Spiegel media bias and reliability
Ad Fontes Media and Media Bias/Fact Check place Spiegel as leaning left. We have seen it on 481 published stories of ours.
The short answers
Is Spiegel biased?
Ad Fontes Media and Media Bias/Fact Check place Spiegel as leaning left. An outlet rating describes a broad pattern in its output, not every article it publishes.
Is Spiegel left or right?
Ad Fontes Media and Media Bias/Fact Check place Spiegel as leaning left. In the three-way grouping used on story pages, that puts it under Left.
Is Spiegel reliable?
The factual-reliability assessments we hold for Spiegel 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 Spiegel has been covering
Our account of each story, written from every outlet that ran it, with Spiegel’s own report linked underneath.
A 46‑year‑old German paediatrician faced a court in Potsdam on Monday, accused of sexually abusing more than 70 children over a decade. Prosecutors say the abuse involved 130 offences and victims were between two and twenty years old.
Spiegel reported it as(S+) Sexual Violence Trial: »Come on, Play Along!«, Wrote the Pediatrician to an 11-Year-Old (opens Spiegel in a new tab)
A nearly two-pound meteorite discovered in Mali in 2022 has been identified as a 4.1-billion-year-old piece of Mars. Named Teghaza 001, it offers new insights into the Red Planet's early history and water cycle.
Spiegel reported it asMartian Meteorite Found in the Sahara Is 4.1 Billion Years Old (opens Spiegel in a new tab)
The German coalition government has agreed to intervene in the event of rising fuel prices. The economy ministry has drafted a plan for a price cap on gasoline and diesel, which could be imposed from January 2027.
Spiegel reported it as(S+) Fuel Price Cover: Effective Lid Could Bring Price Boost to the Turn of the Year (opens Spiegel in a new tab)
Ryanair is considering significant cost-cutting measures, such as temporarily freezing employee salaries, as rising fuel prices and the impact of the "Iran war" increase operational costs. The airline estimates its oil costs could rise by €2 billion next year.
Spiegel reported it asRyanair: Kerosene Costs Squeeze Profit – Austerity Program Announced (opens Spiegel in a new tab)
Bärbel Bas has resigned from her positions as SPD chairwoman and Federal Minister of Labour, citing personal grief and political pressure. In her first public comments since stepping down, she detailed attacks from the Union and a lack of support from her own party.
Spiegel reported it asBärbel Bas Laments a Lack of Humanity in Politics – Also in Her Own Party (opens Spiegel in a new tab)
Democratic Congresswoman Haley Stevens appeared at a Detroit church with Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers. This occurred after internal party tensions escalated over an advertisement linking U.S. support for Israel to grocery prices.
Spiegel reported it asUSA: Democrats in Michigan Apparently Throw Haley Stevens Out to Eklat (opens Spiegel in a new tab)
Donald Trump stated that the US has neutralized much of Iran's military but still needs to address one or two targets, including a suspected nuclear site. He suggested these could be dealt with quickly.
Spiegel reported it asDonald Trump Brags About New Targets in Iran - »Pickaxe Mountain«? (opens Spiegel in a new tab)
Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed will campaign with former primary rival Rep. Haley Stevens in Detroit. This marks their first joint public appearance in months, with Rep. Jim Clyburn also set to attend a get-out-the-vote event.
Spiegel reported it asUSA: Struggle with Abdul El-Sayed – Democrat Haley Stevens Changes to Rogers Camp (opens Spiegel in a new tab)
Four crew members have completed a 378-day simulated mission to Mars at NASA's Johnson Space Center. The experiment aimed to study the effects of isolation and prepare for future human expeditions to the Red Planet.
Spiegel reported it asA Year on Mars – Volunteers End Extreme Nasa Experiment (opens Spiegel in a new tab)
North Korea's defense research institutes have tested a cluster bomb warhead intended for tactical ballistic missiles. State media reported the weapon can destroy an area of up to 13 hectares, and Pyongyang plans to equip military units with various types by the end of 2026.
