The Conversation media bias and reliability
The rating organisations do not give The Conversation one shared verdict in the records we hold. Their published ratings are AllSides: Leans left; Ad Fontes Media: Centre; Media Bias/Fact Check: Centre. We have seen it on 22 published stories of ours.
The short answers
Is The Conversation biased?
The rating organisations do not give The Conversation one shared verdict in the records we hold. Their published ratings are AllSides: Leans left; Ad Fontes Media: Centre; Media Bias/Fact Check: Centre. An outlet rating describes a broad pattern in its output, not every article it publishes.
Is The Conversation left or right?
The rating organisations do not give The Conversation one shared verdict in the records we hold. Their published ratings are AllSides: Leans left; Ad Fontes Media: Centre; Media Bias/Fact Check: Centre. In the three-way grouping used on story pages, that puts it under Centre.
Is The Conversation reliable?
The factual-reliability assessments we hold for The Conversation are Ad Fontes Media: High factuality; Media Bias/Fact Check: Very high factuality. These are outlet-level assessments, not a guarantee that every report is correct.
What The Conversation has been covering
Our account of each story, written from every outlet that ran it, with The Conversation’s own report linked underneath.
Author Kim Stanley Robinson will not read aloud the first chapter of his novel 'The Ministry for the Future,' which depicts a heatwave causing 20 million deaths in India. He feels the scene is too graphic for public reading.
The Conversation reported it asFlood-damaged Nepal wants help from the global climate Loss and Damage Fund – but it’s waiting, along with 118 other countries (opens The Conversation in a new tab)
Russian President Vladimir Putin will deliver a televised address to the nation on September 16 at 6 p.m. Moscow time. The speech is in anticipation of the upcoming parliamentary elections, scheduled to take place from September 18 to 20. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced the president's speech.
The Conversation reported it asRussia’s parliamentary elections will not be a referendum on the Ukraine war – or anything, really (opens The Conversation in a new tab)
Russia has begun a three-day parliamentary election, the first since the start of the war in Ukraine. Polling stations opened in the Far East, with President Vladimir Putin's party widely expected to win the 450 seats in the State Duma. Voting is also taking place in occupied Ukrainian territories.
The Conversation reported it asRussia’s parliamentary elections will not be a referendum on the Ukraine war – or anything, really (opens The Conversation in a new tab)
Analysis of prehistoric human remains from Indonesia has revealed evidence of habitual drug use dating back approximately 25,000 years. This predates agriculture and suggests humans may have been consuming psychoactive substances much earlier than previously understood.
The Conversation reported it asAncient teeth reveal the Ice Age origins of the world’s 4th most common addictive drug (opens The Conversation in a new tab)
OpenAI has announced that an internal AI model has produced a solution to the Navier-Stokes existence and smoothness problem, one of mathematics' seven Millennium Prize Problems. The company claims approximately 10,000 AI agents worked on the problem for 88 hours. However, mathematicians have expressed skepticism due to the lack of a publicly disclosed proof.
The Conversation reported it asOpenAI claims another huge mathematical result amid fights over credit, ethics and privacy (opens The Conversation in a new tab)
The Bayeux Tapestry, a 70-meter-long embroidery from the 11th century, has arrived in London for an exhibition at the British Museum. Tickets have sold out for months, with the museum anticipating one million visitors before the exhibition closes in July 2027. The tapestry depicts the Norman conquest of England in 1066.
The Conversation reported it asHow the Bayeux tapestry came alive for the people who viewed it a thousand years ago (opens The Conversation in a new tab)
A United Nations report published on September 2, 2026, states that global temperatures are likely to exceed the 1.5°C warming threshold within a few years. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) calls for rapid emissions cuts and carbon removal to limit damage.
The Conversation reported it asA landmark UN report says the world will overshoot the 1.5°C climate target. What happens now? (opens The Conversation in a new tab)
Flash floods and landslides swept away villages along the Nepal-Tibet border, killing at least 165 people. Experts suggest a glacial collapse, not an earthquake, was the cause, with climate change and the region's topography exacerbating the risks.
The Conversation reported it asHow does a collapsing glacier turn into a lethal wall of mud and water? An expert explains what happened in Nepal (opens The Conversation in a new tab)
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved daraxonrasib, branded as Rasonque, for metastatic pancreatic cancer. In trials, patients taking the drug lived a median of 13.2 months, compared to 6.7 months on chemotherapy.
The Conversation reported it asFDA approves breakthrough pancreatic cancer drug – an oncologist explains how daraxonrasib nearly doubles survival (opens The Conversation in a new tab)
Eight South Koreans working on a hydropower plant project are missing and 10 others are stranded after a flash flood in Nepal. South Korea's Foreign Ministry has established a task force and plans to send a response team to the affected Rasuwa district.
