Mother Jones media bias and reliability
The rating organisations do not give Mother Jones one shared verdict in the records we hold. Their published ratings are AllSides: Left; Ad Fontes Media: Left; Media Bias/Fact Check: Leans left. We have seen it on 23 published stories of ours.
The short answers
Is Mother Jones biased?
The rating organisations do not give Mother Jones one shared verdict in the records we hold. Their published ratings are AllSides: Left; Ad Fontes Media: Left; Media Bias/Fact Check: Leans left. An outlet rating describes a broad pattern in its output, not every article it publishes.
Is Mother Jones left or right?
The rating organisations do not give Mother Jones one shared verdict in the records we hold. Their published ratings are AllSides: Left; Ad Fontes Media: Left; Media Bias/Fact Check: Leans left. In the three-way grouping used on story pages, that puts it under Left.
Is Mother Jones reliable?
The factual-reliability assessments we hold for Mother Jones are Ad Fontes Media: Mixed factuality; Media Bias/Fact Check: High factuality. These are outlet-level assessments, not a guarantee that every report is correct.
What Mother Jones has been covering
Our account of each story, written from every outlet that ran it, with Mother Jones’s own report linked underneath.
Bo French, a Republican candidate for Texas Railroad Commissioner, posted a photo mocking South Asian students at a University of Texas football game. Republican leaders John Cornyn and Dustin Burrows condemned the post, and former adviser Karl Rove said he will vote for Democrat Jon Rosenthal.
Mother Jones reported it asBo French wants Texas to be the new Rhodesia. His opponent just wants to keep the heat on. (opens Mother Jones in a new tab)
House Speaker Mike Johnson has sent representatives home early for their pre-election recess. This move postpones a vote on impeaching Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, which had been initiated by Rep. Thomas Massie over Hegseth's actions in Iran and Venezuela.
Mother Jones reported it asMike Johnson can't protect Pete Hegseth forever (opens Mother Jones in a new tab)
The Environmental Protection Agency is set to repeal rules limiting greenhouse gas emissions from coal and natural gas power plants. Administrator Lee Zeldin stated the move could save billions for the industry and boost American energy.
Mother Jones reported it asWith EPA's latest move, Trump topples the last pillar of Biden’s climate legacy (opens Mother Jones in a new tab)
The Supreme Court has rejected the Trump administration's request to enforce new U.S. Postal Service mail ballot regulations ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. The court's order leaves in place a lower court injunction blocking the rules.
Mother Jones reported it asSupreme Court blocks Trump’s mail ballot scheme (opens Mother Jones in a new tab)
A Department of Homeland Security inspector general report found that nearly 80 immigrant detainees at the 'Alligator Alcatraz' facility were held in small metal enclosures for periods ranging from several minutes to nearly two hours. The report described the enclosures as 'highly unconventional' and a risk to detainee health and safety.
Mother Jones reported it asA new DHS report proves Alligator Alcatraz detainees were right all along (opens Mother Jones in a new tab)
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and a coalition of Democratic-led cities and states have filed a lawsuit challenging a new Trump administration rule. The rule would allow immigration officials to deny green cards and visas to immigrants who use public benefits.
Mother Jones reported it asStates and cities sue to stop Trump’s immigrant “wealth test” rule before it takes effect (opens Mother Jones in a new tab)
A new report from the Environmental Protection Network highlights potential public health consequences of the expanding data center industry, citing federal actions that could increase pollution and health costs.
Mother Jones reported it asFormer EPA officials: Trump is letting data centers make you sick (opens Mother Jones 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.
Mother Jones reported it asAnthropic Researcher Quits, Says AI Labs 'Gambling With Our Lives' (opens Mother Jones 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.
Mother Jones reported it asAnthropic staffers sound the alarm—again—on AI catatrophe (opens Mother Jones 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.
Mother Jones reported it asAnthropic staffers sound the alarm—again—on AI catatrophe (opens Mother Jones 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.
