The Diplomat media bias and reliability
Ad Fontes Media and Media Bias/Fact Check place The Diplomat in the centre. We have seen it on 11 published stories of ours.
The short answers
Is The Diplomat biased?
Ad Fontes Media and Media Bias/Fact Check place The Diplomat in the centre. An outlet rating describes a broad pattern in its output, not every article it publishes.
Is The Diplomat left or right?
Ad Fontes Media and Media Bias/Fact Check place The Diplomat in the centre. In the three-way grouping used on story pages, that puts it under Centre.
Is The Diplomat reliable?
The factual-reliability assessments we hold for The Diplomat are Media Bias/Fact Check: High factuality. These are outlet-level assessments, not a guarantee that every report is correct.
What The Diplomat has been covering
Our account of each story, written from every outlet that ran it, with The Diplomat’s own report linked underneath.
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 Diplomat reported it as4 Fault Lines that Could Shape the Trump-Xi Summit (opens The Diplomat in a new tab)
US President Donald Trump will personally greet Chinese President Xi Jinping on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews on September 23. This rare airport reception precedes bilateral meetings and a state dinner.
The Diplomat reported it as4 Fault Lines that Could Shape the Trump-Xi Summit (opens The Diplomat in a new tab)
The US Space Force has confirmed the deployment of weapons in Earth orbit, marking the first public acknowledgement of such capabilities. Air Force Secretary Troy Meink stated the weapons are intended for defence against hostile actions, though specific details remain undisclosed.
The Diplomat reported it asThe Space Security Landscape Is Deteriorating Rapidly (opens The Diplomat in a new tab)
The United States has confirmed for the first time that it has deployed weapons in orbit. Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said the Space Force placed "space control weapons" to deter adversaries, drawing accusations from China and Russia.
The Diplomat reported it asThe Space Security Landscape Is Deteriorating Rapidly (opens The Diplomat in a new tab)
A Pakistan Navy vessel collided with an Indian Navy warship in the North Arabian Sea on September 15, 2026. India lodged a strong protest, citing a violation of a 1991 agreement on advance notice of military exercises. The incident occurred in international waters and caused no major damage.
The Diplomat reported it asIndian, Pakistani Naval Vessels Collide in Arabian Sea, Prompting Diplomatic Tensions (opens The Diplomat in a new tab)
The BRICS New Delhi Declaration condemned the April 22, 2025, terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir. The statement called for zero tolerance towards state-sponsored cross-border terrorism and reaffirmed the commitment to combating terrorism in all its forms.
The Diplomat reported it asFrom 9/11 to Pahalgam: India’s Evolving Strategy in the Global War on Terror (opens The Diplomat in a new tab)
USS Abraham Lincoln docks in Thailand after 200-day Middle East mission amid crew welfare concerns
Trust 78The USS Abraham Lincoln reached Thailand after a 200-day deployment in the Middle East, the longest continuous sea duty in modern US Navy history. Reports of supply shortages, morale problems, and a possible suicide attempt prompted a Senate inquiry and a replacement carrier dispatch.
The Diplomat reported it asUS Aircraft Carrier Arrives in Thailand After Record 286-day Deployment (opens The Diplomat in a new tab)
Japan's Defense Ministry has requested 8.9 trillion yen ($55.6 billion) for the upcoming fiscal year's defense budget. The request signals a shift towards incorporating drones, artificial intelligence, and new warfare methods to adapt to evolving security challenges.
The Diplomat reported it asJapan’s Record 2027 Defense Budget Request Is Only the Opening Bid (opens The Diplomat in a new tab)
The US has designated Myanmar scholar and US citizen Min Zin as wrongfully detained by China, where he was arrested in June 2026 on espionage charges. China denies wrongful detention, while the US urges his release ahead of Xi Jinping’s visit to Washington.
The Diplomat reported it asHow an Academic Became Collateral Damage to China’s Interests in Myanmar (opens The Diplomat in a new tab)
Donald Trump announced plans to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un later this year, stating Kim possesses 57 nuclear weapons. Trump did not discuss denuclearisation as an objective and ordered a reduction in joint US-South Korea military exercises, a move South Korea said it was not notified of in advance.
The Diplomat reported it asNorth Korea Dismisses Trump’s Recent Overtures to Kim Jong Un (opens The Diplomat in a new tab)
Myanmar’s military chief met Thailand’s defence chief in Bangkok on 20 August 2026, his first foreign trip since the 2021 coup. The talks centred on security cooperation along the 2,400km border, as Myanmar’s junta attempts to ease diplomatic isolation following restricted elections earlier this year.
The Diplomat reported it asMyanmar Military Chief Begins Visit to Thailand Aimed at Expanding Security Ties (opens The Diplomat 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
- Media Bias/Fact CheckhighCheck it
Who owns it
We hold no ownership record for The Diplomat.
Where it publishes from
- Publishes from
- Arlington, Arlington County, Virginia, United States
- Official site
- thediplomat.com
- Seen publishing on
- thediplomat.com
- Access
- Metered: some articles are readable, some are not
- 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
- 11
- Reports listed
- 11
- We could read
- 0
- First seen
- 4 August 2026
11 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 Diplomat is rated centre, so there is no side for it to be counted against and we publish no figure here.
Across the 11 stories of ours where at least three of the reports we listed carried a time, we logged no report earlier than The Diplomat’s on 2 of them. Overall it filed a median of 32 hours after the earliest report we logged.
Measured 22 September 2026. Last seen in a coverage list 22 September 2026. Ratings pulled 7 September 2026.
Other outlets rated the same way
Publishers carrying the same published leaning as The Diplomat, 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 Diplomat 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.