Frequently Asked Questions

What about international sources?Laurie Swoboda2020-04-29T01:29:31+00:00

What about international sources?

The current version of the chart is a US-centric version, so it has mostly US based sources. To the extent there are some international sources, (i.e., BBC, Al Jazeera, The Economist, etc.), we rate those based on their US-facing coverage, rather than the entirety of their coverage.

We do plan to expand to international versions in the future. By necessity, any version of the chart has to be bound by some geography, such as by country or region, because left-right politics differ around the world. What’s left and right in the US is different from what is left-right in France or Saudi Arabia. Therefore, we don’t have Canadian or many European sources on the US-centric chart.

When we do come out with international versions of the chart, they will be made using analysts with political knowledge and include sources from the particular region for which the version of the chart is made.

How is Ad Fontes Media funded?Laurie Swoboda2020-04-29T01:32:32+00:00

How is Ad Fontes Media funded?

Ad Fontes Media funding comes primarily from sales of products and services.

Ad Fontes Media is a Public Benefit Corporation in Colorado, which means it is a for-profit corporation with a stated public benefit mission. That mission is “to make news consumers smarter and news media better.”

The startup company, which was founded in February of 2018, was initially self-funded by its Founder and CEO, Vanessa Otero, who is a patent attorney in Westminster, CO. The company’s initial products included digital licenses and poster prints of the Media Bias Chart®. Ad Fontes Media can and does accept individual donations through its, but they are not tax deductible.

From September to November 2018, the company ran a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo and raised approximately $32,000 from 508 individual backers. This funding was used to hire a team of part-time analysts to conduct our first Multi-Analyst Ratings Project, build our database, and build out our Interactive Media Bias Chart.

Since August 2019, Ad Fontes Media has expanded its products and services to include the following:

Individual memberships that provide updated licensed versions of the Media Bias Chart and other benefits
An educational news literacy software platform called CART, available via subscription
News rating data via API
Media Bias Chart merchandise such as mugs, t-shirts, stickers, and posters.

Ad Fontes Media does not sell ads on its website. Ad Fontes Media currently has no organizational donors or outside investors; however, Ad Fontes Media may seek such funding to grow in the future and will disclose any such funding sources on this site.

What is your methodology for rating these sources?Laurie Swoboda2020-04-29T02:04:23+00:00

What is your methodology for rating these sources?

Our full methodology explanation can be found at our Methodology Page and in this White Paper.

What about comedy and satire?Laurie Swoboda2020-04-29T01:37:48+00:00

What about comedy and satire?

We currently do not rate comedy and satire sources because the sarcasm adds such different linguistic factors, and the shows are in such a different format that each of those considerations require some different dimensions, or at least different categories in the vertical taxonomy. Many current satire and comedy shows do skew liberal or are hyper-partisan liberal, as most observers would likely agree. We may add them in the future, though.