USA Today media bias and reliability
The rating organisations do not give USA Today one shared verdict in the records we hold. Their published ratings are AllSides: Leans left; Ad Fontes Media: Centre; Media Bias/Fact Check: Leans left. We have seen it on 538 published stories of ours.
The short answers
Is USA Today biased?
The rating organisations do not give USA Today one shared verdict in the records we hold. Their published ratings are AllSides: Leans left; Ad Fontes Media: Centre; Media Bias/Fact Check: Leans left. An outlet rating describes a broad pattern in its output, not every article it publishes.
Is USA Today left or right?
The rating organisations do not give USA Today one shared verdict in the records we hold. Their published ratings are AllSides: Leans left; Ad Fontes Media: Centre; Media Bias/Fact Check: Leans left. In the three-way grouping used on story pages, that puts it under Left.
Is USA Today reliable?
The factual-reliability assessments we hold for USA Today 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 USA Today has been covering
Our account of each story, written from every outlet that ran it, with USA Today’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.
USA Today reported it asEarly voting surges past 54 million, topping 2022 midterm total (opens USA Today in a new tab)
Polish President Karol Nawrocki has accused Prime Minister Donald Tusk of orchestrating a "forced takeover" of the country's top court. This follows the suspension of the court's head, an ally of the previous government, by a judge appointed by the current administration.
USA Today reported it asPolish president accuses Tusk of forced takeover of country's top court (opens USA Today in a new tab)
Singer Olivia Rodrigo wore a T-shirt backing Dr. Amy Acton for Ohio Governor during a concert in Columbus. Acton responded on Instagram, and the event occurred amid controversy over a political ad.
USA Today reported it asOlivia Rodrigo shows support for Amy Acton at Ohio concert (opens USA Today in a new tab)
Cook Political Report shifts twelve House races toward Democrats and forecasts up to 240 seats
Trust 86The Cook Political Report moved twelve House contests closer to Democrats, projecting a possible 240‑seat majority, the strongest since 2009. It also gave Democrats a slight Senate advantage and reported that President Trump reinstated two rallies in red states that had been cancelled.
USA Today reported it asCook Political Report shifts 14 races toward Dems ahead of midterms (opens USA Today in a new tab)
Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed will campaign with former primary rival Rep. Haley Stevens in Detroit. This marks their first joint public appearance in months, with Rep. Jim Clyburn also set to attend a get-out-the-vote event.
USA Today reported it asEl-Sayed asks Stevens not to attend final events in key Michigan race (opens USA Today 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.
USA Today reported it asTrump erupts over 'sick' question about canceled midterm rally in Kansas (opens USA Today in a new tab)
Patrick Stewart, the British actor famous for his roles as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in 'Star Trek' and Professor Charles Xavier in 'X-Men', has died at the age of 86. His death was announced by his family.
USA Today reported it asPatrick Stewart dies at 86 - Hugh Jackman, William Shatner, more pay ... (opens USA Today in a new tab)
The Justice Department has sent letters to election officials in all 50 states warning them of potential criminal prosecution for failing to preserve election records for 22 months. The letters, dated October 29, were signed by Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter.
USA Today reported it asNewsom warns Trump that California will send election lawyers to sites (opens USA Today in a new tab)
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff reported that North Korea launched an unidentified projectile off its east coast on Thursday. Japan's Coast Guard suggested it could be a ballistic missile, a detail not widely reported.
USA Today reported it asNorth Korea fires around 10 ballistic missiles toward sea, Seoul says (opens USA Today in a new tab)
Scientists have identified an icy object, named 2026 ED138, orbiting the sun beyond Pluto. The object's size is estimated between 600 and 1,500 kilometres in diameter. Classification as a dwarf planet depends on further study.
USA Today reported it asWorld spotted beyond Pluto could be solar system's next dwarf planet (opens USA Today in a new tab)
Mohamed Soliman pleaded guilty to nine federal hate-crime counts and three federal weapon charges for a June 2025 firebomb attack in Boulder, Colorado. He is already serving a life sentence for state convictions related to the same attack, which killed one demonstrator and injured about a dozen others.
