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 17 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.
Ed Sheeran's Loop Tour has seen all supporting artists withdraw after the removal of rapper Macklemore. Macklemore was reportedly dropped due to his pro-Palestine stance. Greta Thunberg and Shane MacGowan's widow have commented on the situation.
The A.V. Club reported it asEd Sheeran tries to both-sides his apology for dropping Macklemore (opens The A.V. Club in a new tab)
Paramount has threatened to leave California since July, when the state sued to block its merger with Warner Bros. Discovery. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is taking the threat seriously, while California's Attorney General Rob Bonta calls it blackmail.
The A.V. Club reported it asParamount insists it's serious about leaving California (opens The A.V. Club in a new tab)
The animated series South Park began its 29th season with a name change to South America, a new theme song, and a plot involving e-bikes and a Donald Trump cameo. The episode saw Kenny die when his e-bike exploded.
The A.V. Club reported it asSouth Park (sorry, South America) returns with new name, same bloody satire (opens The A.V. Club in a new tab)
Three supporting acts have withdrawn from Ed Sheeran's tour following the removal of rapper Macklemore. Macklemore was dropped by tour promoters for pro-Palestinian comments made during a performance. The departing acts cited solidarity with Macklemore and opposition to perceived silencing of voices speaking out against Israeli actions.
The A.V. Club reported it asMacklemore donates $1 million salary to Palestinians, urges Pats owner to match (opens The A.V. Club in a new tab)
George W. Bush has unveiled a series of 16 paintings inspired by the 9/11 attacks, marking the 25th anniversary of the tragedy. The artworks, displayed at the George W. Bush Presidential Library in Dallas, Texas, depict scenes from the day and include a caption written by the former president.
The A.V. Club reported it asGeorge W. Bush paints his way through 9/11 anniversary (opens The A.V. Club in a new tab)
An interview with Texas Senate candidate James Talarico, pulled from ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" due to FCC pressure, has garnered millions of views on YouTube. The move has sparked debate about censorship and the role of the FCC in broadcast content.
The A.V. Club reported it asJimmy Kimmel shares the James Talarico interview too hot for ABC (opens The A.V. Club in a new tab)
Jimmy Kimmel announced his interview with Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico would not air on ABC due to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) pressure. The interview will instead be posted on YouTube. The decision comes amid a broader dispute between ABC's parent company, Disney, and the FCC over broadcast licenses.
The A.V. Club reported it asJimmy Kimmel also punts interview with Texas candidate James Talarico to YouTube (opens The A.V. Club in a new tab)
Apple has launched its first foldable smartphone, the iPhone Duo, at its 'Surprise and Shine' event. The company also introduced the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. This marks the first major product launch under new CEO John Ternus.
The A.V. Club reported it asApple unveils iPhone that folds in half, if that's what you want (opens The A.V. Club in a new tab)
Apple CEO John Ternus posted a cryptic video ahead of the company's expected iPhone 18 Pro unveiling. The video appears to hint at a new variable aperture camera feature for the device, which is set to be announced alongside new Apple Watch models.
The A.V. Club reported it asApple unveils iPhone that folds in half, if that's what you want (opens The A.V. Club in a new tab)
Donald Trump has threatened to report NBC News anchor Kristen Welker to the Federal Communications Commission. The president took issue with Welker's characterisation of his primary endorsements as having 'mixed results'. NBC News has publicly defended its anchor.
The A.V. Club reported it asNBC News stands by Kristen Welker after Trump directs FCC to punish her (opens The A.V. Club in a new tab)
The horror film 'Onslaught' follows a military veteran, Celeste, who must protect her trailer park when escaped super soldiers, created by Dr. Kammler, descend upon it. The film features a cast including Adria Arjona and Dan Stevens.
The A.V. Club reported it asOnslaught delivers the super-soldier slasher goods, but not much payoff (opens The A.V. Club in a new tab)
Tennessee's governor has proposed renaming Nashville International Airport for Dolly Parton, days after her death. The proposal faces a policy hurdle regarding naming rights for recently deceased individuals and will be discussed by the airport authority on September 17.
The A.V. Club reported it asNashville to rename its airport in honor of Dolly Parton (opens The A.V. Club in a new tab)
U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to rename Lake Ontario as 'Lake America.' Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney rejected the decision, stating Canadians will continue to call it 'Lake Ontario,' a name with Indigenous roots predating both countries.
The A.V. Club reported it asGreat Job, Internet!: MapQuest continues cartological defiance to let users rename Lake Ontario (opens The A.V. Club in a new tab)
President Trump personally intervened to push the Justice Department toward a settlement with Live Nation in an antitrust case, according to reports. The intervention reportedly occurred shortly before a trial was set to begin, following meetings between the company's CEO and White House officials.
The A.V. Club reported it asTrump reportedly handed a golden ticket to Ticketmaster right before March antitrust trial (opens The A.V. Club in a new tab)
Disney’s ABC filed a federal lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission on 18 August 2026, alleging the agency is retaliating against the network for its editorial decisions. The suit targets early licence-renewal orders for eight stations and an investigation into the talk show 'The View'.
The A.V. Club reported it asABC sues FCC over "retaliatory campaign" against its programming (opens The A.V. Club in a new tab)
Actress Hayden Panettiere, 36, was found dead in her Greenville, South Carolina apartment on 16 August 2026. Police and the coroner’s office reported no signs of foul play. Her father confirmed her death in a statement to ABC News, and tributes followed from co-stars and fans.
The A.V. Club reported it asR.I.P. Hayden Panettiere, star of Nashville and Heroes (opens The A.V. Club in a new tab)
Barack Obama played himself in a sketch on Larry David’s HBO show, joking that David convinced him to wear the tan suit that sparked a media firestorm in 2014. The episode, produced by Obama’s Higher Ground, revisited the controversy with improvised lines and a running gag about ketchup.
The A.V. Club reported it asHBO sketch actor Barack Obama apparently has a very Larry David ketchup vendetta (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
- 17
- Reports listed
- 17
- We could read
- 0
- First seen
- 4 August 2026
17 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 1 of those stories, outlets rated left were largely absent from the coverage and The A.V. Club ran the story anyway.
Across the 17 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 21 hours after the earliest one 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 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.