FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
/ Syndicated columnists Call it the Time Magazine Cyberhoax of 1995. The nation’s most widely read newsweekly got snookered — or, more precisely, snookered itself — in a frenzy to beat the competition with a racy cover story about pornography on the Internet. The cover of Time’s July 3 issue was shocking. It showed a […]
Seldom have so many been so wrong—so quickly. In the wake of the explosion that destroyed the Murrah Federal Office Building, the media rushed—almost en masse—to the assumption that the bombing was the work of Muslim extremists. “The betting here is on Middle East terrorists,” declared CBS News‘ Jim Stewart just hours after the blast […]
After the Oklahoma City bombing, the New York Times (4/24/95) reported surprise at the existence of right-wing terror-gangs: “New Images of Terror… A suspect, a white drifter, evokes new fear.” But right-wing terror is hardly surprising to those who’ve been on the receiving end of it over the years; nor would the pale image of […]
Steve Emerson: Emerson is a journalist (late of U.S. News & World Report and CNN) noted for his anonymous U.S. and Israeli intelligence sources (Extra!, 10-11/92, 11-12/93). These sources led him to announce, in the wake of the World Trade Center explosion, that the “bomber or bombers may be from one of the former Yugoslav […]
Thirty years ago, when Barry Goldwater proposed making Social Security voluntary, he was dismissed as a lunatic. Now, however, the radical transformation of Social Security–essentially its privatization–is the consensus among the political class and the pundits who serve them. The strategy of the privatizers is proving quite successful. Sow doubts about the future solvency of […]
Abstract Researchers who monitor hate propaganda have watched The Spotlight expandits emphasis from stories about Zionist banking conspiracies and the “myth”of the Holocaust to favorable coverage of the militias and neo-Nazi groupslike the Aryan Nation. “The Spotlight fosters and promotes and reflects themilitia’s worldview,” says one researcher of contemporary fascistmovements. The Spotlight is “a bridge […]
True Confession “I admit it — the liberal media were never that powerful, and the whole thing was often used as an excuse by conservatives for conservative failures.” — William Kristol, editor of the Standard, Rupert Murdoch’s soon-to-be-launched conservative weekly (New Yorker, 5/22/95) Dole’s True Lies Sen. Robert Dole condemns Hollywood for producing “nightmares of […]
Bill Clinton was roundly condemned by right-wing talk radio hosts and their allies for “politicizing” the Oklahoma City bombing, but his basic point is undeniable: There is much speech on the radio today that advocates or justifies violence.
When the Oklahoma City bombing captured the attention of the mainstream media, some women’s rights activists expected that the attack would end mainstream media’s reluctance to report on violence against abortion-providers and other domestic terror threats. That reasonable hope was dashed. With its first reporting of the Oklahoma story, the New York Times (4/20/95) ran […]
“If the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms insists upon a firefight, give them a firefight. Just remember, they’re wearing flak jackets and you’re better off shooting for the head.”
A good public library strives to offer balance, diversity and inclusivity in providing sources of information for all members of the community. Libraries do not always live up to this ideal, however. Often progressive alternatives to mainstream or right-wing publications are overlooked. Faced with cutbacks in funding in recent years, many public libraries have had […]
There are approximately 5 million Muslims in the U.S. — nearly as many as there are Jews, and more than there are Episcopalians. Early in the next century, Islam will probably be the largest non-Christian religion in the country (L.A. Times, 12/17/94). Yet there’s rarely a mention of Muslims in the media that doesn’t have […]
“How come the cars on television commercials can’t seem to find the road?” my Aunt Sue asked me a couple of years ago. Indeed, TV cars and trucks are found splashing through creeks, climbing rocky slopes, parked in wetlands, invading deserts and even perched on needlelike pinnacles, but rarely are they shown actually driving down […]
On May 1, a week before the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe, the New York Times ran a front-page article by Stephen Kinzer under the headline, “Germans More Willing to Confront Nazi Crimes.” Referring to “a month of observances at former Nazi concentration camps” in the lead of his […]
“Earth Day alarmists had it wrong,” proclaimed conservative columnist Joseph Perkins of the San Diego Union in a pre-Earth Day commentary (5/1/95). Drawing on a New Yorker article (3/10/95) written by veteran Newsweek writer Gregg Easterbrook, Perkins takes to task liberals and “greenies” for “grossly overstating the prospects of global warming, the threat of species […]