The Conversation reported it asNepal-Tibet floods: when disaster strikes before communities recover from previous climate extremes, crisis escalates (opens The Conversation in a new tab)
A 24-year-old Nepali labourer survived a flash flood by clinging to a mango tree after being swept away by a torrent of mud and rock. The disaster has killed at least 150 people and left hundreds missing in Nepal.
The Conversation reported it asNepal-Tibet floods: when disaster strikes before communities recover from previous climate extremes, crisis escalates (opens The Conversation in a new tab)
The Trump administration has proposed rescinding the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which protects 45 million acres of national forest land. Conservation groups warn this could endanger hundreds of species and impact water sources.
The Conversation reported it asWhy Trump’s plan to rescind the Roadless Rule protecting national forests will struggle in court (opens The Conversation in a new tab)
Australia's annual inflation rate fell to 3.5% in July, the lowest in eight months, though still above economists' expectations. Housing and fuel prices were key drivers, while underlying inflation remained steady, leading the Reserve Bank of Australia to hold interest rates.
The Conversation reported it asInflation eases less than expected, making another interest rate hike more likely (opens The Conversation in a new tab)
Britain, Canada, and Australia have condemned Israel's decision to close its investigation into the deaths of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza in 2024. The incident occurred when a military strike hit their vehicle convoy.
The Conversation reported it asThere’s rarely accountability for the deaths of aid workers. It’s time that changed – and Australia can help (opens The Conversation in a new tab)
One Nation MP David Farley suggested the party's migration target would include an additional 100,000 people annually, bringing the total to 230,000. Party leader Pauline Hanson later stated the policy aims to cut net overseas migration to 130,000.
The Conversation reported it asView from The Hill: Liberals, One Nation and Labor all have immigration details up in the air (opens The Conversation in a new tab)
Jason Arday, Cambridge’s youngest Black professor, died days after resigning amid plagiarism allegations. His death has reignited discussions about the underrepresentation of Black academics in UK higher education and the scrutiny they face, with outlets divided over whether racism or academic standards were the driving force.
The Conversation reported it asJason Arday’s tragic death reveals the intense skepticism Black scholars face (opens The Conversation in a new tab)
Pakistan’s defence minister Khawaja Asif told Bloomberg News on 11 August 2026 that the US and Iran were close to an arrangement over the Strait of Hormuz. US President Donald Trump simultaneously demanded compensation from Iran for American casualties and Iranian protesters killed in state crackdowns.
The Conversation reported it asIran oil spill: the war is leaving environmental scars that ceasefires cannot heal (opens The Conversation in a new tab)
The US warned it may maintain a naval blockade of Iran indefinitely as ceasefire talks failed, pushing Brent crude to $87.49 per barrel on 14 August 2026. Two Adnoc ships were attacked in the Strait of Hormuz, and the IEA reported global oil supply fell 6.3 million barrels per day year-on-year.
The Conversation reported it asIran oil spill: the war is leaving environmental scars that ceasefires cannot heal (opens The Conversation in a new tab)
A Russian attack on Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhzhia killed five people and wounded 20, while ballistic missiles struck Kyiv, injuring at least one. Regional officials confirmed damage to industrial sites and residential buildings, as Ukraine warns of increased North Korean military support for Russia.
The Conversation reported it asRussia bets on ballistic missiles to combat the success of Ukraine’s drone warfare (opens The Conversation in a new tab)
Scientists at the Arc Institute in California used an AI model named Evo to design 16 new bacteriophages capable of infecting E. coli. The study, published in Science, excluded human pathogen datasets, ensuring the viruses cannot infect people. Experts warn of biosecurity risks despite potential medical applications.
The Conversation reported it asScientists have designed a functioning virus from scratch using AI – what you need to know (opens The Conversation 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
- The Conversation US, Inc.Independentdirect owner
Where it publishes from
- Publishes from
- Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, United States
- Official site
- theconversation.com
- Seen publishing on
- theconversation.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
- 22
- Reports listed
- 22
- We could read
- 0
- First seen
- 4 August 2026
22 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. The Conversation is rated centre, so there is no side for it to be counted against and we publish no figure here.
Across the 22 stories of ours where at least three of the reports we listed carried a time, another outlet was always ahead of The Conversation: its report arrived a median of 29 hours after the earliest one we logged.
Measured 21 September 2026. Last seen in a coverage list 21 September 2026. Ratings pulled 7 September 2026.
Other outlets rated the same way
Publishers carrying the same published leaning as The Conversation, 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 Conversation 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.