The A.V. Club media bias and reliability
Ad Fontes Media and Media Bias/Fact Check place The A.V. Club as leaning left. We have seen it on 36 published stories of ours.
The short answers
Is The A.V. Club biased?
Ad Fontes Media and Media Bias/Fact Check place The A.V. Club as leaning left. An outlet rating describes a broad pattern in its output, not every article it publishes.
Is The A.V. Club left or right?
Ad Fontes Media and Media Bias/Fact Check place The A.V. Club as leaning left. In the three-way grouping used on story pages, that puts it under Left.
Is The A.V. Club reliable?
The factual-reliability assessments we hold for The A.V. Club are Ad Fontes Media: Mixed factuality; Media Bias/Fact Check: High factuality. These are outlet-level assessments, not a guarantee that every report is correct.
What The A.V. Club has been covering
Our account of each story, written from every outlet that ran it, with The A.V. Club’s own report linked underneath.
The Kennedy Center has announced its 2026 honorees: Paul Anka, David Foster, Andy Garcia, David Mamet, and Barbara Mandrell. The ceremony will be moved from the venue for the first time due to a legal dispute involving President Donald Trump's renovation plans.
The A.V. Club reported it asA fresh crop of Trump supporters get Kennedy Center Honors (opens The A.V. Club in a new tab)
Twitch streamer Hasan Piker has filed a federal defamation lawsuit against conservative commentator Scott Jennings, seeking $72.5 million. Piker alleges Jennings used an edited video to falsely portray him as advocating for the lynching of Black Americans.
The A.V. Club reported it asHasan Piker hits CNN's Scott Jennings with $72 million defamation suit (opens The A.V. Club in a new tab)
Neil Young has filed a $10 million lawsuit against Donald Trump's political committee, Trump 47 Committee Inc., for copyright infringement. The suit claims the unauthorized use of his song 'Rockin' in the Free World' at rallies violates a prior settlement.
The A.V. Club reported it asNeil Young sues Trump again for using, misunderstanding his music (opens The A.V. Club in a new tab)
Instagram has begun a US‑only test of a new feature called ‘Features’ that lets creators upload horizontal videos up to 90 minutes. The trial, aimed at podcasters and other long‑form creators, connects longer videos to short‑form Reels and comes as the platform seeks to challenge YouTube’s revenue‑share model.
The A.V. Club reported it asInstagram is trying out 90-minute videos (opens The A.V. Club in a new tab)
Saturday Night Live has announced its next slate of hosts for season 52. Inde Navarrette will host the Halloween episode, followed by Druski and John Mulaney in early November. Musical guests for these episodes include Gracie Abrams, The Strokes, and Phoebe Bridgers.
The A.V. Club reported it asJohn Mulaney and, yes, Druski are on deck to host SNL (opens The A.V. Club in a new tab)
Jon Stewart will continue as host of 'The Daily Show' on Monday nights through December 2028, Skydance announced. His return in February 2024 led to increased ratings for the show.
The A.V. Club reported it asWeekly Daily Show host Jon Stewart to stay on yearly through 2028 (opens The A.V. Club in a new tab)
Christiane Amanpour will depart CNN in June 2027 after 43 years. Her daily shows on CNN and PBS will end by the close of 2026, with a weekly CNN show continuing through May 2027. She will also continue her podcast with ex-husband Jamie Rubin.
The A.V. Club reported it asVeteran journalist Christiane Amanpour to leave CNN (opens The A.V. Club in a new tab)
TikTok has permanently banned the account promoting Alex Gibney's documentary about Elon Musk, citing political content policy violations. The distributor plans to appeal the decision as the film expands to more theaters.
The A.V. Club reported it asTikTok bans Musk film account (opens The A.V. Club in a new tab)
Novelist Sally Rooney's books will no longer be supplied in the UK by her publisher, Faber. Rooney stated that fulfilling publishing contracts in the UK could now constitute a serious criminal offence due to her support for Palestine Action, a group banned in the UK.
The A.V. Club reported it asNormal People author Sally Rooney says support for Palestine makes her books illegal in UK (opens The A.V. Club in a new tab)
The USS Abraham Lincoln returned to San Diego on October 8, 2026, after nearly 11 months at sea. The deployment supported operations in the Middle East and Pacific, including actions related to the Iran war, and the crew received a Presidential Unit Citation.
