National Catholic Reporter media bias and reliability
Ad Fontes Media and Media Bias/Fact Check place National Catholic Reporter as leaning left. We have seen it on 13 published stories of ours.
The short answers
Is National Catholic Reporter biased?
Ad Fontes Media and Media Bias/Fact Check place National Catholic Reporter as leaning left. An outlet rating describes a broad pattern in its output, not every article it publishes.
Is National Catholic Reporter left or right?
Ad Fontes Media and Media Bias/Fact Check place National Catholic Reporter as leaning left. In the three-way grouping used on story pages, that puts it under Left.
Is National Catholic Reporter reliable?
The factual-reliability assessments we hold for National Catholic Reporter are Ad Fontes Media: High factuality; Media Bias/Fact Check: High factuality. These are outlet-level assessments, not a guarantee that every report is correct.
What National Catholic Reporter has been covering
Our account of each story, written from every outlet that ran it, with National Catholic Reporter’s own report linked underneath.
US President Donald Trump described the midterm election results as a 'giant step back' for the United States. Republicans lost control of both the House and the Senate. Trump also attributed a significant stock market decline to the election outcomes and vowed a Republican comeback.
National Catholic Reporter reported it asWhat should the Democrats do now? (opens National Catholic Reporter in a new tab)
Democrats are projected to win a majority in the House of Representatives and have taken control of the Senate following the US midterm elections. The results mark a significant setback for Donald Trump and the Republican Party.
National Catholic Reporter reported it asThe Democratic wave turned into a tsunami (opens National Catholic Reporter in a new tab)
Gold prices surpassed $4,000 per ounce and silver neared $52 as the US dollar index dropped to a five-week low. Markets reacted to potential Democratic control of Congress and geopolitical tensions.
National Catholic Reporter reported it asThe Democratic wave turned into a tsunami (opens National Catholic Reporter in a new tab)
On 22 October 2026 Pope Leo XIV welcomed a delegation from the American Jewish Committee at the Vatican, recalling shared heritage, citing the Nostra aetate anniversary and warning that even deep disagreements must not lead to prejudice, while a Tel Aviv University study noted 20 Jewish victims in 2025.
National Catholic Reporter reported it asMeeting US Jewish leaders, pope warns differences must not fuel prejudice (opens National Catholic Reporter in a new tab)
Pope Leo has undergone surgery to remove part of his right lung due to lung cancer. The Vatican reports he is recovering well, walking and eating normally, though questions remain about the extent of the cancer and its impact on his upcoming tour.
National Catholic Reporter reported it asPope Leo to undergo surgery to remove lung nodule (opens National Catholic Reporter in a new tab)
Journal entries kept by Pope Francis before and during his papacy are to be published this autumn for the first time. The book, titled 'The Private Diary of Pope Francis,' will be released on November 24 in English and four other languages.
National Catholic Reporter reported it asPope Francis' diaries to be published next month, revealing reflections on Vatican years (opens National Catholic Reporter in a new tab)
The Rt. Rev. Mariann Budde, who gained national attention for urging President Donald Trump to show mercy, has announced her resignation as head of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington. Her departure initiates a nearly two-year process to select her successor.
National Catholic Reporter reported it asBishop Mariann Budde to resign, will remain in post during lengthy replacement process (opens National Catholic Reporter in a new tab)
The Supreme Court has permitted the Trump administration to resume deporting migrants to countries other than their own. The court will hear arguments on the policy in December, with three liberal justices dissenting from the decision.
National Catholic Reporter reported it asThird-country deportations temporarily permitted by Supreme Court as challenge proceeds (opens National Catholic Reporter in a new tab)
Pope Leo XIV has stated that concerns about artificial intelligence are not 'fake news' and warrant serious attention. Speaking aboard the papal plane, he assured he does not sleep in panic mode regarding AI, despite its potential risks.
National Catholic Reporter reported it asPope Leo says alarm over AI is not 'fake news,' but remains optimistic (opens National Catholic Reporter in a new tab)
Pope Leo delivered a speech in France on September 25, 2026, opposing the country’s newly enacted assisted-dying law. He addressed President Emmanuel Macron, warning that profit-driven science could promote surrogacy, organ trade, genetic manipulation and assisted death.
National Catholic Reporter reported it asFrom Lourdes, Pope Leo issues stark rejection of France's assisted dying law (opens National Catholic Reporter 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.
National Catholic Reporter reported it asThe court and the church confront Trump on voting (opens National Catholic Reporter in a new tab)
Vladimir Putin was prepared to meet with CIA Director John Ratcliffe, but cancelled the meeting upon learning the content of Ratcliffe's message. The CIA chief met with Russian intelligence heads and urged Russia to end the war due to deteriorating conditions.
National Catholic Reporter reported it asCIA and Vatican visits converge in Moscow with messages on Ukraine (opens National Catholic Reporter in a new tab)
Amy-Jill Levine, a Jewish scholar of the New Testament, has been elected president of the Catholic Biblical Association of America, the first time a non-Christian has held the role. Outlets diverged on her views and the significance of the appointment, with no centre-rated coverage of the story.
National Catholic Reporter reported it asAmy-Jill Levine elected first Jewish president of Catholic Biblical Association (opens National Catholic Reporter in a new tab)
Who says so
2 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 National Catholic Reporter Publishing CompanyIndependentdirect owner
Where it publishes from
- Publishes from
- Vatican City
- Official site
- ncronline.org
- Seen publishing on
- ncronline.org
- 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
- 13
- Reports listed
- 13
- We could read
- 0
- First seen
- 15 August 2026
13 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 4 of those stories, outlets rated left were largely absent from the coverage and National Catholic Reporter ran the story anyway.
Across the 13 stories of ours where at least three of the reports we listed carried a time, we logged no report earlier than National Catholic Reporter’s on 1 of them. Overall it filed a median of 30 hours after the earliest report we logged.
Measured 14 November 2026. Last seen in a coverage list 14 November 2026. Ratings pulled 13 November 2026.
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 National Catholic Reporter 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.