The Watchdog with David Bozell

Protect the nest.

That’s the instinct. That’s the pattern. And once you see it, you can’t unsee it.

The media don’t just report on politics. They protect the political ecosystem they’re part of. A couple of years ago, Sunny Hostin said the quiet part out loud on The View, worrying that a question she asked Kamala Harris might have “hurt” Harris politically.

That mindset doesn’t stop at daytime talk or cable news. It’s now built into the platforms that decide what millions of Americans see every day.

As MRC has expanded into tracking the Big Four news apps — Google News, Yahoo News, MSN, and Apple News — we’re seeing how that same instinct plays across these platforms.

These apps are not side channels. They are the front page for tens of millions of Americans every day, and hundreds of millions every month.

Over a 29-day period, our team reviewed 2,320 highlighted stories across those platforms. That’s more than enough real estate to surface any major national development.

Yet all four apps failed to feature coverage of a massive California hospice fraud scheme involving hundreds of millions, and potentially billions, in taxpayer dollars.

The story was real. The reporting existed. The implications were obvious for figures like Gavin Newsom, Kamala Harris, and Eric Swalwell.

And still, nothing.

One detail says everything. CBS News produced solid, substantive reporting on the scandal. During the same window, the Big Four apps featured 68 CBS News stories.

Not one was the fraud investigation.

That’s not an oversight. That’s called protecting the nest.

This is why our work matters.

For years, we documented bias on television. Now we’re tracking it where it matters most, inside the systems that distribute information at scale. When those systems decide what rises and what disappears, they shape what the country knows and what it never hears.

And we’re getting that story out.

Our findings are reaching policymakers, journalists, and millions of Americans who rely on these platforms without realizing how they operate. The pressure is building because the data are clear.

But this only works if we keep going.

Expanding this effort, tracking these platforms daily, and forcing transparency takes real resources and sustained focus.

Your support makes that possible.

And with it, we’ll keep pulling back the curtain.

​​​​​​​Take it easy, 

David Bozell
President