The A.V. Club reported it asSNL's Pete Hegseth mocks "dong-munchers" whining about live televised executions (opens The A.V. Club in a new tab)
Glen Powell explained his decision to avoid public political commentary, attributing it to the divisive nature of modern discourse. He also cited corporate restructuring at Paramount Pictures as the reason for the box office failure of 'The Running Man'.
The A.V. Club reported it asGlen Powell thinks all the Paramount layoffs bear some responsibility for Running Man flop (opens The A.V. Club in a new tab)
The Kennedy Center Honors will move from its traditional home to Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., for the December 7 ceremony. The main building has been closed since September 15 for safety assessments and renovations.
The A.V. Club reported it asThe Kennedy Center Honors are the Capital One Arena Honors this year (opens The A.V. Club in a new tab)
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has been in office for two months, opening the Labour Party conference in Liverpool. He faces decisions on North Sea oil drilling and an upcoming budget, while promising to move beyond a decade of political turmoil.
The A.V. Club reported it asOn SNL UK, Oasis steals PM's identity in perhaps the most British sketch ever (opens The A.V. Club in a new tab)
Saturday Night Live's season 52 premiere opened with a sketch where James Austin Johnson portrayed Donald Trump visiting New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Ashley Padilla debuted as Trump's aide, Natalie Harp, who issued a threat to the mayor.
The A.V. Club reported it asTrump and Mamdani's "unlikely animal friends" kick off SNL's Season 52 (opens The A.V. Club in a new tab)
Following his removal from Ed Sheeran's tour for pro-Palestinian statements, Macklemore has announced a new 'Free Palestine Tour'. The shows will take place in Dublin, Paris, and London, with all proceeds donated to charities supporting Palestinians.
The A.V. Club reported it asWell, Ed Sheeran's shows at Gillette Stadium have been canceled anyway (opens The A.V. Club in a new tab)
Ed Sheeran's concerts scheduled for Friday and Saturday in Foxborough, Massachusetts, have been cancelled. The decision was made by concert promoter Messina Touring due to an anticipated nor'easter bringing severe weather to the region, with fan and staff safety cited as the primary reason.
The A.V. Club reported it asWell, Ed Sheeran's shows at Gillette Stadium have been canceled anyway (opens The A.V. Club in a new tab)
Following his removal from Ed Sheeran's tour for pro-Palestinian statements, Macklemore has announced a new 'Free Palestine Tour'. The shows will take place in Dublin, Paris, and London, with all proceeds donated to charities supporting Palestinians.
The A.V. Club reported it asMacklemore announces headlining Free Palestine fundraising tour (opens The A.V. Club in a new tab)
Donald Trump's remarks at a White House event were broadcast without sound by US television channels. This followed a boycott by major broadcasters in protest against the White House barring several news outlets from access.
The A.V. Club reported it asNation granted reprieve as Trump inadvertently bans microphones from press conference (opens The A.V. Club in a new tab)
US President Donald Trump will host Chinese President Xi Jinping for a summit at the White House on September 24. The leaders are expected to discuss trade, rare earth supplies, and artificial intelligence. Xi's visit marks the first by a Chinese leader to the US presidential residence in over a decade.
The A.V. Club reported it asNation granted reprieve as Trump inadvertently bans microphones from press conference (opens The A.V. Club in a new tab)
Paramount has settled lawsuits brought by state attorneys general and the Writers Guild of America concerning its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. The settlements pave the way for the $81 billion deal to proceed, pending final court approval.
The A.V. Club reported it asParamount reaches settlement, clearing way for Warner Bros. merger (opens The A.V. Club 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
- Paste Media GroupIndependentdirect owner
Where it publishes from
- Publishes from
- Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California, United States
- Official site
- avclub.com
- Seen publishing on
- avclub.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
- 36
- Reports listed
- 37
- We could read
- 0
- First seen
- 4 August 2026
37 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 3 of those stories, outlets rated left were largely absent from the coverage and The A.V. Club ran the story anyway.
Across the 36 stories of ours where at least three of the reports we listed carried a time, another outlet was always ahead of The A.V. Club: its report arrived a median of 16 hours after the earliest one we logged.
Measured 6 November 2026. Last seen in a coverage list 6 November 2026. Ratings pulled 7 October 2026.
Other outlets rated the same way
Publishers carrying the same published leaning as The A.V. Club, 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 The A.V. Club 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.