the daily mail is the uk’s largest newspaper by circulation and an internationally popular online tabloid and source of information. however, many criticize the document as inaccurate and guilty of spreading disinformation, often with a right-wing bias. the site has also been criticized for a variety of controversies, including accusations of homophobia, racism, and sexism. so how reliable is daily mail?
How objective is the daily mail?
the factual’s news rating algorithm analyzes more than 10,000 articles a day based on four metrics: author experience, publication history, writing tone, and cited sources and citations. these metrics are combined to produce a single percentage score, what we call a factual rating, that indicates the overall quality of an article. (see our how it works page for more information). For this study, we analyzed 1,000 articles each from 245 major news sources.
Over a data set of 1,000 articles, the daily mail had an average factual rating of 39.7%. this is well below the 61.9% average for the 240 news sources we analyzed. this puts the site in the top percentile of our data set – it had the third lowest score of any news source.
A number of factors contribute to these low scores. articles typically link only to other daily mail articles, leading to low scores for evidence cited; headlines and copy are generally highly opinionated or sensational; and author experience is low, given the wide range of new and unrecognized authors.
Like other sites, Daily Mail article scores varied widely based on factors such as author experience and evidence cited. for example, some scored above 70%, while others scored well below 50%.
How stubborn is the daily mail?
facts measure how opinionated an article is using a sophisticated natural language processing algorithm, producing a score we call writing tone. For this metric, the algorithm looks for signs of subjective comments (eg, first-person pronouns, unnecessary adverbs) as well as the emotional nature of the selected words, and sees how frequent they are for a given length of text. text that is less opinionated gets higher ratings, with “0” being the most opinionated and “1” being the most neutral.
Daily mail had an average typing tone score of 0.38, placing it in the 18th percentile in our data set. this suggests that articles in the daily mail are often very opinionated. this compares with an average writing tone score of 0.54 for the 240 news sources.
what is the political bias of the daily mail?
the factual classifies news sites by political bias as either left, moderate left, centrist, moderate right, or right wing. This rating is based on third-party assessments from media bias organizations such as Allsides and Media Bias/Fact Check. Based on these data, the factual assigns a “correct” bias to the daily mail.
allsides, a company that tracks the bias of media organizations based on community feedback and independent research, classifies daily mail with a “correct” bias. For example, in a survey of 19,190 users from across the political spectrum, Allsides found that a slight majority of people agreed that the tabloid had a “right-leaning” bias. those not in this majority gave the Daily Mail an average rating between a “leaning to the right” and a “right” bias rating. an August 2021 review by an allsides editor found the site to be “sensationalist, tabloid-leaning, often choosing to highlight individual stories that provoke shock or intense emotion.”
Meanwhile, media bias/fact check (mbfc), another media bias organization, calls the daily mail “skewed to the right and questionable.” mbfc claims that the information used is poorly sourced and often hyperlinked to its own website. the site has failed numerous fact checks, usually linked to deliberate attempts to spread fake news, implying that the publication seeks to profit from deception or misinformation. Some complementary headlines provided by MBFC, such as “Woman, 63, ‘Gets Pregnant in Mouth’ with Squid After Eating Calamari” reveals the often sensational and emotionally charged wording in a misleading headline. other articles stand out as totally unfounded, such as “did a white house intern make the ‘white power’ hand gesture?”
Who does the daily mail belong to?
Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT), the parent company of the Daily Mail, was founded in 1896 by Harold Sidney Harmsworth. Harmsworth’s great-grandson, Lord Jonathan Harmsworth, inherited the media empire and currently serves as chairman and majority shareholder of dmgt. Lord Rothermere has led the business through a major technological shift as print newspapers have switched to digital platforms. In 2020, The Daily Mail overtook Rupert Murdoch’s The Sun as the UK’s best-selling newspaper.
ownership of the daily mail supports the uk’s conservative party and the newspaper is a strong supporter of brexit. For example, according to a Reuters article, the Daily Mail brazenly labeled the judges who ruled against the Brexit decision as “enemies of the people.” such actions reveal how site ownership can affect prospects for daily mail articles.
why is it important?
News articles are likely to be biased because all authors have some frame of reference within which they describe a story. political bias ratings are helpful in understanding this framework. however, it can be more beneficial to know how factual an article is based on quantifiable metrics that can be seen throughout the media ecosystem, such as evidence cited, author experience, and tone of writing. this is what the facts prove.
reading multiple highly rated articles from across the political spectrum helps counter the bias of any news source or story. To get the most factual news of the day delivered to your inbox every morning, sign up for our daily newsletter.