NZ Herald media bias and reliability
Ad Fontes Media and Media Bias/Fact Check place NZ Herald in the centre. We have seen it on 177 published stories of ours.
The short answers
Is NZ Herald biased?
Ad Fontes Media and Media Bias/Fact Check place NZ Herald in the centre. An outlet rating describes a broad pattern in its output, not every article it publishes.
Is NZ Herald left or right?
Ad Fontes Media and Media Bias/Fact Check place NZ Herald in the centre. In the three-way grouping used on story pages, that puts it under Centre.
Is NZ Herald reliable?
The factual-reliability assessments we hold for NZ Herald are Ad Fontes Media: Very high factuality; Media Bias/Fact Check: High factuality. These are outlet-level assessments, not a guarantee that every report is correct.
What NZ Herald has been covering
Our account of each story, written from every outlet that ran it, with NZ Herald’s own report linked underneath.
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.
NZ Herald reported it asWinning the Senate, Democrats secure a platform to check Trump (opens NZ Herald in a new tab)
Hackers stole $6.3 billion from Binance after a multi-stage attack that began in June. The breach involved a bogus job interview and malicious software, leading to the compromise of two engineers' computers and a record crypto heist.
NZ Herald reported it asBinance says hackers used fake job interviews, malicious code in US$6b heist (opens NZ Herald in a new tab)
Polls have opened across the United States for midterm elections, with a potential 'Blue Wave' threatening Republican control of Congress. President Trump made a final campaign address as his approval ratings hover near a record low.
NZ Herald reported it asUS midterm elections: Will voters deliver a verdict on Trump? (opens NZ Herald in a new tab)
Democrats hope midterm elections will curb President Trump's power, but Canadians may be disappointed as bilateral tensions are likely to remain. Experts point to persistent protectionist policies and potential presidential unpredictability as reasons for continued strain.
NZ Herald reported it asUS midterm elections: Will voters deliver a verdict on Trump? (opens NZ Herald in a new tab)
Donald Trump has acknowledged that the war with Iran, alongside the cost of living, played a role in the Republican Party's defeat in the midterm elections. The conflict's financial toll was also noted.
NZ Herald reported it asUS midterm elections: Will voters deliver a verdict on Trump? (opens NZ Herald in a new tab)
A LOT Polish Airlines flight from London to Warsaw made an unscheduled landing at Warsaw-Modlin airport on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, due to a bomb threat. Warsaw-Modlin airport was temporarily closed. An SAS flight from Copenhagen to Warsaw also reported a bomb threat.
NZ Herald reported it asHoax bomb threats disrupt four Europe flights (opens NZ Herald in a new tab)
Jesús de Miguel, a 30-year-old Tenerife attacker, died on Tuesday, November 3, 2026. He had suffered a cardiac arrest following a collision with FC Andorra goalkeeper Jesús Owono during a second-division match on Monday. The player was taken to hospital after the incident.
NZ Herald reported it asSpanish footballer De Miguel dies after collision with keeper (opens NZ Herald in a new tab)
Iranian state media reported hearing five explosions on Qeshm Island, near Bandar Lengeh in Hormozgan province. Some residents reported seeing two aircraft in the sky. No official confirmation of the source has been released.
NZ Herald reported it asUS launches fresh strikes on Iran's Qeshm Island on eve of midterms (opens NZ Herald in a new tab)
Thomas Markle Snr, father of the Duchess of Sussex, has reportedly been moved into a Florida care home for dementia patients. The move comes amid an FBI investigation into alleged child abuse images found at his home and storage units.
NZ Herald reported it asThomas Markle ‘moves into care home for dementia patients’ (opens NZ Herald in a new tab)
Supermarkets in at least nine European countries experienced cyberattacks on their refrigeration systems on November 2. The European Union warned the incidents were a deliberate attempt to disrupt the food supply chain, leading to spoiled food and investigations.
