Is The Sun a reliable source?
This is how independent third parties assess the credibility and media bias of this source.
OVERALL RATING:24 +, 62 -
The Sun scores a total of 24 Plus Points and 62 Minus Points in our evaluation of journalistic quality.
This corresponds to a score of 30* resp. the grade D− (poor).
*: (24 + 5 BP) * 100 / (24 + 5 BP + 62 + 5 BP)
This corresponds to a score of 30* resp. the grade D− (poor).
| Grade | Score | |
|---|---|---|
| very good | A+ | > 89 |
| A | 89 - 84 | |
| A− | 83 - 79 | |
| good | B+ | 78 - 74 |
| B | 73 - 67 | |
| B− | 66 - 62 | |
| satisfactory | C+ | 61 - 56 |
| C | 55 - 49 | |
| C− | 48 - 44 | |
| sufficient | D+ | 43 - 39 |
| D | 38 - 32 | |
| poor | D− | 31 - 26 |
| insufficient | F | < 26 |
Grade composition
The overall rating is made up of the following individual ratings from independent third parties:
Ad Fontes Media11 +, 9 -
Ad Fontes Media, Inc. is a media watchdog organization based in Colorado that is best known for its Media Bias Chart, which ranks media sources based on political bias and reliability. We combine their ratings of individual articles and episodes to create a weighted average, with low-rated items increasingly weighted higher.
- "Low"
Reliability (Weighted Average)
- "Low Bias"
Bias (Weighted Average)
Media Bias/Fact Check6 +, 14 -
Media Bias/Fact Check (MBFC) is an American fact-checking website founded in 2015. It uses a 0-10 scale to rate sites on two areas: bias and factual accuracy. A source rated by MBFC with minimal bias gets 10 plus points. Maximum bias gets 10 minus points. The same principle applies to factual accuracy.
- "Right"
Bias Rating
- "Mixed"
Factual Reporting
Press Council Rulings13 -
Press councils are national institutions of media self-regulation. Press councils have their own defined press code. Reprimands are issued in the event of a violation of the press code (e.g. for truthfulness, diligence, sensationalism, separation of advertising and editorial, personal rights). For each reprimand issued by a national press council, a source receives one minus point.
- "00575-22 Simon v thesun.co.uk"
- "01741-20 A man v thesun.co.uk"
- "02114-22 Bird v thesun.co.uk"
- "02471-20 Ahmed v thesun.co.uk"
- "02577-20 West Midlands Ambulance Service v thesun.co.uk"
- "02607-21 Various v thesun.co.uk"
- "02819-18 Sivier v thesun.co.uk"
- "02975-21 Askey v thesun.co.uk"
- "05157-19 Bashagha v thesun.co.uk"
- "05991-18 Versi v thesun.co.uk"
- "09537-19 The Sunbed Association v thesun.co.uk"
- "09740-21 Woodcock v thesun.co.uk"
- "11011-20 Raja v thesun.co.uk"
IPSO (UK)
Fact Checkers11 -
We primarily use fact-checkers affiliated with the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN). We have linked to the International Fact-Checking Network fact-checkers' code of principles in the headline. For each failed fact-checker there is one minus point.
- "Crime in London has risen less than the rest of England since 2016 – Full Fact"
- "Be wary of claims Covid-19 deaths “soar” on Tuesdays – Full Fact"
- "The risk of vaccination does not rise when Covid-19 becomes scarcer – Full Fact"
- "These aren’t satellite images and they don’t show evidence of mass cremations in Wuhan – Full Fact"
- "Women who have had 10 or more sexual partners do not double their risk of getting cancer – Full Fact"
- "Sun wrong to claim lockdown doubled suicide rates – Full Fact"
- "Research on long term effects of childhood infections misreported – Full Fact"
- "A very small share of malnutrition cases in hospital are in children – Full Fact"
- "Study didn’t show ‘hairdressers have a higher cancer risk because of chemicals at work’ – Full Fact"
- "Only a third of people first heard of the term ‘cancel culture’ in the past year – Full Fact"
- "COVID lab-leak theory: ‘rare’ genetic sequence doesn’t mean the virus was engineered"
Studies10 -
Most scientific publications, though not all, rely on some form of peer review or editorial review to qualify texts for publication. Sources mentioned in studies which rate media quality and/or reliability receive between 10 plus and 10 minus points.
- "The Sun 3.38/10 Points (Average from Accuracy: 3/10 Points + 7 more quality-related ratings)"
European Media Systems Survey 2013
Wikipedia1 +, 5 -
Wikipedia’s reliability was frequently criticized in the 2000s. However, various studies and media reports have noted improvements over time, and in the late 2010s and early 2020s, it was more often praised.
In the scoring model, any positive mention of a source’s credibility or quality in a Wikipedia extract receives a plus point—while negative mentions are treated as minus points.
- "The Sun is a British tabloid newspaper,"
English-speaking
Journalism Awards6 +
Journalism prizes are awards for excellent journalistic work in the period covered by the call for entries, which is usually one or two years. Sources receive one plus point for each journalistic award won that we track. We currently track up to three prestigious awards per country.
- "Popular Journalism: Dan Jones (The Sun): The investigation revealed Age UK's poor-value energy and insurance deals for pensioners and achieved significant consumer impact."
- "Arts and Entertainment: Dan Wootton (The Sun): His high-impact showbiz interviews addressed addiction, grief and cancer while demonstrating exceptional access and trust."
- "Investigation of the Year: Scarlet Howes, Mike Hamilton, Alex West, Victoria Newton, James Slack (The Sun): Their investigation unmasked Huw Edwards, exposed abuse of power and revealed the BBC’s failure to act, using rigorous and sensitive reporting."
- "Scoop of the Year: The Sun: The paper’s sensitive series exposed Huw Edwards’s alleged crimes and the BBC’s failures, overcoming significant resistance to publish a major public-interest story."
- "Scoop of the Year: The Sun: Its revelation of Matt Hancock’s office affair set the agenda and contributed to his downfall as Health Secretary."
- "New Journalist of the Year: Noa Hoffman (The Sun): A skillfully landed public-interest scoop helped bring down a prime minister within days of taking office."
British Journalism Awards
Are these sources reliable?
Financial Times
@ft.com
BBC
@bbc.com
theguardian.com
@theguardian.com
The Irish Times
@irishtimes.com
Mail Online
@dailymail.co.uk
dw.com
@dw.com
The New York Times
@nytimes.com
The Scotsman
@scotsman.com
New Statesman
@newstatesman.com
Channel 4
@channel4.com
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