Blindspot Report
Week of Jan 27 - Feb 2
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 bend to the left, you probably didn’t hear that Google helped Robinhood restore its app's rating after disgruntled users wrote reviews against the app's block on GameStop stock trades. And if your politics lean right, you likely didn't hear the bankruptcy of Harvey Weinstein's company will fund a court-ordered $17M settlement fund for the women who sued Weinstein.
This Week's Blindspots
Blindspot for the Left: Google reportedly scraps thousands of negative Robinhood reviews Internet giant Google has reportedly been removing negative reviews of the Robinhood app. Following the stop of trades of GameStop, AMC, and others, disgruntled Robinhood users organized campaigns to give the app a one-star review on Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store — and succeeded in review-bombing it all the way down to a one-star rating — the company has now deleted enough reviews to bring it back up to nearly four stars. Coverage Distribution: 20% Left 20% 15% Right 65%  
Blindspot for the Right: $17M victim's settlement fund established from Weinstein Co. bankruptcy A Delaware bankruptcy judge ruled to create a $17 million fund to compensate women who sued convicted Hollywood sex offender Harvey Weinstein after the sale of assets of the Weinstein Company. Coverage Distribution: 0% Right Left 44% Center 56%  
Blindspot for the Left: NYTimes faces backlash for labeling Biden 'most religiously observant' president in 50 years Conservatives ripped The New York Times for describing President Biden as "perhaps the most religiously observant commander in chief in half a century." Pundits pointed out that former presidents Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush were also known for their outspoken faith. Coverage Distribution: 0% Left Right 100%  
Blindspot for the Right: Tibetan culture advocate released after 5-year prison term A Tibetan shopkeeper convicted of inciting separatism based on his comments in a New York Times documentary was released Friday after serving a five-year prison sentence, advocacy groups said. Tashi Wangchuk’s release was reported by the writers group PEN America and the International Campaign for Tibet. There was no official comment and his lawyer did not answer calls to his cellphone. It is unclear if Wangchuk is "fully free". Photo: AP Coverage Distribution: 8% Right Left 50% Center 42% 8%  
Blindspot for the Left: Israel sees 6-month Iran nuclear breakout, longer than Blinken projection Israel's energy minister said on Tuesday it would take Iran around six months to produce enough fissile material for a single nuclear weapon, a timeline almost twice as long as that anticipated by a senior member of the Biden administration. Israel is wary of the Biden administration's intent to reenter the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal and has long opposed the agreement. Coverage Distribution: 17% Left 17% 16% Right 67%  
Blindspot for the Right: Twitter blocks dozens of accounts on India's demand amid farm protests Twitter blocked dozens of accounts in India on Monday, including that of a leading newsmagazine, on the demand of the government on grounds that the users were posting content aiming to incite violence. The move by the social media giant came in the wake of protests that took a violent turn last week. Tens of thousands of farmers have camped on the outskirts of New Delhi for more than two months, demanding the withdrawal of new agricultural laws that they say benefit private buyers at the expense of farmers. Coverage Distribution: 11% Right Left 67% 22% 11%  
Something new we'd like to recommend this week :
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Split Reporting
Highlighting discrepancies between the reporting on stories across different news outlets. This week's story:
U.S. promises undocumented migrants equal access to COVID-19 vaccines
What do the different news outlets focus on when reporting on this story?
Associated Press:
US
won't make immigration arrests
at virus vaccination sites
CNN:
DHS says undocumented immigrants
should get coronavirus vaccines
The Daily Wire:
Biden’s Homeland Security Department:
Illegal Immigrants Should Get Vaccine
Fox News:
ICE won't conduct
enforcement operations at or near
COVID vaccine distribution sites
The Gateway Pundit:
America Last:
Joe Biden to Open Special COVID Vaccination Sites for Illegal Aliens
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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 independent 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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