Search Results for: Michael Corcoran

Jan
01
2013

Dark Money Dominates Election

Campaign--and media coverage--still tainted by Citizens United decision

CBS's president Les Moonves: What's bad for America is "very good for CBS." (Photo cred.: LATimes.com)

“Super PACs may be bad for America, but they’re very good for CBS.” CBS president Les Moonves’ candid comment at an entertainment law conference (Bloomberg, 3/10/12) was one of the few honest things said by someone so deeply involved in the post–Citizens United political ad frenzy. This past election season was dominated by a record amount of ads, including many that were alarmingly misleading, and which raked in record profits for the media corporations who covered the election. Moonves was celebrating what, according to Bloomberg (3/10/12), was a projected boost in profits “by $180 million this year from political advertising,” [...]

Feb
01
2012

Ignoring Monetary Stimulus as Economic Policy

U.S. media offer austerity as nonsensical solution

With the United States now years into a crippling economic downturn, and Europe facing a looming economic crisis, media have been covering the economy more than any other issue. The two most recent annual reports on U.S. media coverage from the Pew Center for Excellence in Journalism (2009-10) conclude that “the No. 1 story of the year was the weakened state of the U.S. economy.” Despite this enormous amount of coverage, corporate media present only a narrow range of possible policy prescriptions for the economic crisis. While reducing entitlement spending and otherwise cutting the deficit tend to worsen economic downturns, [...]

Nov
01
2011

Uygur Out at MSNBC

Another progressive show canceled for political reasons

Cenk Uygur--Photo Credit: Flickr Creative Commons/Streamys

When talkshow host Cenk Uygur announced that his short tenure at MSNBC had come to an end due to his criticism of “those in power” (Young Turks, 7/20/11), it highlighted an unsettling pattern at the channel. Uygur’s ouster represented the third time in recent years that a show hosted by someone with progressive ideals and a willingness to challenge the status quo was canceled, despite good ratings. In January of this year Keith Olbermann, well known for his public disputes with right-wing figures, was terminated by MSNBC, just after control of the channel was sold by General Electric to Comcast [...]

Aug
01
2011

Extra! Contents

Volume 24, Number 8

SoundBites Letters COVER STORY The Fires This Time In coverage of extreme weather, media downplay climate change by Neil deMause ‘Humanitarian War’ in Libya—or the Regular Kind? Factchecking the case for Obama’s bombing by Peter Hart Desperate for Democracy in Iraq Protesters fight for what U.S. media say they already have by Julie Hollar The End of the Bill Keller Era NYT chief did not challenge state power—he served it by Michael Corcoran On Lockout, NFL and Media Play on the Same Team TV deals give networks billions of reasons to root for owners by Zachary Tomanelli

Jul
01
2011

The End of the Bill Keller Era

NYT chief did not challenge state power—he served it

When Bill Keller announced that he would soon be stepping down as the New York Times’ top editor, he was hailed as the man “who rebuilt the confidence of the New York Times newsroom after the Jayson Blair scandal” (Forbes, 6/2/11). Rem Rieder of American Journalism Review (3-4/11) wrote that Keller “righted the ship” and “deserves major credit for steering our most important news organization in an immensely challenging time, for the most part avoiding the icebergs.” Hendrik Hertzberg (New Yorker, 6/3/11) commended his tenure: “The quality and quantity of Times journalism remain unsurpassed on Planet Earth.” Despite all the [...]

Jan
01
2011

Media Don't Bite the Ruling That Feeds Them

Citizen United fills airwaves—and corporate coffers

The 2010 midterm elections were the first since the Supreme Court’s 5-4 Citizens United decision allowed unlimited corporate funding of political broadcasts in elections. As was widely predicted at the time, spending hit unprecedented highs this election cycle, including record sums on television ads. In the words of the Associated Press (10/29/10), Citizens essentially constituted a “stimulus package” for broadcast and cable media corporations, which saw major increases in revenue, thus benefiting from the ever-deepening relationship between money and politics. In fact, media corporations raked in a record $3 billion this midterm election cycle, not only breaking the previous midterm [...]

Oct
01
2010

Media Continue Bank Bailout Advocacy

Shunning progressive critics while hailing success of TARP

For corporate media, the verdict is already in: The Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP), the unpopular program that redistributed some $700 billion of U.S. taxpayer funds upwards, to the very financial institutions that contributed to the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, is an unabashed success. It is hardly stunning that corporate media would react favorably to one of the biggest boons for big corporations in U.S. history. When the bailout initially failed to make it through Congress in 2008 due to House opposition, journalists quickly accepted and reinforced the narrative that the unpopular legislation—which gave unprecedented power to [...]

Jul
01
2010

The Flotilla Story U.S. Media Won't Report

Ignoring evidence that counters Israeli claims

At a June 10 press conference (Cultures of Resistance, 6/10/10), passengers from the Mavi Marmara released new footage of the Israel Defense Forces’ deadly May 31 raid on the ship, which killed nine activists attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza in defiance of the Israeli blockade. Days earlier, another video was released allegedly showing the IDF beating and then executing a U.S. citizen, although the identity of the passenger in the video has not been confirmed (Informed Comment, 6/10/10; Tikkun, 6/10/10). Obviously, two videos alone could not possibly tell the whole story of what happened that night, but they [...]

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