Blindspot Report
Week of July 28 - August 3
The weekly Blindspot Report from Ground News puts a spotlight on news that publications from one side of the political spectrum or the other had little to no reporting on.
If your politics lean left, you likely didn't hear that 36 large US cities have had a double-digit increase in homicides in 2020. And if your politics bend to the right, you probably didn’t hear that there is a new watchdog complaint against the Trump campaign for breaking campaign finance rules to the tune of $170M.
This Week's Blindspots
Blindspot for the Left: Thirty-six of 50 largest cities experience double-digit rise in homicides in 2020 Nearly three-fourths of the top 50 largest cities in the United States have experienced a double-digit rise in homicides so far this year. Coverage Distribution: 0% Left 14% Right 86%  
Blindspot for the Right: Complaint Says Trump Campaign Payments Broke Rules The Campaign Legal Center, a campaign finance watchdog, in a complaint alleges that the Trump campaign and an authorized joint financing committee broke the law by sending close to $170 million to firms without disclosing their specific expenditures to the public. Coverage Distribution: 4% Right Left 60% Center 36% 4  
Blindspot for the Left: JK Rowling ad removed from Edinburgh station for being 'political' An ad in support of author JK Rowling has been removed from a train station in Edinburgh for reportedly being too "political" and potentially offensive. Network Rail confirmed that the advertisement had been taken down from Edinburgh Waverley because it breached its policy by promoting a political viewpoint. A company source told The Times that the words were harmless, but the "context" was likely to cause offence. Coverage Distribution: 17% Left 17% Right 83%  
Blindspot for the Right: Pro-Trump youth group TPUSA deleted a tweet mocking protective masks after its co-founder died with the coronavirus The tweet shared a meme mocking "leftists" for advocating protective masks, and was sent the same day Bill Montgomery's death was announced. Coverage Distribution: 0% Right Left 83% 17%  
Blindspot for the Left: U.N. staffer who complained of sexual assault appeals dismissal - documents By Emma Farge GENEVA - A policy adviser fired by the U.N. agency fighting AIDS is appealing her dismissal for misconduct, saying she was actually sacked for reporting that she had been sexually assaulted by a senior colleague, her appeal documents show. Martina Brostrom, from Sweden, was fired for sexual and financial misconduct in December. Her appeal, which she said was sent in April Coverage Distribution: 0% Left Center 40% Right 60%  
Blindspot for the Right: Regina-born NHL player Matt Dumba becomes first player to kneel for U.S. anthem Minnesota Wild defenceman Matt Dumba became the first NHL player to kneel for a national anthem during the league's restart on Saturday. Coverage Distribution: 22% Right Left 56% 22% 22%  
Split Reporting
Highlighting discrepancies between the reporting on stories across different news outlets. This week's story:
Donald Trump calls for possible delay to 2020 US Presidential Election
What do the different news outlets focus on when reporting on this story?
MSNBC (USA):
Trump
suggests delaying election
The Hindu (India):
Donald Trump suggests postponing Election Day
as U.S. economy shows record contraction
France24 (France):
Trump tweets about delaying US election
over unsubstantiated mail-in vote fears
Otago Daily Times (New Zealand):
Trump floats election delay,
lawmakers in both parties reject idea
GMA Filipino News (Philippines):
Trailing in polls,
Trump suggests delaying US presidential election
Donald Trump via Twitter:
With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA.
Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???
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Methodology
Ground News processes over 30,000 news articles each day. Articles from different news outlets covering the same news event are merged into a single story so subscribers can get all the perspectives in one view. Each article is labeled one of seven bias ratings (Far Left, Left, Leans Left, Center, Leans Right, Right, Far Right) based on the average bias rating of the publishing news outlet. All news outlet bias ratings are originally sourced from three non-profit news monitoring agencies (AllSides, Media Bias Fact Check, Ad Fontes Media).
The Blindspot Report is generated by evaluating the mean and standard deviation of the aggregate bias ratings of the week's top 100 (most covered and most read) stories. News stories with the greatest mean score (many more Right outlets than Left or vice versa) or the highest standard deviation of bias ratings (more coverage on fringes than Center) are selected for the Report.
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