The Watchdog with David Bozell

The Apple News story we led last week continues to develop.

Fox News reported Wednesday that the editor-in-chief of Apple News is a former deputy editor of, you guessed it, The New York Times. Sigh. That detail alone speaks volumes about how stories are selected and elevated for millions of iPhone users each day. MRC’s research was cited in the Fox report, underscoring the growing national attention on this issue.

There is another piece of context that ties everything together.

A poll conducted in late January broke down President Trump’s approval rating by primary news platforms. Among users of X, net approval for President Trump stood at +9. But among consumers of websites and newspapers, President Trump’s net approval sinks to a dismal -33.

That is not a coincidence.

All day long, platforms such as Apple News, Google News, Yahoo News, and MSN News promote headlines from the same legacy outlets to tens of millions of users daily and hundreds of millions monthly. Over time, that sustained exposure shapes perception.

Here’s a quick example that our Digital News Tracker revealed just yesterday. In January, the Minnesota Star Tribune surged to 48th among the top news websites in America, with over 16 million visits. We tracked Apple News promoting the Tribune 11 times in January and Google News five times. Promotion drives traffic. Traffic drives narrative dominance.

The Tribune, widely viewed as one of the most left-leaning local outlets around, has framed federal immigration enforcement in Minnesota as excessive and has repeatedly placed the blame for the unrest on President Trump’s policies and ICE tactics, illustrating how a dominant local news voice pushes a one-sided narrative.

When platforms like Apple and Google consistently elevate one side of the information spectrum and exclude the other, public opinion follows. 

This is why the work matters. This is why documentation matters. And this is why your support matters.

Thank you for standing with us.

​​​Take it easy, 

David Bozell
President