WAPT media bias and reliability
AllSides, Ad Fontes Media and Media Bias/Fact Check place WAPT in the centre. We have seen it on 375 published stories of ours.
The short answers
Is WAPT biased?
AllSides, Ad Fontes Media and Media Bias/Fact Check place WAPT in the centre. An outlet rating describes a broad pattern in its output, not every article it publishes.
Is WAPT left or right?
AllSides, Ad Fontes Media and Media Bias/Fact Check place WAPT in the centre. In the three-way grouping used on story pages, that puts it under Centre.
Is WAPT reliable?
The factual-reliability assessments we hold for WAPT 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 WAPT has been covering
Our account of each story, written from every outlet that ran it, with WAPT’s own report linked underneath.
A federal judge has dismissed Donald Trump's lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch. The case concerned a story about Trump's ties to Jeffrey Epstein and a sexually suggestive birthday letter. The judge found Trump did not prove actual malice.
WAPT reported it asJudge dismisses lawsuit seeking to block certification of Alaska Senate race if GOP incumbent loses (opens WAPT in a new tab)
Democratic Congresswoman Haley Stevens appeared at a Detroit church with Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers. This occurred after internal party tensions escalated over an advertisement linking U.S. support for Israel to grocery prices.
WAPT reported it asTurmoil in Michigan's Senate race as Democrat Haley Stevens appears with Republican Mike Rogers (opens WAPT in a new tab)
China's Coast Guard is harassing shipping with patrols off Taiwan's east coast, according to Taiwan's Coast Guard. Taipei says the patrols aim to exert a fictional jurisdiction and has sent its own ships to monitor the situation.
WAPT reported it asTaiwan accuses China of harassment after standoff between coast guard ships (opens WAPT in a new tab)
A 15-year-old immigrant from Ghana was shot and killed in the Bronx. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani stated that President Donald Trump has agreed to grant a visa to the victim's mother.
WAPT reported it asMamdani says Trump agrees to grant visa to mother of Ghanian teen killed in Bronx shooting (opens WAPT in a new tab)
Maya Gebala, who was shot three times in an attack in Tumbler Ridge, is being released from BC Children's Hospital after 262 days. Her father posted a video of the moment she learned she was going home.
WAPT reported it as‘Bravest person I know’: School shooting victim leaves hospital after 262 days (opens WAPT in a new tab)
Lawyers for former FBI Director James Comey are asking a federal judge to halt a third criminal case against him. The Justice Department filed the charges using a 'criminal information' instead of a grand jury, a move Comey's team calls legally invalid.
WAPT reported it asJudge puts off decision in Comey case as prosecutors pursue new indictment against ex-FBI head (opens WAPT in a new tab)
The United States cancelled a planned group photo at the G20 foreign ministers meeting in Atlanta due to deep rifts among member nations. Several European diplomats objected to standing alongside Russia's top diplomat, Sergey Lavrov, leading to the cancellation.
WAPT reported it asConsensus looks elusive at G20 talks in Atlanta after objections to Russia cancel group photo (opens WAPT in a new tab)
Four U.S. cities will receive nearly $300 million in federal funding through the Justice Department's new Model Cities Initiative. The program aims to reduce violent crime and bolster law enforcement by supporting tailored strategies in Jacksonville, Baton Rouge, Jackson, and St. Louis.
WAPT reported it asIn Jackson, $100 million DOJ grant will modernize forensic lab and gunshot detection (opens WAPT in a new tab)
The US has expelled a Cuban diplomat following a heated exchange at the UN General Assembly. Ambassador Mike Waltz stated the diplomat shoved and attempted to assault an American staffer, leading Secretary of State Marco Rubio to sign the expulsion papers.
WAPT reported it asCuba welcomes home diplomat expelled from US after unusual altercation at the UN (opens WAPT 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.
WAPT reported it asCould President Trump's approval rating impact who voters send to Congress? (opens WAPT in a new tab)
A federal judge has fixed a September 2027 trial date for Cole Tomas Allen, accused of trying to kill President Donald Trump at the 2026 White House Correspondents’ dinner. Jury selection begins 7 September in Washington, D.C., and the case is expected to run three to four weeks.
WAPT reported it asTrial date set for man charged with attacking White House correspondents’ dinner (opens WAPT in a new tab)
The roof of a water tower housing a rare family of barn owls in Manhattan's Upper West Side has been removed. This action has generated significant outrage among New Yorkers who had become captivated by the birds.
WAPT reported it asRoof of a water tower in NYC where a rare family of barn owls nested has been removed (opens WAPT in a new tab)
Relatives of Sandy Hook victims have urged the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold state and local bans on AR-15-style rifles. They cited the high death toll and severe injuries these weapons can cause, referencing the 2012 school shooting. Gun rights advocates argue such bans violate the Second Amendment.
WAPT reported it asSandy Hook families urge Supreme Court to uphold state and local bans on AR-15-style rifles (opens WAPT 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.
WAPT reported it asPatrick Stewart, of ‘Star Trek’ and 'X-Men' fame, dead at 86 (opens WAPT 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.
WAPT reported it asMan pleads guilty to federal hate crimes in deadly firebomb attack on Colorado demonstrators (opens WAPT in a new tab)
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.
WAPT reported it asMore than 41 million voters have already cast early ballots; here's where (opens WAPT in a new tab)
A federal judge in Los Angeles heard arguments regarding the Justice Department's request to prevent California from counting approximately 20,000 ballots until the citizenship of the voters can be confirmed. California officials argue this is impossible and could disenfranchise legitimate voters.
WAPT reported it asJudge denies federal request to segregate California ballots, says it would 'wreak havoc' on voting (opens WAPT 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.
WAPT reported it as‘It’s big’: Astronomers make startling discovery of a possible dwarf planet beyond Pluto (opens WAPT in a new tab)
Police responded to a youth soccer game in Florida after a league director called 911. The director stated the call was due to disruptive parents, while the child's mother claims the police were called because her son was too talented.
WAPT reported it asFlorida police called to remove family from 3-year-old's soccer game after dispute (opens WAPT 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.
WAPT reported it asCeasefire brokered by Melania Trump starts in southern Ukraine (opens WAPT 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
- Hearst TelevisionCorporationdirect owner
- Hearst CommunicationsMedia Conglomerateparent group
Where it publishes from
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
- 375
- Reports listed
- 384
- We could read
- 0
- First seen
- 4 August 2026
384 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. WAPT is rated centre, so there is no side for it to be counted against and we publish no figure here.
Across the 375 stories of ours where at least three of the reports we listed carried a time, another outlet was always ahead of WAPT: its report arrived a median of 28 hours after the earliest one we logged.
Measured 2 November 2026. Last seen in a coverage list 2 November 2026. Ratings pulled 5 October 2026.
Other outlets rated the same way
Publishers carrying the same published leaning as WAPT, 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 WAPT 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.