Coverage gaps: four stories one side covered far more than the other

Covered more on the right: a 10th straight month of factory growth. On Nov. 2 the Institute for Supply Management, a trade group that surveys factory purchasing managers each month, said its manufacturing index rose to 55.5 in October from 54.5. Any reading above 50 means the sector is growing. Production grew at its fastest pace since late 2021, according to Bloomberg. The same survey also showed the downside: prices paid by factories rose for a 25th straight month, and 66% of survey comments were negative, mostly about inflation, the Iran war and trade disputes, said Susan Spence, who chairs the survey committee.

Who covered it: Fox Business ran a segment calling it a surge in factory production. Bloomberg and trade press such as Manufacturing Dive also reported it. On the left-leaning side, our searches found no story from CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post or NBC News.

Covered more on the left: paid Pentagon contracts for the White House's Starlink service. In March 2025, when Starlink satellite internet from Elon Musk's SpaceX was installed at the White House, officials said the company had donated the service. On Nov. 6 The Washington Post reported that contracting records show SpaceX received four Pentagon-funded awards from March 2025 to June 2026, totaling nearly $1.2 million, for Starlink work for the White House Communications Agency, the military unit that handles the president's secure communications. A legal advocacy group, Democracy Defenders Fund, had flagged three of the awards, worth $502,000, the week before; the Post found a fourth worth $686,000. The reports did not show whether the paid work was the same service officials had called a gift. The Independent said it asked the White House, the Pentagon and SpaceX for comment.

Who covered it: The Washington Post broke the story, and The Independent and Daily Kos followed. On the right-leaning side, the only related story we found was a March 2025 Washington Examiner piece on the original installation; our searches found no Fox News, New York Post or Washington Examiner story on the payments.

Covered more on the left: the White House again kept CNN out of the press pool. The press pool is the small rotating group of reporters who cover the president up close and share their footage and notes with everyone else. On Thursday, Nov. 5, it was CNN's turn to supply the shared TV feed, but the White House left CNN off the schedule, so there was no TV pool that day; on Friday it replaced The Independent's print-pool slot with One America News, TheWrap reported. A federal judge ordered CNN's and others' press credentials restored on Oct. 13, but CNN, MS NOW and Politico say they are still being kept out of pools and expanded their lawsuit on Oct. 28. The White House says the outlets have no right to demand Oval Office access, accuses them of inaccurate reporting, and has appealed.

Who covered it: TheWrap wrote it up, citing a HuffPost pool report and CNN's Brian Stelter, and CNN's Kaitlan Collins spoke about it on air. Several of those outlets are parties to the dispute. On the right-leaning side, our searches found no Fox News, New York Post or Washington Examiner story on this week's exclusions, even though Fox News is part of the same TV pool rotation.

How outlets framed it: Where coverage existed, headlines pointed readers in different directions. On the factory report, Fox Business called it a production surge and a comeback, while Manufacturing Dive's headline added that the Iran war "weighs heavily." On Starlink, The Washington Post's headline said "tax dollars are funding it," while The Independent's said "Trump paid him $1.2M," though the awards came from the Pentagon. On Chappelle, the New York Post called it a "ghoulish joke," while Townhall said he "claims" to feel better.

Stories were chosen by the size of the gap in coverage between outlets that lean right and outlets that lean left, not by topic or side. Wire services such as AP, Reuters and AFP, and business wires such as Bloomberg, are counted as neither side.