionally, this article can be used to anecdotally reflect the Center bias leaning of the International Business Times.
“The US Department of Justice’s ‘view that the Constitution prohibits the continued indictment and prosecution of a President is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the Government’s proof, or the merits of the prosecution, which the Office stands fully behind,’ the report said.”
The above quote is exemplary of maintaining a neutral tone, not necessarily through tone and diction, but rather through the near-exclusive use of quotes to convey information. It is harder to show a clear slant or bias when using quotes because they are an objective reality of things that were said and therefore cannot be left to the interpretation of the author. Unless someone were to selectively choose quotes from only one party or quotes that only reflected one point of view, using quotes is a great way to avoid bias and to include more fact-based reporting.
The phrasing “does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the Government’s proof, or the merits of the prosecution” is a straightforward description of the DOJ’s stance. The sentence uses neutral legal language, without embellishment, to explain the rationale behind the DOJ’s position. There is no attempt to convince the reader of a particular perspective; it simply presents the DOJ’s view as it is.
“Trump, who returns to the White House on January 20, had been accused of conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding — the session of Congress called to certify President Joe Biden’s election win but which was violently attacked on January 6, 2021 by a mob of the Republican’s supporters.”
The above quote was also taken from the same article. The use of the phrase “the session of Congress called to certify President Joe Biden’s election win” is a neutral description of the event. It doesn’t assert whether Biden’s victory is legitimate or illegitimate, it merely states the function of the session — certifying election results. The reference to Biden’s victory is necessary context for understanding the situation, as it explains why the attack on Congress occurred in the first place (i.e., as part of an attempt to disrupt the certification of the election).
The use of the word “violent” in “violently attacked” could be argued for showing some left-leaning bias as it is an adjective that is not being quoted but then again, there is an argument for objectivity. “Violently attacked” is an objective description of what happened on January 6, 2021. The attack on the Capitol was widely reported as violent by numerous news outlets, and the term doesn’t seem to introduce any additional judgment beyond what occurred. This is simply a matter of historical record. The term “violently” is a direct descriptor of the events and could not reasonably be seen as biased, given the widespread documentation of violence during the attack.
Meet the Owners
Etienne Uzac, a born Frenchman conjured the idea for the IBT because he noticed how international news mainly focusing on the United States and Europe tended to be the most successful and wanted to give a platform for mainly business news in those two regions. Uzac worked alongside Jonathan Davis to kickstart the company with Davis coding the website and writing the first few articles.
Wikipedia: Etienne Uzac
While neither Uzac or Davis have explicitly mentioned their own political beliefs publicly, there has been scrutiny as to the new source’s connection with a religious sect of Christianity. More specifically, the leader of the religious group seems to have a lot of influence over what IBT covers and where it places its editorial focus. That being said, traditional Christian views do not necessarily shine through the news source in the form of a bias and the source still tends to lean center to somewhat liberal.
Uzac maintains a relatively lowkey online presence occasionally sharing his views on current news events such as in the example below:
How to Evaluate and Uncover Bias
Understanding bias is essential because it allows us to critically assess how personal, political, and societal influences shape our perceptions and decisions. In the case of Donald Trump, as discussed in the article by the International Business Times we analysed here, there is a significant argument that his political status and election may have shielded him from potential legal consequences. Had he not been elected, some suggest that the bias embedded in political power dynamics might have led to a different outcome in the legal proceedings against him. However, logical empirical arguments can still be molded by bias – recognizing the bias in such situations helps ensure that judgments are made based on facts rather than political or personal influences, ultimately contributing to a more fair and just system. Knowing who influences the authors of widespread publications, the reputation of news sources, and even having self-awareness of your own cognitive biases helps contribute to a more transparent age of digital media.
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.
