Wisconsin State Journal media bias and reliability
AllSides, Ad Fontes Media and Media Bias/Fact Check place Wisconsin State Journal in the centre. We have seen it on 10 published stories of ours.
The short answers
Is Wisconsin State Journal biased?
AllSides, Ad Fontes Media and Media Bias/Fact Check place Wisconsin State Journal in the centre. An outlet rating describes a broad pattern in its output, not every article it publishes.
Is Wisconsin State Journal left or right?
AllSides, Ad Fontes Media and Media Bias/Fact Check place Wisconsin State Journal in the centre. In the three-way grouping used on story pages, that puts it under Centre.
Is Wisconsin State Journal reliable?
The factual-reliability assessments we hold for Wisconsin State Journal 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 Wisconsin State Journal has been covering
Our account of each story, written from every outlet that ran it, with Wisconsin State Journal’s own report linked underneath.
Democrat David Crowley has won the Wisconsin governor's race, defeating Republican Tom Tiffany. Crowley will be the first Black governor in the state's history. The election took place in a state described as a battleground.
Wisconsin State Journal reported it asDemocrat David Crowley elected Wisconsin governor (opens Wisconsin State Journal 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.
Wisconsin State Journal reported it asLiberal, conservative counties both see big jump in early in-person voting (opens Wisconsin State Journal in a new tab)
On Tuesday, Americans vote in the 2026 midterms that will decide whether Republicans keep their narrow House majority and Senate seats. Trump faces low approval ratings, a war with Iran and a costly cost‑of‑living squeeze, while polls show 54% of his base would back him even if he loses.
Wisconsin State Journal reported it asLiberal, conservative counties both see big jump in early in-person voting (opens Wisconsin State Journal in a new tab)
The Democratic National Committee has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, alleging that taxpayer-funded television advertisements promoting the president are illegal government propaganda. The ads have cost more than $12 million.
Wisconsin State Journal reported it asWisconsin Democrats sue Trump over taxpayer-funded ads (opens Wisconsin State Journal in a new tab)
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced Ukraine's intention to target Russian oil refineries in retaliation for Moscow's alleged new doctrine of striking civilian infrastructure. He stated Ukraine would not target civilians but would respond to attacks on energy facilities.
Wisconsin State Journal reported it asUkraine will hit Russian refineries in response to Moscow's 'new doctrine' of airstrikes, Zelenskiy says (opens Wisconsin State Journal in a new tab)
A federal judge in Rhode Island has permanently blocked a Trump administration directive that would have barred certain immigrants from accessing federal programs. The directive, issued in July 2025, was challenged by 20 states and the District of Columbia.
Wisconsin State Journal reported it asWisconsin immigrants can keep using clinics, Head Start and adult education, judge rules (opens Wisconsin State Journal in a new tab)
President Donald Trump vetoed CNN, Politico, and MS NOW, impacting audiovisual coverage of his UN trip. In response, CBS, NBC, ABC, and Fox halted their joint television coverage of Trump, citing solidarity with the banned outlets.
Wisconsin State Journal reported it asWhite House press pool turns off Donald Trump in Phil Hands cartoon (opens Wisconsin State Journal in a new tab)
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro announced new permit and tax exemption rules for data centres, requiring full electricity cost payment and water use limits. Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered regulators to prevent higher electricity bills from data centres and pledged to end a billion-dollar annual tax break. Both moves follow rising public opposition to the energy-intensive facilities.
Wisconsin State Journal reported it asDavid Crowley, Tom Tiffany navigate tightrope on data centers (opens Wisconsin State Journal in a new tab)
Tyler Herro, a Milwaukee-area native, has returned to his hometown team after the Bucks acquired him in a trade that sent Giannis Antetokounmpo to the Miami Heat. Herro, who has one year left on his contract, said he is not focused on his free agency after the 2026-27 season and is eager to help the Bucks rebuild after a 32-50 season in 2025-26.
Wisconsin State Journal reported it asNew Bucks guard opens up on trade, coming back home (opens Wisconsin State Journal in a new tab)
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez declined to endorse Francesca Hong, a democratic socialist running in Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary, instead advising voters to judge candidates on their present stances. Hong’s past comments on policing and Thanksgiving have drawn criticism, while right-rated outlets highlighted the lack of endorsements from Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders.
Wisconsin State Journal reported it asBernie Sanders doesn't plan to endorse Francesca Hong in Wisconsin governor race (opens Wisconsin State Journal 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
- Lee EnterprisesMedia Conglomeratedirect owner
Where it publishes from
- Publishes from
- Madison, Dane County, Wisconsin, United States
- Official site
- madison.com
- Seen publishing on
- madison.com
- Access
- Paywalled
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
- 10
- Reports listed
- 10
- We could read
- 0
- First seen
- 7 August 2026
10 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. Wisconsin State Journal is rated centre, so there is no side for it to be counted against and we publish no figure here.
Across the 10 stories of ours where at least three of the reports we listed carried a time, we logged no report earlier than Wisconsin State Journal’s on 1 of them. Overall it filed a median of 2 days after the earliest report we logged.
Measured 8 November 2026. Last seen in a coverage list 8 November 2026. Ratings pulled 10 October 2026.
Other outlets rated the same way
Publishers carrying the same published leaning as Wisconsin State Journal, 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 Wisconsin State Journal 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.