The Stranger media bias and reliability
Ad Fontes Media and Media Bias/Fact Check place The Stranger on the left. We have seen it on 7 published stories of ours.
The short answers
Is The Stranger biased?
Ad Fontes Media and Media Bias/Fact Check place The Stranger on the left. An outlet rating describes a broad pattern in its output, not every article it publishes.
Is The Stranger left or right?
Ad Fontes Media and Media Bias/Fact Check place The Stranger on the left. In the three-way grouping used on story pages, that puts it under Left.
Is The Stranger reliable?
The factual-reliability assessments we hold for The Stranger are Ad Fontes Media: High factuality; Media Bias/Fact Check: High factuality. These are outlet-level assessments, not a guarantee that every report is correct.
What The Stranger has been covering
Our account of each story, written from every outlet that ran it, with The Stranger’s own report linked underneath.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul has appointed Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor in the Cornell University gang rape investigation. The governor removed the local district attorney from the case, citing a lack of trust. Allegations from 2024 have resurfaced, contributing to palpable tension on campus.
The Stranger reported it asSlog AM: Fred Meyer Sued for Pregnancy Discrimination, Amazon Wants to Buy Your Support for Data Centers, New York Governor Appoints Attorney General to Cornell Rape Case (opens The Stranger 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 Stranger reported it asSlog AM: Bisexuality Isn't a Crime, Taking Bribes Is, and it Turns Out the Government Can Just Seize Apartments (opens The Stranger 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Three supporting acts have withdrawn from Ed Sheeran's tour following the removal of rapper Macklemore.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 Stranger reported it asSlog AM: Robert Kraft Says He’ll Donate $2 Million to “Humanitarian Aid” After Macklemore Pledges $1 million to Palestine, Downtown Seattle Is Booming, Federal Reserve Increases the Cost of Borrowing (opens The Stranger in a new tab)
Donald Trump has stated the US will respond forcefully to Iranian attacks on American bases in Jordan and the UAE. The exchange of fire follows a US strike on Iran's Larak Island, with both sides issuing threats of further action.
The Stranger reported it asSlog AM: War’s on Again, ICE Detains Man with Stage 4 Cancer, Pike Place Decides to Increase Our Chances of Being Hit By a Car (opens The Stranger in a new tab)
US forces attacked targets in Iran, which CENTCOM described as limited measures against mine-laying units. Iran responded with strikes on two US bases in Jordan, which Jordanian authorities said were intercepted. This marks the first direct military exchange between the two nations in weeks.
The Stranger reported it asSlog AM: War’s on Again, ICE Detains Man with Stage 4 Cancer, Pike Place Decides to Increase Our Chances of Being Hit By a Car (opens The Stranger in a new tab)
Donald Trump has declared that Iran must never be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon, stating that Tehran would use them if it acquired them. He also claimed that if he were not president, Israel would no longer exist.
The Stranger reported it asSlog AM: War’s on Again, ICE Detains Man with Stage 4 Cancer, Pike Place Decides to Increase Our Chances of Being Hit By a Car (opens The Stranger in a new tab)
The US Navy is reviewing plans to rename a Ford-class aircraft carrier currently designated USS Doris Miller, a Black sailor recognised for heroism at Pearl Harbor. Sources say internal discussions include honouring Donald Trump, which would be unprecedented for a sitting president.
The Stranger reported it asSlog AM: High-T Navy May Name Aircraft Carrier After Noted Coward, Wildfires Cost Washington $207 Million in Two Months, and After Husband Dies in Alaska, Mexican Widow Not Allowed into US (opens The Stranger 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
- Noisy Creek, Inc.Billionairedirect owner
Where it publishes from
- Publishes from
- Seattle, King County, Washington, United States
- Official site
- thestranger.com
- Seen publishing on
- thestranger.com
- Access
- Free to read
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
- 7
- Reports listed
- 7
- We could read
- 0
- First seen
- 20 August 2026
7 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 4 of those stories, outlets rated left were largely absent from the coverage and The Stranger ran the story anyway.
Across the 7 stories of ours where at least three of the reports we listed carried a time, another outlet was always ahead of The Stranger: its report arrived a median of 32 hours after the earliest one we logged.
Measured 4 October 2026. Last seen in a coverage list 3 October 2026. Ratings pulled 19 September 2026.
Other outlets rated the same way
Publishers carrying the same published leaning as The Stranger, 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 Stranger 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.