When Kids Die, War Is the Real Victim When a U.S. staff sergeant was accused of killing 16 civilians in an Afghan village, nine of them children, corporate media treated it as a crisis—for the war and those waging it. The massacre was “a public relations headache” (AP, 3/12/12) and “a public relations disaster” (Reuters, 3/12/12). “Killings Threaten Afghan Mission” (3/12/12) was a USA Today headline; the NPR website labeled its reports “Killings a Blow to U.S. Strategy in Afghanistan” (3/13/12) and “Afghan Shootings Could Complicate U.S. Mission” (3/12/12). The New York Times (3/12/12) talked about “a feeling of siege [...]
Search Results for: Staff
May
01
2012
Letters to the Editor
Extra! April 2012
Journalists, Teachers and the War for Truth Journalists like Robert Jensen certainly do “rock” (Extra!, 3/12) but like we teachers are caught between that and a hard place. After 25 years of teaching “in the trenches,” I’ve always understood how the war for truth goes: Journalists are in the front lines and we teachers are the support troops. Both of our professions are fighting for truth in a world filled with lies and, as always in war, truth is the first casualty. Ray Peterson Buffalo, N.Y. Kettle Owes Pot Apology In the April 2011 edition of Extra!, a Soundbites piece [...]
Apr
01
2012
12th Annual Fear & Favor Review
Power and profit continue to twist the news
At a mandatory-attendance office party celebrating his first year as publisher, the Daytona Beach News Journal’s Michael Redding announced a new idea over marble cake and fruit: The paper’s newsroom staff, including reporters and editors, should also start selling advertising and subscriptions (Flagler Live, 3/31/11). Redding offered incentives to staffers who haven’t had a raise in four years: a $25 bonus for selling a three-month subscription, $50 for selling $100 worth of ads. This bold contempt for the idea that journalists should be insulated against the explicitly profit-motivated side of media is every day more prevalent. For every journalist who [...]
Apr
01
2012
Top Op-Ed Pages Offer Choice of Elites
On reigning issues, convergent perspectives
By Nick Porter
While it would be naive to accept the newspaper business’s implication that it keeps its news entirely factual by segregating opinion to its own section, the op-ed pages do state opinion more explicitly and help make visible the range of opinions allowed in the rest of the paper. What kind of writers do the major papers put on their staff? Who gets to speak on these pages, and who gets left out? Extra! looked at the writers represented on the op-ed pages of three major, nationally significant newspapers: the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal. The time [...]
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
The Trade Debate That Wasn't Reported
Critics of deals outnumbered more than 4-to-1 in NYT, WSJ
By Todd Tucker
In the 16 months leading up to the congressional vote on a set of trade deals with Korea, Colombia and Panama in mid-October, news reporting on the agreements scarcely mentioned that critics existed; when they were acknowledged, their objections were frequently mischaracterized. With media doing little to evaluate misleading claims made by the trade pacts’ proponents, all three were approved by Congress by considerable margins. There were two major points that opponents of the trio of deals—including labor, environmental, consumer and even Tea Party groups—consistently emphasized in reports, press releases, letters and direct outreach to reporters. First, these trade deals [...]
Dec
01
2011
Youth Reporting--Aided by NewsHour
Outsiders’ voices making inroads at PBS
“There are a lot of marginalized communities that really need to be involved in this struggle,” insists a young woman from the People of Color Working Group of Occupy Wall Street. Another organizer reflects, “Marginalized communities from New York City, particularly oppressed people, people of color...were totally underrepresented, and it was unclear if that was going to change. But it has. It really, really has.” These critiques of Occupy Wall Street, by some of the young people shaping and propelling the growing protest, are not typical stories you see on websites and broadcasts of major news outlets. Even as Occupy [...]
Nov
29
2011
Keep the Heat on Corporate Media— Support FAIR Today!
After 25 years, FAIR feels more energized than ever. Why? Our sold-out anniversary celebration in New York with Glenn Greenwald, Amy Goodman, Noam Chomsky and Michael Moore inspired us. Tens of thousands of readers visit our website each and every month. Activists and academics tell us they're drawing on FAIR's expertise and experience. FAIR's analysis has even made it into major media outlets like NPR and the Washington Post. We have documented and debunked media attacks on workers in Wisconsin and beyond. We challenged the media's pro-war tilt from Afghanistan to Libya. And we pushed back against the media panic [...]
