Search Results for: Ina Howard

May
01
2013

When Bigotry Is 'Balance'

Media still worried homophobes aren't being heard

Cover

As the Supreme Court finished hearing oral arguments on two same-sex marriage cases, the Wall Street Journal editorial page (3/27/13) proclaimed what has become a mantra of the right on this subject: The liberal media frame opponents of marriage equality as bigots. America’s cultural and media elites are attempting to browbeat the High Court into coercing the country into recognizing same-sex marriage by casting opponents as bigots for holding a position that President Obama held less than a year ago. Murdoch’s Journal is woefully misguided on two counts. It’s hard to make the case that the most prominent arguments against [...]

Mar
01
2013

SoundBites

Extra! March 2013

FireShot Screen Capture #042 - 'FAIR TV_ Obama's Liberal Inaugural_, Anonymous Iran Truth-Telling, PBS Drone Conflict' - www_fair_org_blog_2013_01_25_fair-tv-obamas-liberal-inaugural-anonymous-iran-truth-telling-

If It Weren’t for Those Meddling Iranians “This demonstrates the ever pernicious Iranian meddling in other countries in the region.” —unnamed U.S. official complaining to Reuters (1/28/13) about Iran allegedly sending arms to Yemen, where the U.S. is conducting a secret drone war   Extreme Weather, Unexplained NBC Nightly News (1/13/13) asked a serious question, then offered an unserious answer. Anchor Lester Holt remarked: “Strange winter: Why it is so cold where it should be warm, and so warm where it should be cold. What is going on with all this extreme weather?” Correspondent Kristen Dahlgren turned to the Weather [...]

Oct
01
2012

Guide to Election Coverage 2012

Tropes, tricks and tics of campaign journalism

Every four years, U.S. media spend untold time and energy covering the presidential campaign. And every election cycle there are certain media themes that keep coming back. Extra! has compiled a guide to the most popular recurring tropes, as well as some new additions to keep an eye on in 2012. Candidate Caricatures In 2008, journalists gave us McCain the maverick vs. Obama the snob (Extra!, 5–6/08, 7–8/08): easily digestible caricatures that the candidates’ every action could be forced into. It didn’t matter that McCain toed the party line more than your average Republican, or that Obama’s middle-class, community activist [...]

Jun
01
2012

NATO Protesters Free to Shout Down Hole

Praising police, ignoring protesters’ message

Veterans tossed away their medals at the NATO protest--Photo Credit: Democracy Now!

If a protester shouts in a city and no one’s there to hear, does she make a sound? Police corral protesters into so-called “free speech” zones, far from their intended political targets and on streets emptied of passersby. Corporate mass media barely cover the protesters’ message. The voices of protest are heard almost exclusively by fellow protesters on the streets and readers of independent media, and corporate journalists declare it a triumph of free speech. This is the reality of American protest today, on display in Chicago during the NATO summit protests in May. The news story that emerged was [...]

Mar
01
2012

Stopping Short on Stop and Frisk

NYT reports racist policy but won’t call for its end

The New York Times (12/1/99) reported in 1999 the finding of an investigation by state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer that the New York Police Department’s “stop and frisk” program unfairly targeted black and Hispanic people. “Police officials have long contended that the disparity was based on the fact that most people are stopped in poor, high-crime neighborhoods, many of which have a majority of black and Hispanic residents,” the story explained. “But the attorney general’s analysis found that, even when the statistics were adjusted to take higher crime rates among minorities into account, the number of blacks and Hispanics stopped [...]

Feb
01
2012

SoundBites

February 2012

Why Can’t Ron Paul Look More Like Gingrich? So why, with his long-held views and an enthusiastic base of support, does [Ron] Paul get so little attention? It’s not only his anti-establishment message. Part of his acceptance issue is the way he presents himself. As much as he is a refreshing departure from the mold, he also comes across as a gadfly. Consider if Paul had the heftier, more serious bearing of a Romney or a Gingrich. Would he be so easy to dismiss? In the Darwinian world of public perception, it’s easy to discount what you hear from someone [...]

Apr
01
2011

Worthy and Unworthy Border Murders

To media, some Arizona killings are more interesting than others

Brisenia Flores

In March 2010, prominent European-American rancher Robert Krentz was murdered in a remote area of his sprawling property near Douglas, Arizona. Details of the crime remain murky. Early media reports cited authorities claiming to have tracked footprints from the murder scene 20 miles south to the Mexican border (New York Times, 4/4/10). A month after the killing, the Arizona Daily Star (5/3/10) cited “high-ranking government officials with credible information” in saying that “investigators are focusing on a suspect in the United States.” According to the Star, the officials, who wouldn’t be named, “expressed a desire to quell the fury over [...]

Mar
01
2011

SoundBites

Biden Rules David Gregory: Mitch McConnell says [WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange]’s a high-tech terrorist, others say this is akin to the Pentagon Papers. Where do you come down? Vice President Joe Biden: I would argue that it’s closer to being a high-tech terrorist than the Pentagon Papers. —NBC’s Meet the Press (12/19/10) Jim Lehrer: Should [Egypt’s Hosni] Mubarak be seen as a dictator? Vice President Joe Biden: Look, Mubarak has been an ally of ours in a number of things and he’s been very responsible on, relative to geopolitical interests in the region.... I would not refer to him as a [...]

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