Mother Jones reported it asAnthropic staffers sound the alarm—again—on AI catatrophe (opens Mother Jones in a new tab)
A Russian disinformation campaign is using doctored celebrity videos with AI-cloned voices to target US midterm elections, aiming to discredit Democratic candidates. Researchers attribute the operation to a Kremlin-backed group known as Matryoshka, or Storm-1679.
Mother Jones reported it asWill Putin's decade-long war on US elections hit the midterms? (opens Mother Jones in a new tab)
A federal judge has blocked New York's law requiring fossil fuel companies to pay $75 billion over 25 years for climate change damages. The judge found the state law conflicted with federal authority, particularly the Clean Air Act.
Mother Jones reported it asA federal judge just killed New York's $75 billion climate bill for polluters (opens Mother Jones in a new tab)
US forces attacked targets in Iran, which CENTCOM described as limited measures against mine-laying units. Iran responded with strikes on two US bases in Jordan, which Jordanian authorities said were intercepted. This marks the first direct military exchange between the two nations in weeks.
Mother Jones reported it asTrump is growing desperate on Iran (opens Mother Jones in a new tab)
Donald Trump has declared that Iran must never be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon, stating that Tehran would use them if it acquired them. He also claimed that if he were not president, Israel would no longer exist.
Mother Jones reported it asTrump is growing desperate on Iran (opens Mother Jones in a new tab)
Former President Donald Trump has strongly advocated for data centers, stating that communities opposing them risk becoming "backwards and poor." He suggested that such opposition could benefit China and urged support for the facilities as a path to prosperity.
Mother Jones reported it asDonald Trump, prolific poster of AI slop, wants you to let data centers "reign" (opens Mother Jones in a new tab)
Tennessee's governor has proposed renaming Nashville International Airport for Dolly Parton, days after her death. The proposal faces a policy hurdle regarding naming rights for recently deceased individuals and will be discussed by the airport authority on September 17.
Mother Jones reported it asTennessee's governor loves Dolly—but not the LGBTQ people she stood up for (opens Mother Jones in a new tab)
The US Agriculture Department plans to rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, removing logging restrictions on over 40 million acres of national forest. The move, announced by Secretary Brooke Rollins, aims to reduce wildfire risks but is opposed by environmental groups who say it will increase them.
Mother Jones reported it asAdministration moves to open national forests to roadbuilding, drilling, and logging (opens Mother Jones in a new tab)
The Department of Homeland Security opened an investigation into left-wing groups in Minnesota following the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents. The probe, which included undercover surveillance and financial subpoenas, targeted unions and activist organisations but concluded without evidence of wrongdoing. Fifteen organisers were later indicted under a national security directive.
Mother Jones reported it asDocuments reveal the federal government’s vast Minnesota surveillance dragnet (opens Mother Jones in a new tab)
US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said on ABC’s “This Week” that the first wave of progressive rhetoric, which she labelled “Woke 1”, was “crazy”. She made the remark while discussing Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong, who has faced criticism for past social media posts calling to abolish prisons and cancel Thanksgiving.
Mother Jones reported it asWhat does "Woke 1" even mean? (opens Mother Jones 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.
High factuality
Who owns it
- The Center for Investigative ReportingIndependentdirect owner
Where it publishes from
- Publishes from
- San Francisco, San Francisco County, California, United States
- Official site
- motherjones.com
- Seen publishing on
- motherjones.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
- 23
- Reports listed
- 23
- We could read
- 0
- First seen
- 4 August 2026
23 of those reports were paywalled or blocked to us. Our reading of this outlet is built on the 0 we could open, not on everything it published.
On 5 of those stories, outlets rated left were largely absent from the coverage and Mother Jones ran the story anyway.
Across the 23 stories of ours where at least three of the reports we listed carried a time, we logged no report earlier than Mother Jones’s on 2 of them. Overall it filed a median of 2 days after the earliest report 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 Mother Jones, 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 Mother Jones 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.