NZ Herald reported it asFridge cyberattack hits supermarkets across Europe (opens NZ Herald in a new tab)
Donald Trump stated the United States is in no hurry to conclude its conflict with Iran, describing it as "not a typical war." He also claimed Iran faces financial difficulties, unable to pay its military and police, while diplomatic talks persist.
NZ Herald reported it asIran says renewed war could be longer than last as Trump vows fresh strikes (opens NZ Herald in a new tab)
Iran's army has warned that any new US attack would spread the conflict to a wider geographical area. The warning comes amid diplomatic efforts to avert further hostilities and as both the US and Israel hold crucial elections.
NZ Herald reported it asIran's supreme leader warns US, Israel against fresh attacks (opens NZ Herald in a new tab)
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance is investigating a potential security issue on its platform. Stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle have frozen billions of dollars in assets connected to the incident, while Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao stated user funds remain safe.
NZ Herald reported it asSuspected billion-dollar Binance hack sends fear through crypto (opens NZ Herald in a new tab)
Patrick Stewart, the British actor famous for his roles as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in 'Star Trek' and Professor Charles Xavier in 'X-Men', has died at the age of 86. His death was announced by his family.
NZ Herald reported it asStar Trek legend Sir Patrick Stewart dies aged 86 (opens NZ Herald in a new tab)
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff reported that North Korea launched an unidentified projectile off its east coast on Thursday. Japan's Coast Guard suggested it could be a ballistic missile, a detail not widely reported.
NZ Herald reported it asNorth Korea fires 'around a dozen' ballistic missiles into East Sea (opens NZ Herald in a new tab)
Former President Barack Obama ridiculed President Donald Trump’s White House renovation as resembling a Saddam Hussein‑opened Cheesecake Factory during Ohio and Michigan campaign events nine days before the 2026 U.S. midterms. Digests reported two cost estimates, $900 million and over a billion dollars, and varied in what they highlighted.
NZ Herald reported it asTrump defends White House redecorating – and Cheesecake Factory – from Obama's mocking (opens NZ Herald in a new tab)
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent mocked former President Barack Obama after Obama compared White House renovations to a Cheesecake Factory. Bessent made his remarks while at a Cheesecake Factory, and Trump also responded to Obama's comments.
NZ Herald reported it asTrump defends White House redecorating – and Cheesecake Factory – from Obama's mocking (opens NZ Herald in a new tab)
Dictionary.com has selected 'Maxxing' as its 2026 Word of the Year. The term signifies an effort to maximize and optimize various life areas, gaining traction among Generation Z and Alpha.
NZ Herald reported it asMaxxing named Word of the Year by Dictionary.com (opens NZ Herald in a new tab)
A federal judge has ruled that Maurene Comey, daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, was unlawfully fired from her position as an assistant United States attorney. The judge ordered her reinstatement, stating the termination violated civil service rules and constitutional separation of powers.
NZ Herald reported it asDOJ unlawfully fired Maurene Comey, daughter of former FBI director, judge rules (opens NZ Herald in a new tab)
Asian stock markets saw a significant rise following Anthropic's initial public offering filing, which disclosed strong revenue growth alongside substantial losses. Meta Platforms' large equity fundraising also contributed to the positive sentiment.
NZ Herald reported it asAnthropic unveils IPO filing, showing soaring sales and AI risks (opens NZ Herald 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.
Very high factuality
Who owns it
- NZME LimitedMedia Conglomeratedirect owner
Where it publishes from
- Publishes from
- Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
- Official site
- nzherald.co.nz
- Seen publishing on
- nzherald.co.nz
- Access
- Paywalled
- 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
- 177
- Reports listed
- 182
- We could read
- 0
- First seen
- 4 August 2026
182 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.
A blindspot is measured against one side of the spectrum. NZ Herald is rated centre, so there is no side for it to be counted against and we publish no figure here.
Across the 177 stories of ours where at least three of the reports we listed carried a time, another outlet was always ahead of NZ Herald: its report arrived a median of 30 hours after the earliest one we logged.
Measured 4 November 2026. Last seen in a coverage list 4 November 2026. Ratings pulled 4 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 NZ Herald 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.