WECT News media bias and reliability
Ad Fontes Media and Media Bias/Fact Check place WECT News in the centre. We have seen it on 8 published stories of ours.
The short answers
Is WECT News biased?
Ad Fontes Media and Media Bias/Fact Check place WECT News in the centre. An outlet rating describes a broad pattern in its output, not every article it publishes.
Is WECT News left or right?
Ad Fontes Media and Media Bias/Fact Check place WECT News in the centre. In the three-way grouping used on story pages, that puts it under Centre.
Is WECT News reliable?
The factual-reliability assessments we hold for WECT News are Media Bias/Fact Check: High factuality. These are outlet-level assessments, not a guarantee that every report is correct.
What WECT News has been covering
Our account of each story, written from every outlet that ran it, with WECT News’s own report linked underneath.
Donald Trump confirmed he uses artificial intelligence but declined to specify how, stating only that it can be used for "a lot of things." He also commented on the technology's future, saying "whoever wins in artificial intelligence wins."
WECT News reported it asTrump dismisses new AI guardrails, says there is a ‘SICK conspiracy’ against AI and data centers (opens WECT News in a new tab)
Donald Trump has rejected calls for new regulations on artificial intelligence, stating that the U.S. government already possesses adequate power to control AI firms. He described efforts to implement guardrails as a "sick conspiracy" that could cede technological leadership to China.
WECT News reported it asTrump dismisses new AI guardrails, says there is a ‘SICK conspiracy’ against AI and data centers (opens WECT News in a new tab)
Pastor Daimon L. King, a registered sex offender with prior child-related convictions, delivered the opening prayer at a rally for North Carolina GOP Senate nominee Michael Whatley. Whatley's campaign stated they did not know King and that the event was not planned by the campaign.
WECT News reported it asConvicted sex offender offered opening prayer at rally for GOP Senate nominee in North Carolina (opens WECT News 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.
WECT News reported it asNavy weighs renaming carrier slated to honor Black war hero after Trump, sources say (opens WECT News in a new tab)
A report from the House Judiciary Committee states that President Donald Trump's pardons have cost crime victims $1.7 billion in compensation. The report examines the sale of access to the pardon power through intermediaries.
WECT News reported it asTens of thousands in Indiana are still without power a week after deadly storms (opens WECT News in a new tab)
Elon Musk posted on X that Derek Chauvin was 'unjustly convicted of murder' and should be freed, aligning with Chauvin's third legal attempt to overturn his 2021 conviction. Chauvin's attorneys allege procedural errors, including Governor Tim Walz's transfer of prosecutorial oversight to state officials.
WECT News reported it asElon Musk calls for Derek Chauvin’s release; former officer files petition to overturn murder conviction (opens WECT News 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.
WECT News reported it as911 dispatch audio reveals more details about actress Hayden Panettiere’s death (opens WECT News in a new tab)
USS Abraham Lincoln crew endure record deployment amid food shortages and mental health crisis
Trust 96The USS Abraham Lincoln has spent over 250 days at sea without docking, the longest continuous deployment on record. Reports describe food shortages, malfunctioning toilets and sailors attempting to jump overboard. Congressional Democrats have demanded an explanation from the defence secretary.
WECT News reported it asConcern grows over conditions aboard USS Lincoln, with reports of crew members trying to jump overboard (opens WECT News 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 WECT News.
Where it publishes from
- Publishes from
- Wilmington, New Hanover County, North Carolina, United States
- Official site
- wect.com
- Seen publishing on
- wect.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
- 8
- Reports listed
- 8
- We could read
- 0
- First seen
- 13 August 2026
8 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. WECT News is rated centre, so there is no side for it to be counted against and we publish no figure here.
Across the 8 stories of ours where at least three of the reports we listed carried a time, another outlet was always ahead of WECT News: its report arrived a median of 2 days after the earliest one we logged.
Measured 28 September 2026. Last seen in a coverage list 20 September 2026. Ratings pulled 12 September 2026.
Other outlets rated the same way
Publishers carrying the same published leaning as WECT News, 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 WECT News 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.