USA Today reported it asMan pleads guilty to federal charges in deadly Colorado firebombing (opens USA Today in a new tab)
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance is investigating a potential security issue on its platform. Stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle have frozen billions of dollars in assets connected to the incident, while Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao stated user funds remain safe.
USA Today reported it asHackers strike Binance, world's largest cryptocurrency exchange (opens USA Today in a new tab)
President Donald Trump attended a Halloween party at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Saturday, arriving dressed as himself. He told reporters that his costume preparation took only ten minutes, while other guests spent significantly longer.
USA Today reported it asDonald Trump's Daytona rally road closings announced (opens USA Today in a new tab)
Katie Zacharia, who served as White House press secretary for five days in October 2026, has spoken about her brief tenure. She was dismissed by President Donald Trump after a single press briefing and later appeared on Fox News.
USA Today reported it asKatie Zacharia blames ‘Hannity’ appearance, the media for firing (opens USA Today in a new tab)
Twitch streamer Hasan Piker has filed a federal defamation lawsuit against conservative commentator Scott Jennings, seeking $72.5 million. Piker alleges Jennings used an edited video to falsely portray him as advocating for the lynching of Black Americans.
USA Today reported it asHasan Piker slams Scott Jennings of CNN with $72M defamation lawsuit (opens USA Today in a new tab)
Donald Trump joked that $5,000 would barely cover a hamburger and dessert at his Mar-a-Lago club. The remark was made during a campaign rally in Texas, as voters express concerns about the cost of living ahead of the midterm elections.
USA Today reported it asTrump jokes $5,000 checks won't pay for much at expensive Mar-a-Lago (opens USA Today in a new tab)
President Trump has called for Alaska Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola to be removed from the ballot, alleging election fraud after reports surfaced of her campaign's alleged involvement in recruiting a candidate with the same name as her opponent, Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan.
USA Today reported it asTrump calls for Alaska Democrat Mary Peltola to be prosecuted (opens USA Today in a new tab)
Donald Trump told a rally in Arizona that Canada will become the 51st US state, citing trade disputes and suggesting annexation was the only way forward. He also claimed the US loses up to $100 billion annually on trade with Canada.
USA Today reported it asWatch President Trump pitch Venezuela as America's 51st state (opens USA Today in a new tab)
A localized ceasefire in Oleshky, Ukraine, brokered by First Lady Melania Trump, began on Tuesday to facilitate humanitarian aid. This comes as President Zelenskyy reported a significant overnight barrage of Russian missiles and drones.
USA Today reported it asUkraine-Russia ceasefire starts in war-torn town of Oleshky (opens USA Today in a new tab)
A report by House Democrats includes a new allegation from Beatrice Keul, who claims Donald Trump raped her in 1993. The report also alleges Trump was an active participant in Jeffrey Epstein's sexual abuse. The White House denies the claims.
USA Today reported it asDemocrats want special counsel to investigate Trump ties to Epstein (opens USA Today 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.
High factuality
Who owns it
- USA TODAY Co., Inc.Media Conglomeratedirect owner
Where it publishes from
- Publishes from
- New York, New York, United States
- Official site
- usatoday.com
- Seen publishing on
- usatoday.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
- 538
- Reports listed
- 580
- We could read
- 22
- First seen
- 3 August 2026
558 of those reports were paywalled or blocked to us. Our reading of this outlet is built on the 22 we could open, not on everything it published.
On 188 of those stories, outlets rated left were largely absent from the coverage and USA Today ran the story anyway.
Across the 538 stories of ours where at least three of the reports we listed carried a time, we logged no report earlier than USA Today’s on 29 of them. Overall it filed a median of 20 hours after the earliest report we logged.
Measured 2 November 2026. Last seen in a coverage list 2 November 2026. Ratings pulled 2 November 2026.
Other outlets rated the same way
Publishers carrying the same published leaning as USA Today, 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 USA Today 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.