The Tennessean media bias and reliability
AllSides, Ad Fontes Media and Media Bias/Fact Check place The Tennessean in the centre. We have seen it on 15 published stories of ours.
The short answers
Is The Tennessean biased?
AllSides, Ad Fontes Media and Media Bias/Fact Check place The Tennessean in the centre. An outlet rating describes a broad pattern in its output, not every article it publishes.
Is The Tennessean left or right?
AllSides, Ad Fontes Media and Media Bias/Fact Check place The Tennessean in the centre. In the three-way grouping used on story pages, that puts it under Centre.
Is The Tennessean reliable?
The factual-reliability assessments we hold for The Tennessean 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 Tennessean has been covering
Our account of each story, written from every outlet that ran it, with The Tennessean’s own report linked underneath.
President Donald Trump said Vice President JD Vance was part of the decision-making process for the Iran war. This comes after Vance blamed the conflict for Republican losses in the recent midterm elections, a point Trump largely agreed with but said Vance should have elaborated on.
The Tennessean reported it asTrump's war in Iran doomed Republicans in the midterms (opens The Tennessean in a new tab)
Democrats achieved significant victories in states previously considered reliably Republican, including winning their first Texas Senate race in 38 years and unseating Governor Greg Abbott. These results are seen by some as a potential political shift, driven by factors like Donald Trump's unpopularity and voter concerns about the cost of living.
The Tennessean reported it asWhy 2026 Tennessee election results were tighter after redistricting (opens The Tennessean in a new tab)
President Donald Trump's rally in Salina, Kansas, scheduled for Saturday has been cancelled. The Kansas Republican Party confirmed the cancellation five days before the November 3, 2026, Election Day.
The Tennessean reported it asTrump blows up at reporter over canceled midterm trip to Kansas (opens The Tennessean in a new tab)
Texas Senate candidate James Talarico defended past statements on God's gender, capitalism, and the abolition of ICE during a CNN-hosted town hall. He stated his 'God is nonbinary' comment was meant to be provocative and that his capitalism remarks were taken out of context.
The Tennessean reported it asTalarico's CNN town hall made it clear Paxton is the coward (opens The Tennessean in a new tab)
Senator Roger Marshall paid a Kansas bakery $1,300 to settle a six-year-old unpaid bill for campaign cookies. The original amount owed was $678.75. The bakery owner had publicly complained about the outstanding debt.
The Tennessean reported it asRoger Marshall sued patients for debt. Then he didn't pay for cookies (opens The Tennessean in a new tab)
Emergency help for Christa Pike was delayed by confusion between first responders and Tennessee prison officials after her execution failed last month. 911 dispatch recordings reveal the delay, with one report suggesting it lasted over 30 minutes.
The Tennessean reported it asNashville releases transcript of 911 call from Pike execution (opens The Tennessean in a new tab)
Donald Trump told a rally crowd in Clarksville, Tennessee, that he could say the stupidest things and they would clap. The remark was made on Saturday, 10 October 2026, ahead of the US midterm elections.
The Tennessean reported it asTrump visits to 'reward' voters, implores Tennesseans to back GOP (opens The Tennessean in a new tab)
Texas Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico reappeared at the Austin City Limits festival on Friday, nine days after his last public appearance. His return followed an absence attributed to the flu, which had prompted criticism and speculation from his Republican opponent.
The Tennessean reported it asWhere is Talarico? Paxton requests doctor's note proving flu (opens The Tennessean in a new tab)
The U.S. Supreme Court has allowed the execution of Christa Gail Pike to proceed in Tennessee, reversing a stay granted by an appeals court. Pike, 50, was scheduled for lethal injection for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer.
The Tennessean reported it asSupreme Court clears way for Christa Pike's execution (opens The Tennessean in a new tab)
The U.S. Supreme Court has allowed the execution of Christa Gail Pike to proceed in Tennessee, reversing a stay granted by an appeals court. Pike, 50, was scheduled for lethal injection for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer.
The Tennessean reported it asSupreme Court rules Christa Pike execution may proceed: Updates (opens The Tennessean in a new tab)
President Donald Trump attended the Texas-Tennessee college football game in Knoxville, Tennessee. Officials opened the stadium early and offered half-price concessions to fans. Air Force One performed a flyover upon his arrival. The visit did not appear to affect coach-player communications.
The Tennessean reported it asPresident Trump arrives on Air Force One for Texas-Tennessee football game (opens The Tennessean in a new tab)
Researchers have identified a new wild cat species, Leopardus tilcayo, in Bolivia's Yungas forest. The small feline, measuring about 45-46 cm and weighing 1.4 kg, is the first new wild cat species described in more than 100 years.
The Tennessean reported it asCat's out of the bag. Meet the newly discovered cat species (opens The Tennessean in a new tab)
The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History is commemorating the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks with an exhibit of artifacts. The display includes personal items from the day, presented openly due to fragility, as museum leadership navigates political criticism.
The Tennessean reported it asWhat America should remember on the 25th anniversary of 9/11 (opens The Tennessean 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 Tennessean reported it asLee, BNA back Dolly Parton Nashville airport rename; singer said it'd ... (opens The Tennessean 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 Tennessean reported it asHayden Panettiere, who gave 'Nashville' its fiercest performance, dies at 36 (opens The Tennessean in a new tab)
Usher responded to social media speculation that he sent a lookalike to perform at his New Jersey concert, calling the theory 'funny' and stating artificial intelligence is not advanced enough to clone him. Fans compared video clips, noting differences in appearance and mannerisms.
The Tennessean reported it asUsher responds to viral 'clone' discourse: 'AI ain't that advanced' (opens The Tennessean 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
- USA TODAY Co.Media Conglomeratedirect owner
Where it publishes from
- Publishes from
- Nashville, Davidson County, Tennessee, United States
- Official site
- tennessean.com
- Seen publishing on
- tennessean.com
- Access
- Paywalled
- 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
- 15
- Reports listed
- 16
- We could read
- 0
- First seen
- 12 August 2026
16 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 Tennessean is rated centre, so there is no side for it to be counted against and we publish no figure here.
Across the 15 stories of ours where at least three of the reports we listed carried a time, another outlet was always ahead of The Tennessean: its report arrived a median of 24 hours after the earliest one we logged.
Measured 10 November 2026. Last seen in a coverage list 10 November 2026. Ratings pulled 12 October 2026.
Other outlets rated the same way
Publishers carrying the same published leaning as The Tennessean, 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 Tennessean 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.