Ars Technica media bias and reliability
AllSides, Ad Fontes Media and Media Bias/Fact Check place Ars Technica in the centre. We have seen it on 37 published stories of ours.
The short answers
Is Ars Technica biased?
AllSides, Ad Fontes Media and Media Bias/Fact Check place Ars Technica in the centre. An outlet rating describes a broad pattern in its output, not every article it publishes.
Is Ars Technica left or right?
AllSides, Ad Fontes Media and Media Bias/Fact Check place Ars Technica in the centre. In the three-way grouping used on story pages, that puts it under Centre.
Is Ars Technica reliable?
The factual-reliability assessments we hold for Ars Technica are Media Bias/Fact Check: High factuality. These are outlet-level assessments, not a guarantee that every report is correct.
What Ars Technica has been covering
Our account of each story, written from every outlet that ran it, with Ars Technica’s own report linked underneath.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has appointed eight new members to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. This influential panel decides which preventive health services millions of Americans can access for free.
Ars Technica reported it asRFK Jr. stacks another influential federal panel with questionable picks (opens Ars Technica in a new tab)
A federal judge has blocked the Department of Homeland Security from issuing further warning notices to David Streever. Streever had sent an email to the former acting director of ICE comparing him to a Nazi. The judge ruled the warning notice likely violated Streever's First Amendment rights.
Ars Technica reported it asIt’s OK to tell ICE their actions will haunt them, judge rules in speech fight (opens Ars Technica in a new tab)
The US Space Force has confirmed the deployment of weapons in Earth orbit, marking the first public acknowledgement of such capabilities. Air Force Secretary Troy Meink stated the weapons are intended for defence against hostile actions, though specific details remain undisclosed.
Ars Technica reported it asFor the first time, the US military confirms it has deployed weapons in orbit (opens Ars Technica in a new tab)
The United States has confirmed for the first time that it has deployed weapons in orbit. Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said the Space Force placed "space control weapons" to deter adversaries, drawing accusations from China and Russia.
Ars Technica reported it asFor the first time, the US military confirms it has deployed weapons in orbit (opens Ars Technica in a new tab)
A federal appeals court has invalidated a Trump administration order that compelled the JH Campbell coal plant in Michigan to remain operational beyond its planned retirement. The court found the Energy Department lacked the legal authority to issue such emergency orders.
Ars Technica reported it asCourt rejects government's energy "emergency" that kept coal plant open (opens Ars Technica in a new tab)
AI company Anthropic has blocked researchers from using its models for work that could potentially aid biological weapons development. The company stated it could not determine if the research served a legitimate scientific purpose or malicious intent, citing attempts to circumvent restrictions and obscure research goals.
Ars Technica reported it asClaude users found ways around safeguards for bioweapons research (opens Ars Technica in a new tab)
Jimmy Kimmel announced his interview with Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico would not air on ABC due to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) pressure. The interview will instead be posted on YouTube. The decision comes amid a broader dispute between ABC's parent company, Disney, and the FCC over broadcast licenses.
Ars Technica reported it asKimmel's ABC show won't air interview with Democrat because of Trump FCC threats (opens Ars Technica in a new tab)
Apple has launched its first foldable smartphone, the iPhone Duo, at its 'Surprise and Shine' event. The company also introduced the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. This marks the first major product launch under new CEO John Ternus.
Ars Technica reported it asApple's iPhone 18 Pro adds variable camera aperture and a more powerful chip (opens Ars Technica in a new tab)
Apple CEO John Ternus posted a cryptic video ahead of the company's expected iPhone 18 Pro unveiling. The video appears to hint at a new variable aperture camera feature for the device, which is set to be announced alongside new Apple Watch models.
Ars Technica reported it asApple's iPhone 18 Pro adds variable camera aperture and a more powerful chip (opens Ars Technica in a new tab)
A 27-year-old British researcher, Jacob Coxon, has resigned from Anthropic and the AI industry, citing concerns over the rapid, irresponsible development of self-improving superintelligence. He fears this race poses a significant risk to humanity, with some reports suggesting an existential threat by the end of the decade.
Ars Technica reported it asAnthropic researcher quits with a warning: Self-improving AI could "kill us all" (opens Ars Technica in a new tab)
An Anthropic researcher has warned of a greater than 10% chance of AI causing human extinction in the next ten years. The warning follows a colleague's resignation over concerns about reckless AI development.
Ars Technica reported it asAnthropic researcher quits with a warning: Self-improving AI could "kill us all" (opens Ars Technica in a new tab)
Jacob Coxon, a researcher formerly with OpenAI and Anthropic, has resigned, stating that leading AI developers are acting irresponsibly and "gambling with our lives." His departure has drawn comparisons to the Skynet scenario from the Terminator film.