Spiegel reported it asNorth Korea Testing Rocket Warheads with Cluster Munitions (opens Spiegel in a new tab)
A 15-year-old immigrant from Ghana was shot and killed in the Bronx. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani stated that President Donald Trump has agreed to grant a visa to the victim's mother.
Spiegel reported it asNew York: 15-Year-Old Shot Dead on His Way to School (opens Spiegel in a new tab)
A federal judge has dismissed Donald Trump's lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch. The case concerned a story about Trump's ties to Jeffrey Epstein and a sexually suggestive birthday letter. The judge found Trump did not prove actual malice.
Spiegel reported it asDonald Trump and the Jeffrey Epstein Files: Court Stops Lawsuit Against Newspaper (opens Spiegel in a new tab)
A Yemeni staff member of the UN Human Rights Office, Mohammad el Shami, has died in Houthi custody. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights is calling for an independent investigation into his death.
Spiegel reported it asYemen: Huthis Reportedly Tortured Uno Employees to Death (opens Spiegel in a new tab)
The US Embassy in Moscow issued a warning about a credible threat of a mass casualty event at the Tsaritsyno Museum Reserve. Russia's FSB confirmed receiving the information and stated that appropriate measures are being taken.
Spiegel reported it asRussia: US Embassy in Moscow Warns of »Incident with Massive Losses« (opens Spiegel in a new tab)
At the Manama Dialogue in Bahrain, Syrian foreign minister Asaad al‑Shaibani said Damascus is evaluating entry into the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement signed by Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan, and warned that Israel has launched more than 1,000 attacks on Syria in under two years.
Spiegel reported it asSyria Considers Accession to Mecca Defence Agreement (opens Spiegel in a new tab)
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has publicly criticized Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed's positions on Israel. Pelosi described his remarks as 'concerning' and 'wrong' during a podcast appearance, days before the Michigan Senate election.
Spiegel reported it asUS-Midterms: Nancy Pelosi Criticises Her Party Friend Abdul El-Sayed (opens Spiegel in a new tab)
President Trump has intensified his false accusations against Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, calling him a 'jihadist' and a 'Muslim Brotherhood member'. El-Sayed has responded by dismissing the attacks as distractions from key issues.
Spiegel reported it as(S+) Abdul El-Sayed: Can He Take the Majority in the Senate for the Democrats? (opens Spiegel in a new tab)
The United States cancelled a planned group photo at the G20 foreign ministers meeting in Atlanta due to deep rifts among member nations. Several European diplomats objected to standing alongside Russia's top diplomat, Sergey Lavrov, leading to the cancellation.
Spiegel reported it asG20 Foreign Ministers Block Themselves Against »Family Photo« with Russia (opens Spiegel 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.
Spiegel reported it asBinance: Hackers Earn 6.3 Billion Dollars in Digital Currencies (opens Spiegel in a new tab)
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in Atlanta, Georgia, on October 30, 2026, for a G20 Foreign Ministers meeting. He plans to use the forum to call for the lifting of international sanctions against Russia. The meeting is a precursor to a larger G20 leaders' summit in Miami.
Spiegel reported it asG20 Meeting in the USA: Wadephul Doesn't Want to Stay Away From "Family Photo" with Lavrov (opens Spiegel 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
We hold no ownership record for Spiegel.
Where it publishes from
- Publishes from
- Hamburg, Germany
- Official site
- spiegel.de
- Seen publishing on
- spiegel.de
- 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
- 481
- Reports listed
- 499
- We could read
- 0
- First seen
- 3 August 2026
499 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 199 of those stories, outlets rated left were largely absent from the coverage and Spiegel ran the story anyway.
Across the 481 stories of ours where at least three of the reports we listed carried a time, another outlet was always ahead of Spiegel: its report arrived a median of 26 hours after the earliest one we logged.
Measured 2 November 2026. Last seen in a coverage list 2 November 2026. Ratings pulled 2 November 2026.
Other outlets rated the same way
Publishers carrying the same published leaning as Spiegel, also publishing from Germany, 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 Spiegel 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.