Apple News kept every single story about the Democratic National Committee’s mounting debt off its top 20 promoted stories list for nine straight months, according to a new analysis from the Media Research Center (MRC).
The MRC reviewed 78 stories published between January 1 and September 28 that covered the DNC’s financial troubles. Not one made it onto Apple News’ top 20 — a curated list that human editors, not algorithms, largely control. The analysis was obtained by the New York Post.
September 28 lands just five weeks before the 2026 midterm elections, and nearly a year after the DNC first disclosed it was millions of dollars in the hole.
“Apple isn’t curating the news,” MRC President David Bozell said. “It’s running a high-tech protection racket for the political left.”
At least 14 of the buried stories came from outlets Apple News regularly promotes, including USA Today, the Guardian, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and Politico. Stories that do get featured on the platform can rack up anywhere from 1 million to 20 million page views, according to Bozell.
“Our study found Apple News suppressing coverage of the Democratic Party’s fundraising woes while eagerly serving up stories damaging to Republicans,” Bozell told the Post.
Unlike Google News or Microsoft’s MSN, which rely heavily on algorithms, Apple News uses human editors to select much of what appears on its platform — a fact the MRC says undercuts any claim that the omissions were accidental.
How bad is the DNC’s debt?
The DNC’s financial hole traces back to the 2024 Biden-Harris campaign. Kamala Harris’ failed presidential bid reportedly burned through roughly $1.5 billion, leaving the DNC $20.5 million in debt by the time it was over.
In October 2025, the DNC took out a $15 million loan to fund gubernatorial races. The party started 2026 with $17.5 million in debt, according to the New York Times.
Compare that to the Republican National Committee, which has $230 million in the bank and carries no debt at all.
“For years, the media lectured Americans about ‘dirty money in politics’ whenever Republicans had the fundraising advantage,” Bozell told the Post. “Now Democrats are facing a financial mess of their own making, and suddenly the story isn’t worth telling.”
The debt crisis has already fueled calls to remove DNC Chairman Ken Martin, who has reportedly grown increasingly isolated within the party, including one incident in which he threw a phone at a junior aide’s desk in frustration.
