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The Epoch Times Bias Rated Between Center and Lean Right in Aug. 2020 Blind Bias Survey
On average, people from across the political spectrum rated the bias of The Epoch Times as between Center and Lean Right in our Aug. 2020 Blind Bias Survey, though closer to Center. Pluralities across all groups of survey respondents — conservatives, centrists and liberals alike — rated The Epoch Times as Center.

On average, people who self-reported a Center or Lean Right bias rated The Epoch Times as Center, while people who rated their own bias as Lean Left, Left, or Right on average found it to be just between Lean Right and Center.

This discrepancy of rating from the survey results (Center-Lean Right) and the AllSides Media Bias Rating of The Epoch Times at the time (Right) prompted the team to conduct a full Editorial Review, which ultimately resulted in us moving The Epoch Times from a Right to a Lean Right bias rating in Aug. 2020.



65% of all survey respondents rated The Epoch Times as Center. (Normalized data).



Pluralities across all groups of survey respondents rated The Epoch Times as Center. On average, people who self-reported a Center or Lean Right bias rated The Epoch Times as Center, while people who rated their own bias as Lean Left, Left, or Right on average found The Epoch Times to be just between Lean Right and Center.


The Epoch Times Bias Rated Lean Right in Aug. 2020 Editorial Review
An AllSides Editorial Review of The Epoch Times took place on August 27, 2020 as the result of seeing the data from the Aug. 2020 Blind Bias Survey. AllSides concluded The Epoch Times’s Media Bias Rating is Lean Right.

An Editorial Review is when the AllSides team, which includes an equal number of people from the Left, Center and Right of the political spectrum, reviews the works of a source, looks for common types of media bias, and comes to a general consensus on its bias. For the most part, the AllSides team, which includes people across the political spectrum, concluded that the Epoch Times has a Lean Right bias, mostly revealed via story choice.

AllSides looked at The Epoch Times’ content over six months. We found the newspaper to be absent many common types of media bias.


Aug. 2020 Editorial Review: The Epoch Times Reporting Absent Many Types of Bias
The Epoch Times did several things right in its reporting. Multiple AllSides panelists noted that the publication did a good job of citing multiple sources across the political spectrum and of using full quotes in its reporting — not snippets or phrases taken out of context. The publication did not display common types of media bias such as spin, sensationalism, opinion presented as fact, unsubstantiated claims, flawed logic, or omission of source attribution. In today’s increasingly polarized media landscape, the panel agreed it was good to see Epoch Times journalists presenting full quotes from both sides of the aisle in order to present a fair and balanced story.

One team member noted The Epoch Times always used the word “said” or “told reporters,” and avoided common spin words and phrases that confer judgement upon the speaker, such as, “admitted,” “tirade,” “refused to say,” “conceded,” or “bragged.” Much of The Epoch Times’ reporting was balanced; its right bias was mostly displayed via story choice.


Aug. 2020 Editorial Review: Lean Right Story Choice
Members of the AllSides team from the Center, Left and Right found that The Epoch Times had a slight conservative lean in its story choice.

The publication typically covered stories generally of interest to people on the right and showed conservatives in a positive light, and covered stories that show the left in a more negative light.

The Epoch Times is somewhat transparent about its values and bias: its tagline is “truth and tradition,” and traditional ideals are typically associated with conservatives. Example: While coverage of President Trump focused around Trump's accomplishments, coverage of Former Vice President Biden focused on a communist party leader endorsing him.


Anti-Chinese Communist Party Bias
The AllSides panel noted that The Epoch Times had a clear anti-Chinese Communist Party and anti-communist bias. It’s worth noting the anti-Chinese Communist Party bias is linked to The Epoch Times’ history. The publication was founded in 2000 by John Tang, who was affiliated with the Falun Gong religious movement, which has been heavily persecuted in China. Tang founded the website as a response to the persecution of the religious group within mainland China.

The Epoch Times labeled the COVID-19 coronavirus as the “CCP virus,” or “Chinese Communist Party virus,” and in March 2020 its editorial board wrote an op-ed explaining the decision and urging other publications to join them. The Epoch Times said it chose this name to “distinguish the victims from the victimizer. The people of Wuhan and of China are the victims of the CCP’s arrogance and incompetence, expressed in this viral pandemic.” The editorial board continued:

“...the CCP virus reminds the people of the world that the source of the virus is itself evil. This is a communist virus, and with the name CCP virus, The Epoch Times reminds the world of the cure: ending the CCP.” Most newsrooms have consistently referred to the virus as COVID-19 or coronavirus. The Epoch Times’ break from this in favor of “CCP virus”shows a clear focus on and critique of Chinese communism, as well as countries with close ties to the nation, which amounts to a viewpoint and a bias.
Some AllSides team members noted that being critical of China is not necessarily a liberal or conservative position — people on either side may be critical of China. However, it can also be argued that an anti-Chinese communist bias is becoming a view typically associated with conservatives or traditionalists. While the website covers news from all across the world, AllSides team members noticed a clear focus on China, with “China” being a subsection on The Times’ homepage. One team member on the Left noted seeing advertisements for a documentary about how the Chinese Communist Party censored Coronavirus coverage, as well as a petition on The Epoch Times’ homepage to reject the communist party.

In sum, The Epoch Times bias leaned to the right as of Aug. 2020, yet was absent many types of media bias.


Past AllSides Media Bias Ratings™ of The Epoch Times and Community Feedback
In July 2019, AllSides gave an initial bias rating for The Epoch Times as Lean Right, following an independent review by an AllSides staffer. Following an editorial review in Aug. 2019, AllSides rated The Epoch Times as Right. As of early August 2020, 1,482 AllSides community members who voted in disagreement with our Right rating on average indicated they saw The Epoch Times as Lean Right.


August 2019 Editorial Review: The Epoch Times Rated Right
On August 28, 2019, AllSides conducted an Editorial Review of The Epoch Times. An Editorial Review is when the AllSides expert panel — which includes people from across the political spectrum — reviews the works of a source and comes to a general consensus on its bias. These reviews always include a diversity of individuals covering the range of bias from left to right. The team determined The Epoch Times had a Right media bias.

The AllSides team found The Epoch Times was clearly critical of left-wing ideas and policies such as open borders, the sexual revolution, abortion, and multiculturalism on its news and opinion pages. It wrote favorably about freedom of speech, gun rights, immigration control, and other topics. It was openly critical of the Chinese Communist Party.

During the Aug. 2019 Editorial Review, The AllSides team found The Epoch Times did not employ much spin, another type of media bias, as evidenced by the paper providing full coverage of Democratic policies and proposals and quoting people on the left in full in its reporting. For example, an article about 2020 presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke's comments on abortion included the politician's comments in full, not phrases or short snippets. Likewise, AllSides noted that The Epoch Times often quoted President Trump in full and with accuracy, devoting multiple paragraphs to feature his comments in their entirety. This was in stark contrast to many U.S. media outlets, which quoted only small portions or phrases of politicians' comments, in order to spin the story, often in a misleading way.

AllSides found The Epoch Times sometimes framed stories with right viewpoints — for example, in an article detailing the Southern Poverty Law Center's lawsuit over immigrant detentions, The Epoch Times led the story with a few paragraphs highlighting right criticisms of the SPLC, without attributing the criticisms to a specific group or individual (omission of source attribution).
My Website: https://www.allsides.com/news-source/epoch-times-media-bias