Religion News Service media bias and reliability
The rating organisations do not give Religion News Service one shared verdict in the records we hold. Their published ratings are AllSides: Centre; Ad Fontes Media: Leans left; Media Bias/Fact Check: Leans left. We have seen it on 14 published stories of ours.
The short answers
Is Religion News Service biased?
The rating organisations do not give Religion News Service one shared verdict in the records we hold. Their published ratings are AllSides: Centre; Ad Fontes Media: Leans left; Media Bias/Fact Check: Leans left. An outlet rating describes a broad pattern in its output, not every article it publishes.
Is Religion News Service left or right?
The rating organisations do not give Religion News Service one shared verdict in the records we hold. Their published ratings are AllSides: Centre; Ad Fontes Media: Leans left; Media Bias/Fact Check: Leans left. In the three-way grouping used on story pages, that puts it under Left.
Is Religion News Service reliable?
The factual-reliability assessments we hold for Religion News Service are Media Bias/Fact Check: High factuality. These are outlet-level assessments, not a guarantee that every report is correct.
What Religion News Service has been covering
Our account of each story, written from every outlet that ran it, with Religion News Service’s own report linked underneath.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced he will use his UN General Assembly speech to "tell the truth" about New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Netanyahu accused Mamdani of supporting Hamas and inciting violence against Jews, while Mamdani has called Netanyahu a "war criminal" and "architect of a horrific genocide."
Religion News Service reported it asAs Netanyahu takes UN stage, New Yorkers protest antisemitism — and his government (opens Religion News Service in a new tab)
An incident outside the Sons of Jacob Synagogue in Belleville, Ontario, on Sunday evening resulted in injuries to a police officer and another person. Ontario's Special Investigations Unit is investigating the event, which occurred as the Jewish community marked Yom Kippur.
Religion News Service reported it asMan critically injured, police officer wounded in gunfire near Ontario synagogue on Yom Kippur (opens Religion News Service in a new tab)
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced that the government will introduce a maximum number of foreign students per class. She also stated that parents of foreign students with integration issues will be required to learn Italian and that burqa and niqab will be banned in schools.
Religion News Service reported it asMeloni plans to ban burqas and niqabs in Italian schools, and cap foreign students in classrooms (opens Religion News Service in a new tab)
In parts of Africa, rainmakers who perform rituals for rainfall are facing increased violence from farmers struggling with unpredictable weather patterns attributed to climate change. This has led to assaults, and in some cases, deaths.
Religion News Service reported it asThey are paid to bring rain. When it fails — or leads to floods — violence can follow (opens Religion News Service in a new tab)
Pastor Daimon L. King, a registered sex offender with prior child-related convictions, delivered the opening prayer at a rally for North Carolina GOP Senate nominee Michael Whatley. Whatley's campaign stated they did not know King and that the event was not planned by the campaign.
Religion News Service reported it asConvicted sex offender offered opening prayer at rally for GOP Senate nominee in North Carolina (opens Religion News Service in a new tab)
Families of victims of the 9/11 attacks are calling for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to not attend the 25th anniversary memorial ceremony at Ground Zero. A petition to ban him has gathered over 98,000 signatures, and families plan to ignore him if he attends.
Religion News Service reported it asSome critics cite Mamdani’s Muslim faith in demanding he skip 9/11 anniversary ceremony (opens Religion News Service in a new tab)
Wendell Berry, the prolific Kentucky-born author, farmer, and environmentalist, has died at the age of 92. His daughter confirmed his death on August 31, 2026. Berry was celebrated for his writings on agrarianism and his critiques of industrial society.
Religion News Service reported it asWendell Berry, writer and farmer, was extolled by many as a modern-day prophet (opens Religion News Service in a new tab)
Thousands of protesters are expected on the National Mall for the "Defend the Vote" March on Washington, organized by the Rev. Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III. The event follows a Supreme Court decision that reinterpreted the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Religion News Service reported it asMarch on Washington renews focus on voting rights after Supreme Court gutting (opens Religion News Service in a new tab)
The wreckage of the Altalena, an arms-smuggling boat sunk by Israeli forces in 1948, has been located off the coast of Israel. The discovery was announced by Israeli ministers, marking the end of decades of searching for the vessel.
Religion News Service reported it asThe Altalena is the ship that cannot stay sunk (opens Religion News Service in a new tab)
Israel’s military will investigate two attacks in Gaza: the February 2024 killing of 5-year-old Hind Rajab and her family, and the May 2025 killing of 15 Palestinian paramedics in Rafah. It will not investigate three other incidents, including strikes that killed aid workers from World Central Kitchen and Doctors Without Borders.
Religion News Service reported it asHind Rajab, the 5-year-old killed in Gaza, should have been enough (opens Religion News Service in a new tab)
A whistleblower alleges a Trump administration task force pressured Ivy League universities into settlements despite incomplete investigations or no evidence of legal violations. The complaint, filed by former Justice Department lawyer Haley Van Erem, claims the probes were politically driven and disregarded constitutional protections.
Religion News Service reported it asWhistleblower alleges political pressure, lack of evidence in antisemitism probes targeting schools (opens Religion News Service in a new tab)
Jason Arday, Cambridge’s youngest Black professor, died days after resigning amid plagiarism allegations. His death has reignited discussions about the underrepresentation of Black academics in UK higher education and the scrutiny they face, with outlets divided over whether racism or academic standards were the driving force.
Religion News Service reported it asJason Arday’s unnecessary death and the cost of a graceless culture (opens Religion News Service 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.
Religion News Service reported it asA Jewish scholar of Jesus makes history as president of the Catholic Biblical Association (opens Religion News Service in a new tab)
Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs chose John Giles, a former Republican mayor of Mesa, as her running mate on 11 August 2026. Giles, who switched to independent in May, aims to attract conservative voters in a tight race against Republican Rep. Andy Biggs. Arizona will elect a lieutenant governor for the first time in January 2027.
Religion News Service reported it asDemocratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs chooses former Republican Mayor John Giles as her running mate (opens Religion News Service 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
- Media Bias/Fact CheckhighCheck it
Who owns it
- Religion News FoundationIndependentdirect owner
Where it publishes from
- Publishes from
- Washington, District of Columbia, United States
- Official site
- religionnews.com
- Seen publishing on
- religionnews.com
- Access
- Free to read
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
- 14
- Reports listed
- 14
- We could read
- 0
- First seen
- 12 August 2026
14 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 Religion News Service ran the story anyway.
Across the 14 stories of ours where at least three of the reports we listed carried a time, another outlet was always ahead of Religion News Service: its report arrived a median of 2 days after the earliest one we logged.
Measured 27 September 2026. Last seen in a coverage list 26 September 2026. Ratings pulled 11 September 2026.
Other outlets rated the same way
Publishers carrying the same published leaning as Religion News Service, 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 Religion News Service 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.