SF Gate media bias and reliability
The rating organisations do not give SF Gate one shared verdict in the records we hold. Their published ratings are AllSides: Leans left; Ad Fontes Media: Centre; Media Bias/Fact Check: Leans left. We have seen it on 11 published stories of ours.
The short answers
Is SF Gate biased?
The rating organisations do not give SF Gate one shared verdict in the records we hold. Their published ratings are AllSides: Leans left; Ad Fontes Media: Centre; Media Bias/Fact Check: Leans left. An outlet rating describes a broad pattern in its output, not every article it publishes.
Is SF Gate left or right?
The rating organisations do not give SF Gate one shared verdict in the records we hold. Their published ratings are AllSides: Leans left; Ad Fontes Media: Centre; Media Bias/Fact Check: Leans left. In the three-way grouping used on story pages, that puts it under Left.
Is SF Gate reliable?
The factual-reliability assessments we hold for SF Gate 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 SF Gate has been covering
Our account of each story, written from every outlet that ran it, with SF Gate’s own report linked underneath.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi has stated that Iranians are suffering due to economic hardship and internal repression. She said the people are paying the price for ongoing wars and U.S. sanctions, with some reports indicating this suffering has lasted for seven months and others for 1 1/2 years.
SF Gate reported it asClient Challenge (opens SF Gate 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.
SF Gate reported it asClient Challenge (opens SF Gate in a new tab)
Somali businesses are rerouting trade due to Houthi control of a key port city and island. This has led to increased displacement in Yemen and prompted Somali businesses to seek direct shipping from countries like Sri Lanka.
SF Gate reported it asSomalis rethink trade routes as Houthis disrupt established shipping channels (opens SF Gate in a new tab)
Several Connecticut towns are installing AI-powered license plate readers on school buses. The technology, provided by BusPatrol, activates only when a bus is stopped with its warning lights and stop arm engaged, aiming to reduce incidents of drivers passing stopped school buses.
SF Gate reported it asConnecticut towns are installing license plate reading cameras on school buses (opens SF Gate in a new tab)
A U.S.-backed company, North American Blue Energy Partners, is set to take over oilfields in Venezuela previously operated by Chinese and Russian firms. The deal grants the U.S. government a significant stake and preferential access to production.
SF Gate reported it asDays after Trump announces Venezuela oil deal, White House fills in some of the details (opens SF Gate in a new tab)
A Russian strike on a warehouse west of Kyiv killed 38 people, with four still missing. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reported 20 injured, including two children. The attack occurred Friday night on an ammunition storage facility. Russia's Defence Ministry announced plans for 'massive strikes' against Ukraine's energy infrastructure.
SF Gate reported it asDeath toll rises to 38 from Russia's deadliest attack on Ukraine this year (opens SF Gate in a new tab)
The United States announced it would impose 50% tariffs on $20 billion of Canadian products, effective early Saturday. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer stated Canada declined to finalize a trade deal on previously agreed terms, leading to the tariffs.
SF Gate reported it asUS is set to impose 50% tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian products (opens SF Gate in a new tab)
Earthjustice filed a federal lawsuit on 18 August 2026 to halt the US government’s auction of 33 million acres of seabed off American Samoa for deep-sea mining. The suit argues the plan threatens endangered species and violates environmental laws, while the Trump administration seeks to expedite permits despite international calls for a moratorium.
SF Gate reported it asNonprofit sues US as it pushes to auction massive tracks of water around American Samoa (opens SF Gate in a new tab)
The US Navy is withdrawing its last aircraft carrier from the western Pacific, the USS George Washington, to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Middle East. Analysts warn China could use the absence to assert regional influence, while extended deployments strain crews and raise concerns over US priorities.
SF Gate reported it asUS pulls last aircraft carrier in Asia as Trump focuses on Iran and the Western Hemisphere (opens SF Gate in a new tab)
Two haboob dust storms struck the Phoenix area within three days in early August 2026, both classified as Category 5 events. Researchers at Arizona State University said the storms were unprecedented in frequency and intensity, with wind speeds of 50 mph and visibility reduced to half a mile.
SF Gate reported it asUnusually intense haboob dust storms strike Phoenix twice this week (opens SF Gate in a new tab)
Chicago Trend, a social enterprise, has purchased Hawthorn Crossings strip mall in north Minneapolis. The company plans to offer local residents ownership stakes, aiming to support community development in a diverse, low-income area. No right-rated outlet covered the story.
SF Gate reported it asA developer is asking neighbors to buy in and own part of a north Minneapolis mall (opens SF Gate 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.
Very high factuality
Who owns it
- Hearst CommunicationsMedia Conglomeratedirect owner
Where it publishes from
- Publishes from
- San Francisco, San Francisco County, California, United States
- Official site
- sfgate.com
- Seen publishing on
- sfgate.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
- 11
- Reports listed
- 11
- We could read
- 0
- First seen
- 4 August 2026
11 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.
We have not seen SF Gate cover a story that outlets rated left were largely absent from.
Across the 11 stories of ours where at least three of the reports we listed carried a time, we logged no report earlier than SF Gate’s on 1 of them. Overall it filed a median of 5 hours after the earliest report we logged.
Measured 21 September 2026. Last seen in a coverage list 21 September 2026. Ratings pulled 6 September 2026.
Other outlets rated the same way
Publishers carrying the same published leaning as SF Gate, 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 SF Gate 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.