A Comparative Analysis on Different News Outlets and their Coverage on the NATO Summit.
By Kinga Petho
Introduction
The NATO Summit was hosted for the first time in The Hague on 24-25 June 2025. The summit was attended by heads of governments of NATO member states, as well as representatives of NATO’s key partners, such as Ukraine or the European Union. The topics discussed revolved around internal organization and task division, as well as capacity building and NATO’s presence in Ukraine.
Relevant News Outlets and their Political Leanings
The summit was covered by multiple news sources across the globe. This article will explore the similarities and differences between the coverage of major news sources from Europe and the United States, based on the respective medium’s political affiliation. The chosen European outlets include The Guardian and Daily Mail from Britain, LeMonde from France, and Kronen Zeitung from Austria. Media outlets from the US include Fox News, The New York Times, The Washington Times, and CNN.
The Guardian refers to itself as “the world’s leading liberal voice”. They cover a wide range of topics including politics, society and culture through investigative journalism which claims to be independent from external influence.
Daily Mail is a tabloid newspaper, which is described by a compact presentation style and prominently sensationalistic tone. While Daily Mail itself does not commit to a political ideology, their articles historically feature support for the Conservative Party.
LeMonde prioritises “humanist and progressive values”. On their website, they share devotion to pro-European policies, human rights, sustainability and freedom of expression.
The Kronen Zeitung is a prominent Austrian tabloid focusing primarily on internal politics but also covering cultural and international issues. In their articles, they often express support for Austrian right-wing parties and endorse nationalistic views.
The New York Times prides itself on being one of the leading media sources in the United States. With this, they also attempt to commit themselves to independence from external influence, respect for human rights and integrity in their practices.
CNN is a widely broadcasted news outlet, both through television and online. They claim to adhere to a high standard of journalism, including transparency about their content, endorsement of freedom of expression and commitment to inclusivity.
The Washington Times and Fox News are similar in tone and content. Both outlets take pride in their “patriotic” editorial choices, and they often appear to support the Trump administration, Christian values and anti-immigration policies in their content. Contrary to The Washington Times who do not explicitly commit to one political ideology, Fox News states their aim is to offer “alternative to the left-of-center offerings”.
Coverage Statistics and Topics
These news sources published approximately the same number of articles about the 2025 NATO summit. Only Kronen Zeitung provided a considerably smaller coverage of the summit, with two articles compared to the regular five to six from other news sources. All previously mentioned media also published an overview of the main events of the summit. These articles present a significant overlap in their major points, however, their focus issues often differ.
All articles were generally focused on President Trump’s actions during the summit. Several news sources agree that Trump had a considerable influence on the decisions made during the two day event. The most quoted people in the articles were President Trump himself, various experts related to NATO, and other heads of governments. An exception to this is Kronen Zeitung, who nearly exclusively quoted Mark Rutte. Another common pattern is a mention of the new defense spending quota set at the end of the summit, which establishes that NATO member states are required to invest 5% of their annual GDP (Gross Domestic Product) into defense spending.
The NATO Secretary-General, Mark Rutte’s messages to President Trump before the NATO summit were mentioned by three news sources. These messages congratulated Trump on his actions in Iran prior to the summit and expressed a positive outlook on the summit itself. The Guardian, who reported about the summit primarily in a negative tone deemed Rutte’s praiseful attitude as a necessary diplomatic strategy, just as CNN, who claimed Rutte “may have pulled off a diplomatic masterstroke”. On the contrary, the Daily Mail simply described the messages as Rutte “gushing” over President Trump.
Special accommodations made for President Trump’s sake (such as the shortened meetings or the overnight stay at Paleis Huis den Bosch) were also frequently mentioned and unanimously criticised. An external specialist frequently quoted by The New York Times attributed it to Mark Rutte and his “embarrassing obsequiousness”, while The Guardian rather framed it as NATO’s collective eagerness to please Trump by reciting another expert who referred to the alliance as the “North Atlantic Trump Organization”. LeMonde, who appears as the most critical among all the mentioned news outlets, attributed the alternative arrangements to the personal diplomatic failure of European leaders, claiming the exceptional accommodations made even before the summit brought no success. CNN specifically cited certain leaders’ personal actions, including Emmanuel Macron’s (France), Giorgia Meloni’s (Italy) and Alexander Stubb’s (Finland). Regardless of the overall tone of their articles, when analyzing the president’s accommodations, all news sources resorted to powerful terms such as “extreme”, “absurd” or “humiliation”.
Except for The Washington Times and Fox News, all media outlets mentioned that the talks about the conflict between Russia and Ukraine took place more briefly than anticipated. While analysing this discrepancy, the key points mentioned were Ukraine’s foretold NATO membership and the United States’ ambiguous relationship with Russia. Nearly all reporting news sources accredited this development to NATO’s efforts to avoid topics sensitive to the White House; however, the manner of their reports showed a wide range. Daily Mail and CNN emphasized that Trump admitting Russia as a threat to international security is a positive development. Additionally, CNN and The New York Times acknowledged that Trump did not rule out the possibility of US military support to Ukraine – a detail which was criticized by The Guardian and LeMonde, claiming that he made no commitments to continue the military aid. Similarly to 2024, this summit also did not elaborate on Ukraine’s possible NATO membership, which was met with criticism from nearly all news sources. LeMonde described it as “a step backward”, and Kronen Zeitung stated this was “the limit of the alliance’s cohesion”. The relationship between the United States and Russia was also a frequent point of discussion: Kronen Zeitung recognized the economic considerations behind it, while The Guardian claimed this, and more specifically, Trump is the reason that the conflict still has not ended. Only CNN and Daily Mail reported that the relationship between President Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky seemed to take a positive turn after their meeting on the 25th of June.
The last and most frequently mentioned issue was the commitment of member states to raise their defense spending. All the new sources examined reported about this development, however they highlighted different aspects of the agreement. Out of all media mentioned, Daily Mail and The Washington Times were the only ones who considered how the agreement will affect European economies. The Guardian, The Washington Times and Daily Mail also reported about Spain’s hesitation to sign the agreement – Daily Mail included other hesitating countries as well, such as Slovakia and France. The Washington Times and Kronen Zeitung chose to elaborate on what the defense fund could be spent on (including infrastructure), while LeMonde criticized the agreement for not having clearly set operational guidelines.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the 2025 NATO summit was subject to significant criticism from liberal leaning news outlets, such as The Guardian and LeMonde. Some aspects of the summit were also subject to criticism by the more liberal leaning The New York Times and CNN and by the more conservative The Washington Times, although the overall tone of their articles remained neutral. The most positive approach was taken by the conservative leaning sources, such as Fox News, Kronen Zeitung and Daily Mail.
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While we are transparent about all sources used in this article and double-checked all the given information, we make no claims about its completeness, accuracy or reliability. If you notice a mistake or misleading phrasing, please contact centuria-sa@hhs.nl .
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