RiverBender.com media bias and reliability
Ad Fontes Media and Media Bias/Fact Check place RiverBender.com in the centre. We have seen it on 14 published stories of ours.
The short answers
Is RiverBender.com biased?
Ad Fontes Media and Media Bias/Fact Check place RiverBender.com in the centre. An outlet rating describes a broad pattern in its output, not every article it publishes.
Is RiverBender.com left or right?
Ad Fontes Media and Media Bias/Fact Check place RiverBender.com in the centre. In the three-way grouping used on story pages, that puts it under Centre.
Is RiverBender.com reliable?
The factual-reliability assessments we hold for RiverBender.com 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 RiverBender.com has been covering
Our account of each story, written from every outlet that ran it, with RiverBender.com’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.
RiverBender.com reported it asPritzker, Stratton React: Democrats Capture House and Senate in 2026 Election (opens RiverBender.com 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.
RiverBender.com reported it asPritzker, Stratton React: Democrats Capture House and Senate in 2026 Election (opens RiverBender.com in a new tab)
Democratic Governor JB Pritzker has secured a third term in Illinois, defeating Republican challenger Darren Bailey. The Associated Press called the race shortly after polls closed on election day.
RiverBender.com reported it asJB Pritzker Wins Third Term As Illinois Governor (opens RiverBender.com in a new tab)
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani marked the third anniversary of the October 7 attacks with a statement that acknowledged the Hamas massacre while also criticizing Israel's subsequent actions in Gaza. He stated that suffering continued through Israel's actions, which he described as genocide.
RiverBender.com reported it asOctober 7 in History: From East Germany's Establishment to the 2023 Israel Attacks and Resulting War (opens RiverBender.com in a new tab)
Environmental groups and a coalition of states have filed lawsuits against the Trump administration over its decision to relax vehicle fuel economy rules. The administration claims the move offers more choice, while critics argue it will increase pollution and fuel costs.
RiverBender.com reported it asAttorney General Raoul Files Lawsuit Challenging Trump Administration’s Rollback Of Fuel Economy Standards (opens RiverBender.com in a new tab)
Italy has concluded its 12-year military presence in Iraq, with the final troops returning home. Defence Minister Guido Crosetto stated this marks a new phase in bilateral relations, with the withdrawal completed before the September 30 deadline.
RiverBender.com reported it asDuckworth Urges Trump To End Iran War As U.S. Withdraws From Iraq (opens RiverBender.com in a new tab)
US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker has denied reports suggesting a withdrawal of 25,000 to 40,000 troops from Europe. While the US is re-evaluating its military presence, Whitaker affirmed continued commitment to the continent.
RiverBender.com reported it asDuckworth Urges Trump To End Iran War As U.S. Withdraws From Iraq (opens RiverBender.com in a new tab)
Donald Trump said his Washington talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping deserved a 12‑out‑of‑10 rating and rejected claims he offered to sell U.S. weapons. Ambassador David Perdue asserted Trump raised the issue of arms sales and Taiwan, a point the president denied.
RiverBender.com reported it asDuckworth, Durbin Issued Statement Alongside Their Colleagues On President Trump And President Xi's Summit In Washington (opens RiverBender.com 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.
RiverBender.com reported it asRaoul, 22 States and D.C. Sue to Stop Trump Public Charge Rule (opens RiverBender.com in a new tab)
On 9 September 2026, a coalition of twenty U.S. states and the District of Columbia filed two lawsuits accusing the Trump administration of illegally weakening the Endangered Species Act. The suits target rules that narrow habitat protections and reduce safeguards for newly threatened species.
RiverBender.com reported it asAttorney General Raoul Challenges Trump Administration’s Rollbacks Of Endangered Species Act Regulations (opens RiverBender.com in a new tab)
The Trump administration is appealing a judge's decision that blocked an executive order limiting mail voting before the midterm elections. The order could allow the Postal Service to refuse ballots from states not submitting eligible voter lists or following a uniform envelope style.
RiverBender.com reported it asUPDATE: Attorney General Raoul Secures Order Temporarily Blocking The U.S. Postal Service’s Unlawful Mail Voting Rule (opens RiverBender.com in a new tab)
A federal judge has lifted a nationwide injunction blocking President Trump's executive order on mail-in voting. The Supreme Court ruled a previous challenge was premature, but states have filed a new lawsuit arguing the USPS rule interferes with election administration.
RiverBender.com reported it asAttorney General Raoul Sues The U.S. Postal Service Over Unlawful Attempt To Interfere With Mail Voting In Illinois (opens RiverBender.com in a new tab)
Congressional Democrats launched an investigation into the Trump administration’s efforts to deport military service members and their families, citing an Associated Press report that found over 50 spouses and parents of active-duty troops have been detained by immigration authorities. The probe focuses on coordination between the Pentagon and DHS.
RiverBender.com reported it asDuckworth, Lawmakers Slam Trump's Efforts To Tear Apart Military Families, Convert Military Bases Into Deportation Traps (opens RiverBender.com in a new tab)
The Trump administration is preparing an overhaul of Head Start that would remove federal quality standards for the preschool programme serving low-income children. Reports attribute the plan to anonymous sources and say it would allow states to set their own rules.
RiverBender.com reported it asDurbin Sounds Alarm On The Trump Administration Upending Head Start & Continuing Attacks On Special Education (opens RiverBender.com 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
We hold no ownership record for RiverBender.com.
Where it publishes from
- Publishes from
- Alton, Madison County, Illinois, United States
- Official site
- riverbender.com
- Seen publishing on
- riverbender.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
- 5 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.
A blindspot is measured against one side of the spectrum. RiverBender.com is rated centre, so there is no side for it to be counted against and we publish no figure here.
Across the 14 stories of ours where at least three of the reports we listed carried a time, another outlet was always ahead of RiverBender.com: its report arrived a median of 2 days after the earliest one we logged.
Measured 8 November 2026. Last seen in a coverage list 8 November 2026. Ratings pulled 9 October 2026.
Other outlets rated the same way
Publishers carrying the same published leaning as RiverBender.com, 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 RiverBender.com 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.