[Inland Empire Media Bias Scorecard](https://communities.news/communities/inland-socal-news/neutrality) · one of 10 outlets scored # San Bernardino Sun Media Bias & Reporting Quality [San Bernardino Sun](https://www.sbsun.com) shows a near-zero net lean on party politics, at a partisan lean of 0. On worldview it shows a near-zero net lean, at an ideological lean of 0.4. The panel found no partisan lean at all in 23 of its 26 scored articles. San Bernardino Sun is one of 10 outlets on the Inland Empire Media Bias Scorecard. A panel of three AI models, from three different companies, scored those 26 articles under rubric v0.4.0, with every outlet name and byline removed. Data as of November 14, 2026. The numbers move as the sample grows. **About this sample.** 26 articles from San Bernardino Sun's website, scored between November 1, 2026 and November 14, 2026. They come from its own news and opinion sections, which we call [local](https://communities.news/communities/inland-socal-news/neutrality#term-local "An outlet's own journalism: its news, politics, business and opinion sections, sorted by the same rule for every outlet. Wire stories, sports and syndicated lifestyle columns are left out. Local means the outlet's own reporting, not stories set in the Inland Empire, which the coverage map counts separately."). Wire, sports and syndicated lifestyle pieces are left out. A broadcaster is scored on its written web articles, not its broadcasts. The articles were read by Claude (Anthropic), GPT (OpenAI), Gemini (Google), with outlet names and bylines removed. That blinding is partial, since style or subject can still hint at the source. The panel scores the text and does not fact-check it. [Full methodology](https://communities.news/communities/inland-socal-news/neutrality#methodology). Published by Communities News, which is building Inland SoCal News, a newsroom for the Inland Empire that has not launched or published anything yet. Spot an error? [Tell us](https://communities.news/contact). ## What the results mean - Above the board median on source independence (1.9 against 1.7), analysis labeling (3.9 against 3.8). - Below the board median on evidence fairness (2.5 against 2.6). - Ideological tilt nets near zero (0.4) with strength 0.9: its articles lean both ways and cancel. - Institutional posture nets near zero (-0.1) with strength 0.8: its articles lean both ways and cancel. - Establishment-populist framing nets near zero (-0.2) with strength 0.8: its articles lean both ways and cancel. - Conservation-development framing rests on 4 articles, too few to read. These describe the sampled articles, not every story San Bernardino Sun publishes. Labels such as [near-zero net lean](https://communities.news/communities/inland-socal-news/neutrality#term-nearzero "The label for a net lean closer to zero than 0.5. From 0.5 up to 1.5 the label is "leans", and 1.5 or more names the side outright. These are cutoffs for labeling, not statistical tests, so read the number beside the label: a -0.4 and a -0.5 differ by a tenth.") are cutoffs on the number beside them, not statistical tests. ## Its fingerprint Five lean axes, on the same -3 to +3 scale every outlet is drawn on. The marker is the net lean. The pale band spans the average swing per article in both directions. \[Chart: San Bernardino Sun: lean fingerprint across five axes\] ## Where it sits among the Inland Empire's outlets \[Chart: Every tracked outlet positioned by ideological lean, source independence, and publishing volume, each bubble labeled with its outlet name\] **San Bernardino Sun** Ideological lean +0.4 · independence 1.9 / 4 \~1.7 local articles/day · 26 scored **How to read this:** left and right is ideological tilt. This market's outlets sit close together, so the map shows lean from -2 to +2 of the full -3 to +3 scale. Zoomed in, small gaps look large: each outlet's lean is averaged over 12 to 83 scored articles, so a gap of a few tenths may not hold as more are scored. Up is source independence, meaning official claims are tested rather than passed along. Bubble size is local articles per day: publishing volume, not audience reach. Dashed outlines mark the known-lean control and the out-of-market reference. The moose marks our own newsroom. Hover or tap any bubble to spotlight it and see its exact numbers. Tap again or click away to release it. ## Its scores beside the board __San Bernardino Sun beside the median of the 10 Inland Empire outlets on the board. The known-lean control and the out-of-state reference are left out of the median. Data last updated November 14, 2026.__ | Dimension | San Bernardino Sun | Board median | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------- | ----------------------- | | [Partisan lean (-3 Democratic to +3 Republican)](https://communities.news/communities/inland-socal-news/neutrality#term-partisan "Party favoritism. Negative = Democratic-coded framing, positive = Republican-coded, 0 = none detected. Requires actual party-relevant treatment, not vibes.") | 0 (near-zero net lean) | 0 (near-zero net lean) | | Partisan lean strength (0-3, direction ignored) | 0.1 | 0.2 | | Articles with no partisan lean detected | 23 of 26 | \- | | [Ideological tilt (-3 progressive to +3 conservative)](https://communities.news/communities/inland-socal-news/neutrality#term-ideological "Worldview rather than party: whose assumptions and policy logic the framing favors. Negative = progressive, positive = conservative.") | 0.4 net, 0.9 strength (n=15) | \-0.1 net, 0.6 strength | | [Institutional posture (-3 deference to +3 skepticism)](https://communities.news/communities/inland-socal-news/neutrality#term-institutional "Whether official accounts are passed along or tested. NEGATIVE = deference (official accounts carried as fact), POSITIVE = skepticism (institutions treated as interested parties).") | \-0.1 net, 0.8 strength (n=15) | \-0.7 net, 0.8 strength | | [Establishment-populist framing (-3 establishment to +3 populist)](https://communities.news/communities/inland-socal-news/neutrality#term-populist "Whose voice is the default lens