Apple News busted for political bias, Tim Cook gets warning from FTC chairman

Apple news liberal bias during January 2026.

More than 140 million Americans pull out their iPhones each day and use Apple News, the tech giant's curated news aggregation app that comes pre-loaded on Apple devices, but they're only getting half the story -- if that -- according to the findings of a new study by the Media Research Center (MRC), a conservative watchdog group. 

During the month of January, MRC analyzed a total of 620 stories featured by the Apple News editorial team during the morning editions, one of the app's most highly-trafficked dayparts, according to MRC managing editor Brittany Hughes. Of those 620 stories, a total of zero were published by a conservative leaning news outlet. Meanwhile, 440 stories featured were published by left-leaning news outlets, and 180 were published by news outlets considered to be centrist. 

No stories from Fox News were featured, and none from The New York Post were shown to Apple News readers. MRC found that Apple News had gone 96 consecutive days, at least, without featuring a story from a conservative-leaning news outlet. The last time Apple News featured a story from a conservative news source? Way back in November. The story featured was from The Telegraph and was about the civil war in Sudan, a topic most Americans have little interest in. 

The MRC study caught the attention of Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Andrew Ferguson, who sent a letter this week to Apple CEO Tim Cook warning that the tech giant may be in violation of consumer protection laws. Ferguson called on Cook to “conduct a comprehensive review of Apple’s terms of service and ensure that Apple News’ curation of articles is consistent with those terms and representations made to consumers and, if it is not, to take corrective action swiftly.” Read Ferguson's full letter to Cook here. 

And as Brittany Hughes, the MRC managing editor put it, if you ever wonder why the people in your life sound "like an MSNBC bobblehead," now you know. Watch more from Hughes on the study below.