MRC Original: A bullet had just ripped into Charlie Kirk’s neck. Thousands watched as the young conservative icon fell to the ground while blood dripped from the bullet wound.  As the media tried to gather the details of the heinous assassination, Apple News and The Guardian stood out for a particularly disturbing reason: the tech giant promoted a Guardian article that included a fundraising appeal that leveraged Kirk's death to push aggressive anti-Trump messaging. The Guardian, based in the UK, ended the fundraising campaign only after being called by the Media Research Center, implying that the appeal appeared “automatically” in U.S.-based stories. The episode, from which the British outlet emerged seemingly unscathed, offered a revealing glimpse into its ideological bent and the kind of radical content Apple News pushes to its millions of users.  In the month that followed, the Media Research Center found that Apple News and Google News rewarded the foreign outlet with prominent placement in their top 20 morning feeds, elevating it far more often than most right-leaning outlets and many other major American news sources. The findings, drawn from Nov. 1 to June 19, highlight the tech giants’ continued reliance on the leftist British publication. MRC’s Findings: The Guardian ranks as the eighth most-promoted outlet on Apple News and the seventh on Google News, showcasing the aggressive efforts these tech titans make to promote this foreign-owned source. Apple News published stories from The Guardian 192 times in its top 20 stories in more than 227 days. Google News was not far behind, promoting 184 stories from the leftist outlet. Apple News’s promotion of stories from The Guardian included nearly 75% that pertained to U.S. news. For Google News, that figure was 88%. Apple News and Google News’s promotion of The Guardian overwhelmingly centered on President Donald Trump and his administration—and was largely negative in framing. Apple News promoted 143 U.S. news articles, with over 76% focused on Trump and his administration. Google News promoted 162 U.S. news articles, with 88% focused on Trump and his administration. Apple News and Google News’s Reliance on The Guardian as a Top Promoted Outlet The Big Four News Apps act as de facto gatekeepers of information in today’s media landscape, determining which outlets receive massive distribution to American audiences and effectively shaping what Americans see. Few foreign outlets benefited more from that reach than The Guardian, as evident in data collected by the Media Research Center. Across nearly eight months, Apple News and Google News repeatedly elevated The Guardian in their curated feeds. The digital news gatekeepers frequently placed the outlet alongside major U.S. outlets in top positions, all while largely excluding right-leaning media sources. MRC identified a total of 192 stories from the British outlet on Apple News between Nov. 3 and June 19, and 184 stories on Google News between Nov. 1 and June 29. This extensive placement positioned The Guardian as the eighth most-published outlet on Apple News and the seventh on Google News. How Apple and Google Lean on a British Outlet to Tell Americans Their Own News Not only is The Guardian used extensively by Apple News and Google News, but a closer look at the kinds of stories that these news aggregators choose to advance also shows an obvious bias in their curation practices.  The MRC found that Apple News’s promotion of The Guardian included stories that focused on U.S. news nearly 75% of the time, despite the outlet being a well-known UK publication. This number is even more startling when looking at Google News, where 88% of the articles by The Guardian that are used pertain to U.S. news. As would be expected from a left-leaning source, The Guardian’s coverage of Trump almost always puts a spin on the news to put the commander-in-chief in a negative light.  A review of The Guardian headlines used by Apple News reveals a lack of context and obvious bias, suggesting that the news aggregator uses the outlet to promote a left-wing agenda. A clear example of this can be seen in an article that was published by Apple News on Nov. 15, 2025, with the headline, “US army veteran who received Purple Heart deported by ICE to Mexico.” While the headline may succeed in causing immediate outrage in some, it fails to mention the veteran’s attempted murder conviction. The Venezuelan-born man was deported after serving 15 years of a 52-year prison sentence after a jury convicted him of shooting into a group of teenagers at a party where he had already been kicked out, and the bullet struck a pregnant 19-year-old.  Some examples of Guardian headlines, as seen in Apple News and Google News: Apple News “‘A profound sense of being hunted’: with all eyes on Minneapolis, ICE arrests continue quietly across the US,” promoted Feb. 8. “Trump’s mass deportation plan has broken the quiet of small US towns: ‘We have to take care of each other’,” promoted April 6. “Trump’s ICE crackdown faces reckoning as outrage mounts over Alex Pretti shooting,” promoted Jan. 27. “Why the Trump administration is detaining immigrant children – and what happens to them next,” promoted Jan. 24. “Outrage after Trump accuses Democrats of 'seditious behavior punishable by death,’” promoted Nov. 22. Google News “‘A classic authoritarian tactic’: outrage over Trump’s pardons for friends and allies,” promoted Nov. 11. “Trump’s border-czar takeover does little to calm Minneapolis tensions: ‘The agenda is still the same’,” promoted Feb. 5. “The supreme court’s tariffs ruling puts Trump on notice with a bloody nose,” promoted Feb. 22. “Dick Cheney remains divisive in death, drawing tributes and condemnation,” promoted Nov. 4.   “‘Stone-cold racism’: Newsom condemns GOP redistricting efforts; Louisiana approves plan to erase majority-Black district,” promoted May 14. “Stephen Colbert’s Late Show replacement is a depressing sign of the times,” promoted May 30. The Consequences of Apple and Google’s Reliance on The Guardian: Selective Reporting and Negative Framing The implications of this broader pattern become clearer when examining how it plays out in practice within Apple News and Google News feeds. Apple News promoted an article from The Guardian on the assassination of Charlie Kirk that included an anti-Trump fundraising pitch by the outlet’s U.S. editor Betsy Reed. “I hope you appreciated this article,” Reed wrote in the story about Kirk’s shooting and death. “Before you move on, I wanted to ask whether you could support the Guardian’s journalism as we face the unprecedented challenges of covering the second Trump administration.” At the time, Trump had just announced Kirk’s death. Reed added: “The Guardian is clear: we have no interest in being Donald Trump’s - or any politician’s friend. Our allegiance as independent journalists is not to those in power but to the public.” The Guardian removed the fundraising pitch by 4:30 p.m., just 72 minutes after MRC flagged it and inquired about its appropriateness. The outlet later downplayed the optics, claiming the appeal had been added automatically. This is not a stand-alone event, however, as this is just one example of a growing trend for Apple News and Google News, specifically where they have increasingly utilized The Guardian as a source to advance their agenda.  Equally revealing are the tech giants’ apparent reluctance to promote coverage that might damage the image of the political left. For example, Apple News and Google News did not appear to have provided direct coverage of the Rape Gang Inquiry Report from The Guardian. While The Guardian does maintain a landing page dedicated to the ongoing investigation, no standalone article appears to have been specifically focused on the report’s conclusions, according to MRC’s review conducted between June 16 and June 19. The 219-page independent report, published on June 16 and led by Reform MP Rupert Lowe, compiles harrowing victim testimony detailing decades of apparent grooming, sexual abuse and trafficking. Lowe alleges that these acts were carried out predominantly by Pakistani Muslim gangs. Another consequence of The Guardian being used as a primary news source is how the United States is viewed across the globe. This has been exemplified by the World Cup, drawing foreigners to experience the United States for themselves.  Viral videos across social media have shown people, especially Europeans, visiting for the first time after years of hearing America slandered by the media, reveling in the warmth and hospitality of Americans.  Whether they are feasting on Texas barbecue, experiencing Buc-ee's for the first time, or even just enjoying air conditioning, the prevailing sentiment of these tourists is that they feel that they have been lied to by the media through its characterization of the United States as corrupt and evil.  Europeans claim they were lied to about America. What is the truth about the United States? pic.twitter.com/2RM6FlEb4a — CLAIR News (@ClarityUniverse) June 24, 2026 The Guardian’s headlines, often seen on Apple News and Google News, depict a cynical picture of the U.S. compared to the experiences of European tourists. While someone should be able to get their news from a liberal source if they choose, Apple News and Google News’s constant promotion of UK news publications like The Guardian for their United States news and coverage of the second Trump administration raises significant problems of bias and partisanship. That dynamic also has a financial aspect, as prominent visibility on Apple News and Google News is likely to translate into higher engagement and revenue. The arrangement is apparently mutually beneficial, as The Guardian has seen massive growth in donations that it has received over the last year.  Just last month, the outlet reported a U.S. record, $81 million in revenue from the last fiscal year, according to Axios. This is a significant increase from previous years. Considering over 70% of The Guardian’s annual revenue comes from digital reader donations, the fundraising campaigns on their articles, no matter how extremist they are, appear to continue to be a huge moneymaker. Apple News’s close alliance with The Guardian has not always been rosy. The Guardian was among the first British outlets to join Apple News when the news aggregator launched in the UK in 2015. The outlet abruptly left the news aggregator’s UK edition in 2017 but returned in 2023 under an enhanced deal, according to Press Gazette. The Guardian’s US edition has remained available on Apple News since it joined the aggregator in 2020. A spokesperson for The Guardian confirmed to MRC that the British outlet has “content distribution partnerships with businesses including Google and Apple.” The spokesperson did not clarify whether these partnerships include commitments from the tech giants to promote The Guardian's content in exchange.  Public records indicate that Google signed a deal with The Guardian’s UK division in 2022. This partnership is part of Google News Showcase, a $1 billion initiative aimed at compensating media outlets for their content. Press Gazette estimates that Google paid The Guardian over €5 million for the 2022 deal in the UK. Neither Apple News editor-in-chief Lauren Kern or Google News returned MRC’s request for comment before the deadline. Methodology: The Media Research Center tracked the top 20 stories on Google News each morning from Nov. 1 through June 19, highlighting all stories from The Guardian that were promoted during this period. MRC conducted the same process for Apple News, but from Nov. 3 through June 19. The MRC then reviewed the Guardian headlines promoted by these news aggregators to identify which ones related to U.S. news. From those headlines, the MRC categorized which ones included prominent references to President Donald Trump, his administration or his foreign policy. Stories concerning foreign developments that were linked to the Trump administration were also included as they pertained to U.S. foreign policy.