Upstate New York Media Bias Scorecard · one of 6 outlets scored
WAER Media Bias & Reporting Quality
WAER leans left on party politics, at a partisan lean of -0.5. On worldview it shows a near-zero net lean, at an ideological lean of -0.3. The panel found no partisan lean at all in 20 of its 29 scored articles.
WAER is one of 6 outlets on the Upstate New York Media Bias Scorecard. A panel of three AI models, from three different companies, scored those 29 articles under rubric v0.4.0, with every outlet name and byline removed. Data as of 2026-11-07. The numbers move as the sample grows.
What the results mean#
- Below the board median on evidence fairness (2.6 against 2.7), sourcing (2.2 against 2.3).
- Partisan lean leans toward Democratic (net -0.5, across 29 articles).
- Institutional posture leans toward deference (net -0.9, across 29 articles).
- Establishment-populist framing leans toward establishment (net -0.6, across 29 articles).
- Conservation-development framing nets near zero (0.1) with strength 1.1: its articles lean both ways and cancel.
- In 6 same-story comparisons, the judges picked its account as: fairest evidence treatment 3, best sourced 2, most independent of official framing 4, most editorialized 1.
These describe the sampled articles, not every story WAER publishes. Labels such as near-zero net lean 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.
Where it sits among Upstate New York's outlets#
~2.8 local articles/day · 29 scored
How to read this: left and right is ideological tilt. This market's outlets sit close together, so the map shows lean from -1 to +1 of the full -3 to +3 scale. Zoomed in, small gaps look large: each outlet's lean is averaged over 23 to 39 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#
| Dimension | WAER | Board median |
|---|---|---|
| Partisan lean (-3 Democratic to +3 Republican) | -0.5 (leans left) | -0.5 (leans left) |
| Partisan lean strength (0-3, direction ignored) | 0.5 | 0.5 |
| Articles with no partisan lean detected | 20 of 29 | - |
| Ideological tilt (-3 progressive to +3 conservative) | -0.3 net, 0.4 strength (n=28) | -0.5 net, 0.6 strength |
| Institutional posture (-3 deference to +3 skepticism) | -0.9 net, 0.9 strength (n=29) | -0.5 net, 1 strength |
| Establishment-populist framing (-3 establishment to +3 populist) | -0.6 net, 0.7 strength (n=29) | -0.4 net, 0.8 strength |
| Conservation-development framing (-3 conservation to +3 development) | 0.1 net, 1.1 strength (n=6) | -0.4 net, 1.1 strength |
| Evidence fairness (0-4) | 2.6 | 2.7 |
| Sourcing (0-4) | 2.2 | 2.3 |
| Source independence (0-4) | 1.8 | 1.8 |
| Analysis labeling (0-4) | 3.5 | 3.5 |
| Language neutrality (0-4) | 3.7 | 3.7 |
| Articles sampled | 29 | - |
Same story, side by side#
When WAER and another tracked outlet covered the same story, the panel compared the two blinded accounts directly. WAER appeared in 6 of 9 such comparisons. A win counts only when a majority of the three judges agree. These are small numbers, stated as counts rather than a ranking.
| Category | Times picked |
|---|---|
| fairest evidence treatment | 3 of 6 |
| best sourced | 2 of 6 |
| most independent of official framing | 4 of 6 |
| most editorialized | 1 of 6 |
Coverage and volume#
WAER publishes about 2.8 local stories a day. Of 29 articles read for places, 19 are set in an Upstate New York community, 9 are statewide, 0 are about places outside Upstate New York and 1 names no place. Most covered: Syracuse (6), Onondaga County (4), Albany (2), Rome (2), DeWitt (1), Ithaca (1).
Machine access#
This shows how WAER's site answers software, not whether a person can read it. These are facts about how WAER publishes, not scores. Blocking AI crawlers is a legitimate choice. When our crawler could not complete a check, the table says why.
| Paywall | RSS | Full-text RSS | AI crawlers blocked | Readable without JS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| none | yes | no | 0 | yes |
Why it is on the board#
Syracuse's NPR station. Passed on every Railway probe day, Nov. 1 to 5, at 2.1 to 5.5 local articles a day; its feed carries summaries and its article pages the full text.
Reach context: Tranco ~434,000 (2026-11).
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 Upstate New York Media Bias Scorecard. The data is free to reuse with credit, under CC BY 4.0.
The other outlets on the board#
WXXI News · Spectrum News 1 · Investigative Post · Rochester Beacon · Central Current
Back to the Upstate New York Media Bias Scorecard · Coverage map