About AllSides

AllSides

AllSides is a media bias rating company based in San Jose, California, that estimates the perceived political bias of online news outlets and presents news from across the political spectrum side by side. Founded in 2012 by John Gable — a former Republican political aide turned Netscape and Check Point executive — with co-founder Scott McDonald and later Joan Blades, AllSides rates more than 1,400 media outlets and writers on a five-point scale from left to right. Operating as a public benefit corporation, the company combines human reviewers, blind user surveys, and editorial oversight to produce its ratings, which power its signature feature: showing the same story as covered by left, center, and right sources. With several million monthly users, programs like AllSides for Schools, and a mission to expose media bias and burst filter bubbles, AllSides has become one of the most referenced authorities on media bias in America.

Founding: A Netscape Veteran's Concern

AllSides was founded in 2012 by John Gable, who had been a Republican political aide — working for Mitch McConnell and George H.W. Bush in the 1980s — before becoming an early employee at Netscape, the pioneering web browser company, and later a manager at the cybersecurity firm Check Point. At Check Point, Gable met software developer Scott McDonald, who became his co-founder. Watching the trajectory of the internet they had helped build, Gable felt "our son went off the rails": "Search engines, algorithms, social media: our thinking has been manipulated horribly." AllSides was conceived as a "disrupter" — "bringing power back to regular people to think for themselves." In 2016, activist Joan Blades — co-founder of MoveOn.org, who self-identifies as left-leaning — joined the effort, deliberately completing a founding team spanning the political spectrum: Gable rating as lean right, McDonald as center, Blades as left.

The Rating System: Five Points, Human Judgment

AllSides rates online written news sources on a left-right scale grouped into five categories: left, lean left, center, lean right, and right. The methodology combines several inputs: unpaid volunteer editors conduct crowd-sourced reviews, overseen by two staff members holding different political biases; these are augmented by editorial reviews from staff and blind user surveys. AllSides staff self-report their own political leanings as a transparency measure. The company acknowledges that the five-point scale sacrifices precision for simplicity, but argues that the simplicity is what makes the ratings usable for ordinary readers. As of 2026, the system covers more than 1,400 media outlets and individual writers — the most comprehensive bias-rating database of its kind.

Side-by-Side News: Escaping the Filter Bubble

AllSides' signature product is its presentation of the same news story from left, center, and right sources, displayed side by side. This format lets readers see how framing, sourcing, language choice, and emphasis shape narratives across the spectrum — making media bias visible rather than theoretical. The company's mission, as Gable stated in 2012, is to "show all the news from the left, center and right" and expose readers to perspectives outside their filter bubbles. The site also publishes media bias charts ranking popular sources, political explainers, and bias analysis tools. For readers unsure who to trust, AllSides offers a structured way to compare coverage and think critically about what they read.

AllSides for Schools and Media Literacy

In 2016, AllSides partnered with Joan Blades to launch AllSides for Schools, a classroom program teaching media literacy through bias awareness. The program gives teachers and students tools to identify bias, compare coverage across the spectrum, and discuss controversial issues constructively. The company has also developed Mismatch, a platform connecting users who differ politically and geographically for structured dialogue, and Biasly, a media analytics platform providing real-time, article-level bias and reliability ratings. Additional services include political diversity workshops, roundtables for groups from different backgrounds, and certifications for newsrooms — extending the bias-awareness mission from individual readers to institutions.

Business Model: Public Benefit Corporation

AllSides operates as a public benefit corporation — a for-profit entity with a stated public mission — funded through paid memberships, one-time donations, media literacy training, and online advertising. In 2024, the company launched an equity crowdfunding campaign via WeFunder, expanding ownership to include investors across the political spectrum. As of 2025, the company claimed several million monthly users but was not yet profitable — a common profile for mission-driven media startups. The company has also faced an unusual competitive challenge: Ground News reportedly uses AllSides' bias ratings without permission or payment, underscoring both the value of the ratings and the difficulty of defending the intellectual property.

Technology: AllStances and the AI Question

As of 2025, AllSides was developing AllStances, an AI tool designed to automate aspects of bias detection — a potential scaling lever for a methodology currently dependent on human reviewers. The move reflects the broader question facing media-rating organizations: whether artificial intelligence can replicate the nuance and trust that human judgment provides. AllSides' current approach deliberately centers human reviewers with diverse political perspectives, on the theory that bias detection requires the very ideological diversity the company promotes. Whether AI can preserve that diversity of judgment remains to be seen — but the development of AllStances signals that AllSides is preparing for a future where bias ratings must scale far beyond what volunteers can provide.

Criticism and Influence

AllSides' ratings have become a reference point in American media discourse — cited by journalists, educators, and platforms seeking to characterize outlets' political leanings. The company's influence brings scrutiny: critics question whether any bias rating can be truly neutral, whether the five-point scale oversimplifies complex editorial realities, and whether the company's own leanings affect its judgments. AllSides responds with transparency about its methods and the political diversity of its team. A Columbia Journalism Review profile captured the company's utopian ambition: to heal America's "scarred and atomized" media landscape by helping readers understand worldviews different from their own. Whether that ambition is achievable, AllSides has undeniably made media bias a mainstream conversation.

Workshops, Roundtables, and Certifications

Beyond its ratings and side-by-side news, AllSides extends its mission through workshops and roundtables for groups from different political backgrounds, political diversity training, and certifications for newsrooms. These institutional services reflect the company's ambition: not just to help individual readers escape filter bubbles, but to change how organizations handle political difference. The AllSides for Schools program brings bias-awareness tools into classrooms; the Mismatch platform connects users across political and geographic divides for structured dialogue. Together, these programs make AllSides more than a ratings site — it's an infrastructure for the difficult conversations that polarized America needs to have.

Why AllSides' Model Matters

AllSides matters because it treats media bias as a solvable design problem rather than an inevitable condition. The five-point rating system, the side-by-side news feeds, the Mismatch dialogues, the school programs — each is an attempt to engineer exposure to difference. Critics argue the model legitimizes false equivalence; supporters counter that acknowledging perspective is the precondition for trust. Whatever the verdict, AllSides has built something rare: a media company whose product is not content but context — the tools for readers to see how the same facts become different stories.

AllSides Today

Today, AllSides continues to operate from San Jose under CEO John Gable — rating media bias, presenting side-by-side news, and building media literacy tools for schools and the public. From a Netscape veteran's concern about the internet's trajectory to a public benefit corporation serving millions, AllSides has built the most comprehensive bias-rating operation in American media. Its official website is https://www.allsides.com.