Oct 14 2016

Mark Trahant on Dakota Access, Tess Borden on Criminalizing Drug Use

The standoff over the Dakota Access pipeline is not a “harbinger” of the fight to make “Keep It in the Ground” more than a slogan; harbingers are about the future, and climate disruption and the people on its frontlines are stories of today. So who’s telling that story?

Oct 13 2016

Russia, Terror and Taxes Dominate Debates; Climate, Poverty, Abortion Barely Mentioned

A review of topics mentioned and questions asked in the first three presidential/vice-presidential debates shows a significant emphasis on Russia, terrorism and taxes—pushing aside most other issues, including climate change, abortion, education, campaign finance and LGBTQ rights.

Oct 10 2016

Blaming Millennials for Their Elders’ Trump Attraction

There’s an attempt by some pundits to blame Millennials for the rise of Trump, bending logic and basic social science in the process. These attempts come in different forms, but one recent gambit is to point the finger for Trumpism on the falling standards of civic education, a thesis that either implicitly or explicitly indicts younger voters

Oct 7 2016

The Crucial Campaign Day Most TV Journalists Won’t Tell You About

Compared with registered voters, those who don’t register are more likely to be young, lower-income people of color. Despite this—or perhaps because of this—corporate media have done little to alert the public about voter registration deadlines.

Oct 7 2016

US Media Don’t Need to Look Abroad to Find an Abortion Crisis

US media saw a story in the work boycott and street protests by some 6 million women in Poland that led to a reversal of government plans to put through a complete ban on abortion. But there are numerous places in the US where women face real, substantive barriers to abortion.

Oct 7 2016

Coverage of Haiti and Hurricane Reinforces a Sad, Static Storyline

It’s hard to wish for more of corporate media’s sad, static storyline about Haiti and the hurricane, even as research shows a relationship between the amount of media coverage a disaster receives and the generosity of the response in terms of aid.

Oct 7 2016

Dahr Jamail on Climate Disruption, Richard Phillips on Trump’s Taxes

From vanishing ice to animal die-offs to increasing wildfires, scientists use words like “unprecedented” and “staggering” to describe the evident impacts of human-driven climate disruption. Elite media say they take it all very seriously…. How far are they from taking it seriously enough?

Oct 6 2016

NYT Declares Snowden a Thief–and Journalism a Crime

If the New York Times is going to call Edward Snowden’s documents “stolen,” then journalists frequently receive “stolen” records from sources and use them as the basis for stories—as the Times itself has done with documents released by Snowden.