> The search caused me to ask: can we prove, or disprove, that HN has a specific Apple bias? Whether it's positive or negative, whether it's stronger than bias around other tech companies?

How are you going to tell apart bias in favour of Apple and just being in favour of Apple?

Maybe it's easier to prove in some of the positive cases if you notice that people are making demonstrably incorrect favorable statements. But I doubt that you can reliably prove that bias doesn't exist.