Michigan's Senate race is among the handful expected to decide which party controls Congress' upper chamber for the next two years.
AFN has reported that media outlets such as NBC News have downplayed Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed's progressive positions, his association with people such as left-wing streamer Hasan Piker, and his apparent ties to the terrorist-affiliated Muslim Brotherhood.
As President Donald Trump campaigns for Republican Mike Rogers, George Stephanopoulos of ABC's "Good Morning America" is accusing him of "unleashing inflammatory and false attacks" on the Democrat, and former President Barack Obama is playing up the prejudice angle, saying, "We have seen this movie before. I starred in it."
Though documented history is on the critics' side, Nick Kangadis of the Media Research Center (MRC) says networks putting Democrats in white hats and Republicans in black is as predictable as night following day.
"They try to paint whoever they prefer as a moderate going into … the closing moments of an election," he says.
But the fact is that mainstream media newsrooms are filled with liberals who do not even try to hide their bias.
Debate over liberal bias in the mainstream media has persisted for decades, with surveys documenting a left-leaning tilt among journalists dating back to at least the 1960s.
According to recent MRC studies, major news aggregators have promoted left-leaning outlets roughly 65% to more than 90% of the time, depending on the specific month, platform or scope analyzed.
An analysis in January showed that of 620 top stories curated by Apple News, 0% were from right-wing sources, with roughly 71% (440 stories) coming from left-leaning outlets and the rest from centrist sources.
In February, 64.5% (314 stories) of 487 top Google News stories leaned to the left, 33.3% were in the center and 2.2% (11 stories) were right-leaning.
In a 100-day window covering Republican midterm primary coverage, 57 out of 70 stories pushed by Google (approximately 81.4%) and 33 out of 47 stories on Apple (approximately 70.2%) originated from left-leaning outlets.
Critics believe corporate ownership keeps journalists' economic stances closer to the establishment, but mainstream media outlets are generally believed to lean left because of a combination of urban geographic concentration, left-skewed journalist demographics and subscription-driven market incentives that cater to a primarily progressive audience. That dynamic is further reinforced by a journalistic culture focused on systemic reform and social advocacy.
"If you are a supporter of President Trump, then this is very important, because you want his last two years to be effective," Kangadis, a self-described "anti-communist," says of the upcoming elections.
He says it has never been more important to engage in the political process.
"No matter who you vote for, it is your civic duty as an American to vote," Kangadis states. "It starts locally, and it expands all the way to globally."
