The Desert Sun media bias and reliability
The rating organisations do not give The Desert Sun one shared verdict in the records we hold. Their published ratings are AllSides: Centre; Ad Fontes Media: Centre; Media Bias/Fact Check: Leans right. We have seen it on 12 published stories of ours.
The short answers
Is The Desert Sun biased?
The rating organisations do not give The Desert Sun one shared verdict in the records we hold. Their published ratings are AllSides: Centre; Ad Fontes Media: Centre; Media Bias/Fact Check: Leans right. An outlet rating describes a broad pattern in its output, not every article it publishes.
Is The Desert Sun left or right?
The rating organisations do not give The Desert Sun one shared verdict in the records we hold. Their published ratings are AllSides: Centre; Ad Fontes Media: Centre; Media Bias/Fact Check: Leans right. In the three-way grouping used on story pages, that puts it under Centre.
Is The Desert Sun reliable?
The factual-reliability assessments we hold for The Desert Sun 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 The Desert Sun has been covering
Our account of each story, written from every outlet that ran it, with The Desert Sun’s own report linked underneath.
More than 34 million Americans have cast early ballots in the current midterm elections. This figure is on pace to surpass the early voting turnout of the 2022 midterms, according to data tracked by the UF Election Lab.
The Desert Sun reported it asFollow live 2026 California election results on Election Day (opens The Desert Sun in a new tab)
On Tuesday, Americans vote in the 2026 midterms that will decide whether Republicans keep their narrow House majority and Senate seats. Trump faces low approval ratings, a war with Iran and a costly cost‑of‑living squeeze, while polls show 54% of his base would back him even if he loses.
The Desert Sun reported it asFollow live 2026 California election results on Election Day (opens The Desert Sun in a new tab)
A federal appeals court has rejected the Justice Department's request to set aside approximately 20,000 California mail-in ballots alleged to be from noncitizens. The case has been sent back to a district court for further proceedings.
The Desert Sun reported it asAppeals court rejects Trump bid to set aside California ballots (opens The Desert Sun in a new tab)
Hassan Kariem, a teacher at Wesley International Academy, died after falling from the Goliath roller coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia. Police stated he was ejected from the ride and struck other patrons before falling. Six Flags temporarily closed nine similar roller coasters.
The Desert Sun reported it asWhy Six Flags closed California Goliath ride after Georgia death (opens The Desert Sun in a new tab)
Katie Zacharia, the new White House press secretary, held her first press conference, which was significantly shorter than her predecessor's. She made a verbal gaffe and faced criticism from an unnamed administration official.
The Desert Sun reported it asNew White House press secretary Katie Zacharia ties to California (opens The Desert Sun in a new tab)
California Governor Gavin Newsom has directed the State Threat Assessment Center to monitor potential threats following comments made by former President Donald Trump. Trump suggested Iran could target Los Angeles and San Diego.
The Desert Sun reported it asNewsom orders threat monitoring over Trump's Iran remarks (opens The Desert Sun in a new tab)
California gubernatorial candidates Xavier Becerra and Steve Hilton met for their only scheduled debate. Becerra repeatedly linked Hilton to Donald Trump's policies, while Hilton accused Becerra of avoiding state issues and tied him to Governor Gavin Newsom and California Democrats.
The Desert Sun reported it as5 takeaways from Becerra-Hilton California governor's debate (opens The Desert Sun in a new tab)
The California Supreme Court has ordered Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco to return approximately 650,000 ballots seized from a November 2025 special election. The court ruled Bianco's seizure was unlawful, siding with the state's Attorney General Rob Bonta.
The Desert Sun reported it asSheriff's seizure of ballots ruled illegal by California Supreme Court (opens The Desert Sun 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.
The Desert Sun reported it asIn victory for California, Supreme Court blocks USPS mail ballot rule (opens The Desert Sun 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 Desert Sun reported it asApple Unveils Foldable iPhone Duo, Starting at $1,999 (opens The Desert Sun 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 Desert Sun reported it asApple Unveils Foldable iPhone Duo, Starting at $1,999 (opens The Desert Sun in a new tab)
A former volunteer has filed a lawsuit against nonprofits tied to labor leader Cesar Chavez, alleging sexual abuse by him decades ago and that the organizations failed to investigate her complaints. The suit names the Cesar Chavez Foundation and the United Farm Workers Foundation as defendants.
The Desert Sun reported it asCesar Chavez rape allegation leads to new civil lawsuit (opens The Desert Sun 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
- GannettMedia Conglomeratedirect owner
Where it publishes from
- Publishes from
- Palm Springs, Riverside County, California, United States
- Official site
- desertsun.com
- Seen publishing on
- desertsun.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
- 12
- Reports listed
- 12
- We could read
- 0
- First seen
- 4 August 2026
12 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 Desert Sun is rated centre, so there is no side for it to be counted against and we publish no figure here.
Across the 12 stories of ours where at least three of the reports we listed carried a time, another outlet was always ahead of The Desert Sun: its report arrived a median of 25 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 Desert Sun, 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 Desert Sun 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.