Sean Spicer has drawn fresh attention to Politicos ideological tilt after the outlet inadvertently exposed an internal Google document listing its preferred news sources a roster that conspicuously omits Breitbart News and other major conservative publications.
On January 9, Sean Spicer, the former White House press secretary and current host, publicly highlighted the blunder and its implications for Politicos editorial posture.
Ever wonder why @politico @playbookdc is so left leaning? Major blunder this morning when they accidentally linked a story to their internal google doc showing what sources they go to (and therefore dont no @BreitbartNews @DailyCaller @DailySignal @realDailyWire ), Spicer wrote, underscoring what he sees as a systemic refusal to engage with right-of-center reporting, according to Breitbart.
Screenshots of the internal document show a detailed list of outlets Politico staff are directed to monitor for aggregation, spanning legacy media institutions and newer digital brands. Yet not a single conservative-focused publication appears among the primary sources, even as the document goes so far as to include logins and passwords for paywalled outlets while omitting any mention of Breitbart News.
For critics who have long accused Politico of operating as a de facto arm of the progressive media ecosystem, the leak serves as confirmation rather than revelation. This episode follows years of complaints about Politicos editorial slant and its pattern of sidelining right-of-center voices, despite Breitbarts substantial audience and growing clout in Washington and across the country.
Breitbarts absence from Politicos internal source list is particularly striking in light of the outlets performance during President Donald Trumps second term. In early 2025, Breitbart News utterly dominated on social media, according to reporting by Hannah Knudsen, citing data from analytics firm NewsWhip, with 4,853,297 interactions in the first two weeks of Trumps new administration roughly 1.2 million more than the and 1.7 million more than .
Institutionally, Breitbart has also secured a firm foothold in the nations political nerve center. The outlet now enjoys regular access to the White House briefing room, where Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stressed that outlets like Breitbart would have an actual seat in this room every day, signaling a deliberate effort by the Trump administration to elevate media organizations outside the legacy press.
Breitbarts leadership has not been shy about framing this moment as a vindication of its editorial approach and its alignment with the priorities of Trump-era voters. Breitbart News is the number one outlet in Donald Trumps America, Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow said, casting the site as the premier platform for the populist, nationalist right that helped propel Trump back into office.
The outlets influence has been acknowledged even by its competitors and critics. Vice President JD Vance praised Washington Bureau Chief Matt Boyles access and reach during an appearance on , while Politico itself conceded Breitbarts resurgence by writing: Trumps back and so is Breitbart.
The leaked Google document, however, is only one piece of a broader pattern in which Politico has been accused of marginalizing conservative and independent media. In December 2025, Politico senior legal affairs reporter Josh Gerstein ignited a firestorm after posting on X: At some point, the amateur effort to knock on doors of home daycares intersects with robust stand-your-ground laws, a remark widely interpreted as a veiled warning aimed at independent journalist Nick Shirley, who was probing alleged daycare fraud involving Somali business owners in Minnesota.
The backlash was swift and intense, with Gersteins post drawing more than 10,000 hostile comments and accusations that he was effectively threatening a reporter investigating potential abuse of taxpayer-funded programs. In a follow-up message, Gerstein attempted to walk back the implication, writing: To observe that something is likely to happen or theres a serious risk of it happening is not to advocate for it happening.
Other editorial choices have further fueled concerns that Politico functions less as a neutral arbiter and more as a vehicle for progressive narratives. Critics point to its characterization of European Christmas celebrations as far-right in a December 2025 article, its failure to challenge National Security Adviser Jake Sullivans misleading remarks about President Bidens health, and its coverage of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom it falsely portrayed as mocking people with disabilities a story that required later clarification but only after damaging headlines had already spread.
Questions about neutrality intensified in September 2025 when Politico assigned White House coverage to a reporter who had previously labeled Donald Trump a demagogue and reacted emotionally to his 2016 victory on social media. For many on the right, that personnel decision epitomized a newsroom culture in which open hostility to conservative leaders is not a disqualifying bias but an accepted norm.
Dissent over Politicos editorial direction has even surfaced within its own corporate structure. In March 2025, Axel Springer board member Martin Varsavsky publicly rebuked the outlet for republishing what he described as pro-Hamas content, a rare instance of a parent-company figure openly challenging the ideological trajectory of one of its flagship properties.
Former Politico reporters have also lifted the curtain on internal pressures that appear to favor the Biden family and the Democratic establishment. In 2025, Marc Caputo, now at Axios, revealed on a podcast that he had been explicitly instructed not to write, discuss, or tweet about Hunter Bidens laptop, and that an accurate story he produced about a tax lien linked to Hunter during his Burisma tenure was killed by editors without explanation.
Tara Palmeri, another ex-Politico journalist now with Puck, said her reporting on Hunter Bidens gun permit was delayed, and she speculated that the timing early in President Bidens tenure may have contributed to the slow-walking of the piece, reinforcing suspicions that the outlet shielded the administration from damaging coverage.
Against this backdrop, the Trump administration has moved to challenge what it views as entrenched ideological bias in legacy media, launching FCC inquiries, cutting taxpayer-funded subscriptions, and revoking press access for several establishment outlets, including Politico.
Login