Is Straight Arrow News (SAN) Truly Unbiased? Or Is it Just a Few on Their Staff That Are Not, Like Dan Levin?
Who Is SAN
Straight Arrow News (SAN) is a news organization dedicated to providing fair, factual, and unbiased journalism.
Its mission is to raise the bar on journalism by focusing on fact-based reporting and presenting both sides of stories, aiming to combat media bias and mistrust.
SAN emphasizes its commitment to balanced news coverage, often highlighting its use of tools like “Media Miss™” to uncover under reported news and its recognition by organizations like AllSides for a “Center” bias rating.
Political Persuasion of SAN and Its Producers
Straight Arrow News (SAN) positions itself as a news organization committed to unbiased, fact-based journalism that avoids partisan political bias.
Multiple media bias rating organizations, including AllSides, Media Bias/Fact Check, and Ad Fontes Media, have recognized SAN with a Center rating or similar designation, indicating minimal bias and a focus on balanced reporting.
SAN’s mission is to provide news content that is substantially free from partisan political bias, or that equally balances left, center, and right perspectives, allowing readers to make up their own minds.
The platform aims to filter out spin and noise, delivering straight facts across various topics, including politics, business, and tech.
Political Persuasion of SAN CEO Joe Ricketts
Joe Ricketts, the founder of Straight Arrow News and TD Ameritrade, is widely known for his conservative political views and his significant contributions to the Republican Party.
He has been described as a GOP donor, a Republican megadonor, and a strong Trump supporter.
Despite his personal political leanings, Ricketts established Straight Arrow News with the stated mission to provide unbiased, fact-based journalism without opinion or political spin.
So Perhaps Some One From SAN Can Explain This?
Dan Levin, a Producer for SAN, had this post just published, and the title alone tells a seasoned researcher and news reader the author wanted to be slanderous not only to Benny Johnson, but to the MAGA movement as well.
One can only wonder what Mr. levin celebrated on September 10th of this year…
To be sure, even the trademark of SAN says this…
Now, I am not totally familiar with all of Dan Levin’s works, nor of even a substantial portion of SAN content.
What I had been reading was straightforward and unbiased.
Until coming across Mr. Levin’s what can only be called a hit piece on Benny Johnson.
The title of Mr. Levin’s post?
Unbiased? Not on your life…
Straight Facts? ONLY if you are talking of Benny Johnson’s past…
A past that Benny has long put behind him.
Having turned himself over to Christ, stopped drinking, being self-employed with a growing family, a home owner, a public speaker and journalist, Benny has much more to fear from God than he does from the cheap character attacking him…
The beginning of the post goes thus…
How do you say setup without really saying setup?? Seriously, this Levin guy has it in for both MAGA and Benny…
Unbiased? Straight Facts?
You can dig deeper here: link / archive
We are going to list the sources Dan Levin has linked within his supposedly unbiased and straight facts post…
New York Times
Kristi Noem Says ICE Will Be ‘All Over’ the Super Bowl (not surprisingly, not behind a paywall) [link | archive] 5 Oct 3035
He Plagiarized and Promoted Falsehoods. The White House Embraces Him [paywall | archive] 30 August 2025
When has this rag ever been unbiased towards Republicans never mind Benny? A federal judge dismissed the defamation lawsuit brought on by Trump on September 19, 2025, calling it “decidedly improper and impermissible” due to its lengthy, repetitive, and overly laudatory nature, but gave Trump 28 days to refile. The NYT stated the suit was meritless and an attempt to stifle independent reporting. We await wiser and less liberal judges to review this case. The fact we have to use the word liberal to describe any judge is evidence that the judicial system needs to be drained as well.
NPR - Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension shows power of FCC’s Brendan Carr [link | archive] 18 September 2025
BuzzFeed - Editor’s Note: An Apology To Our Readers, What we’re doing about an episode of plagiarism (dated 25 July 2014, 11 years ago) [link | archive]
Poynter - Report: Benny Johnson was accused of plagiarism (again) [link | archive] 21 March 2017 - 8 years ago…
Politico - IJR suspends three over Obama conspiracy post [link | archive] 17 March 2017 - 8 years ago
Yahoo/Daily Beast - Pro-Trump YouTuber Benny Johnson claims “I Went on an ICE Raid and Arrested Illegals in Chicago” even as his video shows him doing no such thing. Our note: their video is HIGHLY edited, apparently the daily Beast could not be bothered with a video more than 9 minutes long where the filming of raids can be seen; full video available here. [link | archive] 6 October 2025
MediaMatters - YouTube is profiting from Benny Johnson’s election misinformation Our note: read this source, tell us it is not just another hit piece like Mr Levin’s, many of the claims listed by MediaMatters have already been proven incorrect, so how is this a good source to use again?… [link | archive] 31 October 2024
Dan drills down into the decline of MSM and local reporting but either ignores or is totally ignorant as to WHY both have seen a 75% decrease in viewership and readership.
If you have been following the digital warriors (DWs) and citizen journalists (CJs) closely for the past decade, you know this area is a threat to both local news as well as the MSM - their declining viewership and the rapidly growing viewership of DWs and CJs during the past decade is evidence enough.
It is also ample evidence that the people trust them.
Somehow he believes we are supposed to place our trust in channels that consistently bend the truth as well as out right lies en mass.
ICYMI - at 4 am every morning, all the local and MSM channels and agencies receive their talking points from Gannett publishing. They own a bunch of newsprint but have shifted online and as a a result they are hemorrhaging $25 MILLION annually. Bill O’Reilly discusses Gannett and its loses here…
Danny boy, you can NOT write up an unbiased and straight facts post for SAN by using biased and bent facts sources…
Seriously…
The balance of the post definitely wreaks of Liberalism - not of anything unbiased.
A Sage Adage is Always True
Benny has publicly acknowledged his past struggles with alcoholism.
He describes himself as a “recovering alcoholic” who was also overweight and a work-addict.
Johnson credits fatherhood with changing his life and inspiring him to pursue physical, spiritual, and mental strength.
He has even launched a “Recovery Study” series called ‘Stairway to Redemption,’ where he explores authenticity in recovery, drawing insights from books like ‘Rewired’ by Erica Spiegelman.
This personal journey is a significant aspect of his public persona and content creation, influencing his work and commentary.
As for the sage adage…
Your friends are always interested in your future and
are full of questions that make you think accordingly.
Your enemies are always digging up your past and
smearing it with your haters
Given this, the disposition of the content provided by Dan Levin as well as the VERY biased sources he used to slam Benny Johnson, Dan Levin owes Benny Johnson a public apology as well as an apology to his colleagues at SAN.
This was clearly NOT unbiased and possibly a vendetta against MAGA and Benny Johnson.
We await his actions and the actions of SAN CEO Joe Ricketts…
This came across our desk while drafting this post, there are no coincidences…