Ars Technica reported it asAnthropic researcher quits with a warning: Self-improving AI could "kill us all" (opens Ars Technica in a new tab)
Jacob Coxon has resigned from AI company Anthropic, warning that the rapid development of artificial intelligence poses an existential threat to humanity. His departure and warnings have been reported across several outlets, highlighting concerns about AI safety and the race for superintelligence.
Ars Technica reported it asAnthropic researcher quits with a warning: Self-improving AI could "kill us all" (opens Ars Technica in a new tab)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has excluded two measles-associated deaths reported by Pennsylvania from its latest weekly update. The agency stated the decision was made pending further investigation into the cause of the deaths.
Ars Technica reported it asReports: RFK Jr. ordered measles deaths deletion; CDC still secretly counts them (opens Ars Technica in a new tab)
New Jersey has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to resolve a legal dispute over the regulation of prediction markets. The case could determine whether these platforms are considered sports betting, subject to state laws, or financial derivatives regulated by the federal government.
Ars Technica reported it asSupreme Court urged to let states regulate sports bets on prediction markets (opens Ars Technica in a new tab)
The US has imposed tariffs of up to 100% on drones and components, effective 3 September 2026, to address national security concerns and reduce dependence on Chinese imports. Drones over 25 kilograms or with thermal imaging face the highest duties, while smaller drones are subject to lower tariffs.
Ars Technica reported it asTrump’s 100% tariff on drones will be disaster for the US, critics warn (opens Ars Technica in a new tab)
The 36th annual Ig Nobel Prizes awarded ten research teams for studies that are scientifically sound but unusual. This year's ceremony was held in Zurich, marking the first time the event took place outside the United States.
Ars Technica reported it asMeet the 2026 Ig Nobel Prize winners (opens Ars Technica in a new tab)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has excluded two measles-associated deaths reported by Pennsylvania from its latest weekly update. The agency stated the decision was made pending further investigation into the cause of the deaths.
Ars Technica reported it asA newborn and child reportedly died of measles; CDC isn't counting them (opens Ars Technica in a new tab)
NASA's Roman Space Telescope has successfully launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. The observatory is designed to study dark matter, dark energy, and exoplanets, collecting vast amounts of data to deepen our understanding of the universe.
Ars Technica reported it asNASA's next "great observatory" begins mission to widen our view of the Universe (opens Ars Technica in a new tab)
President Donald Trump called the International Space Station from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. He praised the astronauts and signed an executive order for the U.S. Space Force Academy. The way he held the phone drew online commentary.
Ars Technica reported it asWhy it matters that President Trump just dialed into a NASA news conference (opens Ars Technica in a new tab)
Who says so
3 organisations have published a rating for this outlet, in their own words. Where they disagree, the disagreement is the useful part and it is left standing.
How reliably it reports fact
A rating of the newsroom in general, by others, and a different thing from the Trust score we publish on each story, which judges one piece of reporting.
Very high factuality
- Media Bias/Fact CheckhighCheck it
Who owns it
- Condé Nastunknowndirect owner
- Advance PublicationsMedia Conglomerateparent group
Where it publishes from
- Publishes from
- Cambridge, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States
- Official site
- arstechnica.com
- Seen publishing on
- arstechnica.com
- Access
- Free to read
- Wikipedia
- Entry
What we have seen ourselves
Counted across the stories this site has published, which is the only denominator a reader can check: every one of them has a page, and every page lists the reports it was written from.
- Stories
- 37
- Reports listed
- 38
- We could read
- 6
- First seen
- 4 August 2026
32 of those reports were paywalled or blocked to us. Our reading of this outlet is built on the 6 we could open, not on everything it published.
A blindspot is measured against one side of the spectrum. Ars Technica is rated centre, so there is no side for it to be counted against and we publish no figure here.
Across the 37 stories of ours where at least three of the reports we listed carried a time, another outlet was always ahead of Ars Technica: its report arrived a median of 25 hours after the earliest one we logged.
Measured 18 September 2026. Last seen in a coverage list 18 September 2026. Ratings pulled 4 September 2026.
Other outlets rated the same way
Publishers carrying the same published leaning as Ars Technica, also publishing from United States, ordered by how often we have seen them on a story. Sharing a rating is not the same as being alike.
Think this page is wrong?
The leanings above are published by AllSides, Ad Fontes Media and Media Bias/Fact Check, and we republish them rather than make them. If you think one is misapplied, the strongest place to say so is with the organisation that made it, and every verdict here links to their page.
What we are responsible for is everything else: the ownership chain, where Ars Technica publishes from, which of our stories we have listed it on, and whether we have the right publisher at all. Tell us what is wrong and an editor reads it.
Report something wrong on this page
Anything we correct is written up in the public corrections log. We do not publish reader votes as a rating, because an unattributed rating is the thing this site exists to argue against.
Every rating on this page is a named third party’s published work, republished with its author and, where one exists, a link to it. Our own coverage record is the section we measure ourselves. Neither is a judgement of any individual report: those are scored story by story, and the reasoning is on our methodology page.