on power. Negative = establishment (expert, official and incumbent views), positive = populist (outsider and ordinary-person grievance). It is separate from left and right, because populism comes in both flavors.") | \-0.2 net, 0.8 strength (n=14) | \-0.4 net, 0.8 strength | | [Conservation-development framing (-3 conservation to +3 development)](https://communities.news/communities/inland-socal-news/neutrality#term-landuse "On resource and land stories, whose costs get counted. Negative = conservation framing favored, positive = development framing. It is scored only where the topic applies, which is why its n is smaller.") | 0.9 net, 1.4 strength (n=4, too few to read) | \-0.5 net, 1 strength | | [Evidence fairness (0-4)](https://communities.news/communities/inland-socal-news/neutrality#term-evidence "0 to 4. Whether each claim gets scrutiny in proportion to its evidence. There is no manufactured balance for unsupported positions, and no burying of supported ones.") | 2.5 | 2.6 | | [Sourcing (0-4)](https://communities.news/communities/inland-socal-news/neutrality#term-sourcing "0 to 4. Whether the story shows where its facts come from: named sources, linked records, checked numbers, and the affected people heard. A one-sided account of a contested matter caps at 2.") | 2 | 2 | | [Source independence (0-4)](https://communities.news/communities/inland-socal-news/neutrality#term-independence "0 to 4. Whether interested parties' claims are tested rather than passed along. An article can sound perfectly neutral while adopting an official's framing whole, and that scores low here.") | 1.9 | 1.7 | | [Analysis labeling (0-4)](https://communities.news/communities/inland-socal-news/neutrality#term-labeling "0 to 4. Whether interpretation is marked as interpretation. News, analysis and opinion should never blur inside news copy.") | 3.9 | 3.8 | | [Language neutrality (0-4)](https://communities.news/communities/inland-socal-news/neutrality#term-language "0 to 4. Whether the wording stays out of the way: no loaded adjectives, partisan cues or smuggled judgment.") | 3.4 | 3.4 | | Articles sampled | 26 | \- | ## Same story, side by side No matched same-story comparison for San Bernardino Sun in this dataset yet. ## Coverage and volume San Bernardino Sun publishes about **1.7** [local stories](https://communities.news/communities/inland-socal-news/neutrality#term-local "An outlet's own journalism: its news, politics, business and opinion sections, sorted by the same rule for every outlet. Wire stories, sports and syndicated lifestyle columns are left out. Local means the outlet's own reporting, not stories set in the Inland Empire, which the coverage map counts separately.") a day. Of 50 articles read for places, 17 are set in an Inland Empire community, 6 are statewide, 20 are about places outside the Inland Empire and 7 name no place. Most covered: Inland Empire (5), Riverside (3), Rancho Cucamonga (2), Redlands (1), Corona (1), Fontana (1). IE Community News (37 place mentions)KESQ News Channel 3 (306 place mentions)Coachella Valley Independent (39 place mentions)The Riverside Record (43 place mentions)Uken Report (55 place mentions)The Press-Enterprise (16 place mentions)San Bernardino Sun (14 place mentions)Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (13 place mentions)Black Voice News (14 place mentions)Victor Valley News (82 place mentions) ## Machine access This shows how San Bernardino Sun's site answers software, not whether a person can read it. These are facts about how San Bernardino Sun publishes, not scores. Blocking AI crawlers is a legitimate choice. When our crawler could not complete a check, the table says why. __San Bernardino Sun's access facts, checked November 14, 2026.__ | Paywall | RSS | Full-text RSS | AI crawlers blocked | Readable without JS | | ------- | ------------------------------------------------ | ------------- | ------------------- | ------------------- | | metered | unreachable from our collection point (HTTP 403) | no | 13 | yes | ## Why it is on the board San Bernardino County's daily newspaper (it styles itself The Sun). **Articles read through a web browser** since November 5, 2026, on a volunteer's home connection, because our crawler is refused. Its feed refuses our crawler and a real browser alike (checked Oct. 26, 2026), so a real browser reads its news section page. Last read November 14, 2026. _Reach context:_ ## How this is measured Three models from three vendors score each article against a published rubric, with outlet names and bylines removed first. An outlet's number is the mean of its per-article panel medians. Lean measures direction only, never quality. The full method, its validation checks and every outlet's numbers are on the [Inland Empire Media Bias Scorecard](https://communities.news/communities/inland-socal-news/neutrality). The data is free to reuse with credit, under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). ## The other outlets on the board [IE Community News](https://communities.news/communities/inland-socal-news/neutrality/iecn) · [KESQ News Channel 3](https://communities.news/communities/inland-socal-news/neutrality/kesq) · [Coachella Valley Independent](https://communities.news/communities/inland-socal-news/neutrality/cv-independent) · [The Riverside Record](https://communities.news/communities/inland-socal-news/neutrality/riverside-record) · [Uken Report](https://communities.news/communities/inland-socal-news/neutrality/uken-report) · [The Press-Enterprise](https://communities.news/communities/inland-socal-news/neutrality/press-enterprise) · [Inland Valley Daily Bulletin](https://communities.news/communities/inland-socal-news/neutrality/daily-bulletin) · [Black Voice News](https://communities.news/communities/inland-socal-news/neutrality/black-voice-news) · [Victor Valley News](https://communities.news/communities/inland-socal-news/neutrality/vvng) [Back to the Inland Empire Media Bias Scorecard](https://communities.news/communities/inland-socal-news/neutrality) · [Coverage map](https://communities.news/communities/inland-socal-news/coverage)