Israeli media bias, seen on the story itself.
A bias chart tells you where somebody filed a newsroom. Putting one event next to every outlet that covered it tells you what actually happened that day. baba News does the second thing, in English, across 58 Israeli newsrooms.
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How Do I See Bias on an Israeli News Story?
Compare the wording. The same event, reported by Ynet, N12, Israel Hayom and Haaretz, produces four headlines that are not the same headline, and the differences between them are the most direct evidence of a slant that exists. Add which outlets ran it at all, which press sides ignored it, and who filed first, and you have the shape of the coverage rather than somebody’s opinion of the coverage.
That is what baba News is built to show. It reads 58 Israeli newsrooms in Hebrew, Arabic, Russian, French and English, groups every report about one event into a single story, and puts the headlines side by side in English.
What You Get Instead of a Score
Four things, all of them checkable against the original articles.
One event, every newsroom
A story arrives as a cluster: every outlet that filed on it, each with its own headline rendered in English. The difference between two headlines is the most direct evidence of a slant there is.
The split, counted
How many left, center and right newsrooms ran it, and which press sides did not run it at all. A story carried by one side and nobody else is visible as exactly that.
Who moved first
The filing timeline: which newsroom published first and how long the others took. A story that took one side six hours to notice is a different story from one everybody ran at once.
Ownership on the record
Who owns each outlet and how it is funded, recorded for every newsroom on the wire, so you can weigh the source without taking a score on faith.
Why There Is No Factuality Score Here
A licensed reliability number compresses a newsroom into a digit and asks you to trust the compression. baba News does not publish one. Every newsroom profile records what can be checked instead: who owns it, how it is funded, when it started, and its measured behaviour on the wire, such as how quickly it files compared with the rest of the press.
The left, center and right placement exists for one job: comparing coverage of the same event. Of the 18 newsrooms profiled here, 8 sit in the center, 6 on the right, 1 on the left, and 3 are unrated because they are business outlets that the scale does not describe.
How the Israeli Press Splits
Every side baba News carries, and what sits on it.
| Side | Newsrooms | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Left | Haaretz, Davar, Local Call | Haaretz is the largest, founded 1918, with the strongest English edition of any Hebrew paper. |
| Center | Ynet, N12, Kan, Channel 13, Walla, Maariv, The Times of Israel | The high-volume mainstream: the two commercial TV newsrooms, the public broadcaster and the big portals. |
| Right | Israel Hayom, The Jerusalem Post, Now 14, 0404, Mida | Israel Hayom is the most widely read print paper, distributed free. |
| Religious-Zionist | Arutz Sheva, Srugim, Makor Rishon, Kipa | Carried as its own side. Arutz Sheva runs Israel National News in English. |
| Haredi | Kikar HaShabbat, Behadrei Haredim, JDN | Hebrew only. Stories here often appear nowhere else in the press. |
| Arabic | Arab48, Panet, Al-Arab, Makan, Al-Shams | The Arabic-language press inside Israel, which a left-to-right bar does not describe. |
| Russian | Vesty, NEWSru Israel, Mignews, Cursorinfo, Channel 9 | Serving the Russian-speaking public, with its own agenda and its own gaps. |
| Business | Globes, Calcalist, TheMarker, Bizportal | Left unrated on the left-to-right scale, because that scale does not describe what they cover. |
Each one has a profile with ownership, funding and language: all Israeli newsrooms.
The Gap Is the Story
The most useful thing a comparison shows is not how two newsrooms worded an event. It is an event one side of the press covered heavily and another did not touch. baba News calls those Not Everywhere stories and names the side that stayed quiet: see the coverage gaps.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I see media bias on an Israeli news story?
Compare how different newsrooms worded the same event. baba News groups every Israeli outlet that covered a story into one cluster, shows each newsroom’s own headline in English, counts how many left, center and right outlets ran it, and names the press sides that did not run it at all. That comparison is the evidence; a single bias score is not.
Is there an Israeli media bias chart?
baba News places every newsroom on a left, center or right position and on a press side such as Haredi, religious-Zionist, Arabic, Russian or business. That placement is for comparing coverage of one event, not a rating of accuracy or trustworthiness. The full register of all 58 newsrooms is published, with ownership and funding for each.
Is Haaretz left wing? Is Israel Hayom right wing?
baba News places Haaretz on the left of the Israeli press and Israel Hayom on the right. Both are large, established newsrooms: Haaretz was founded in 1918 and is funded by subscriptions and advertising, Israel Hayom was founded in 2007 and is a privately funded free daily. What the placement is for is comparison, so you can see what each ran on a given day and how each worded it.
Does baba News score newsrooms for factuality?
No, and that is deliberate. A licensed factuality number is something a reader has to take on faith. baba News publishes what is checkable instead: ownership, funding, which outlets ran a story, which did not, how each worded it, and how fast each filed.
Why does the left-to-right scale not cover every Israeli newsroom?
Because it does not describe them. The Haredi press, the religious-Zionist press, the Arabic press, the Russian-language press and the business papers each cover a different agenda, and calling a Haredi daily "center-right" says nothing useful. baba News carries them as their own press sides instead, and leaves business outlets unrated on the scale.
Can I see what one side of the press did not cover?
Yes. That is what Not Everywhere does: it surfaces stories that ran widely on one side of the Israeli press and not at all on another, and names the side that stayed quiet.
Compare the Israeli press yourself.
Free on iPhone and Android. Every story in English, with every newsroom that ran it.