PBS NewsHour anchor Jim Lehrer announced on Thursday that he would step down as anchor of the nightly newscast early next month. Will the change lead to improvements at the program? As FAIR has documented in several major studies, the NewsHour falls well short of fulfilling the mission that should guide public broadcasting: the promotion of ideas and viewpoints that are too often excluded from discussions in the commercial media. The founding mandate of public television is to "be a forum for debate and controversy" and to "help us see America whole, in all its diversity." Unfortunately, the NewsHour's programming [...]
May
06
2011
Ignoring Trump's Record of Racism
Donald Trump's efforts to delegitimize Barack Obama by suggesting he's not a native-born citizen, and questioning his qualifications for admissions to Columbia University and Harvard Law School, have drawn fire from prominent media figures like MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell (FAIR Blog, 4/29/11), CBS News anchor Bob Schieffer (CBS Evening News, 4/27/11) and even David Letterman (Late Show, 4/28/11), who have pointed out the racism implicit in Trump's smears. But few corporate journalists have so far put Trump's anti-Obama efforts in the context of earlier racist episodes in the real estate developer's career--a history that sheds light on the potential presidential [...]
May
04
2011
Waterboarding 'Worked'?
Media push pro-torture message
To hear some tell it, the intelligence clues that ultimately led to Osama bin Laden's hideout in Pakistan were generated by the use of torture. But the evidence available so far does not bear this out. Torture advocates on the right are claiming vindication. On Fox News Channel's O'Reilly Factor (5/2/11), Rep. Peter King (R.-N.Y.) announced that we obtained information several years ago, vital information about the courier for Obama [sic]. We obtained that information through waterboarding. And so for those who say that waterboarding doesn't work, to say that it should be stopped and never used again-- we got [...]
Apr
12
2011
Mr. Serious
The Ryan budget plan and the Beltway media
The budget proposal released last week by Rep. Paul Ryan (R.-Wisc.) includes tax cuts for the wealthy, tax hikes for the middle class, drastic cuts in spending and a radical restructuring of Medicare that would shift most of the cost of healthcare to seniors. Its dubious claims of deficit reduction rely on fatally flawed assumptions and inexplicable projections (Center for Budget & Policy Priorities, 4/7/11; CEPR, 4/11). But much of the media coverage about the plan has presented Ryan's proposal as a serious solution to long-term budget problems, or at least the starting point of a serious conversation about the [...]
Mar
11
2011
Remembering David Broder
Despite non-ideological reputation, he pushed political culture to the right
Washington Post columnist and political reporter David Broder died on Wednesday, March 9. Broder was an enormously influential figure in Beltway media circles--"the best political reporter of his generations," wrote his Post colleague Dan Balz (3/10/11). ABC's George Stephanopoulos declared (3/9/11) that "for generations of policy makers, journalists and political junkies, Broder was the gold standard." Broder's work was frequently criticized, something that the Washington Post actually noted in an editorial honoring him (3/10/11): Mr. Broder was often called "the Dean," a position that is now likely to go unfilled in the Washington press corps. His detractors used the term [...]
Mar
08
2011
How Many Afghan Kids Need to Die to Make the News?
The number of Afghan boys gathering firewood killed by a March 1 U.S./NATO helicopter attack in Kunar Province: Nine. The number of stories about the killing of the nine children on ABC, CBS or NBC morning or evening news shows (as of March 6): Two. One was an 80-word report on NBC Nightly News (3/2/11), the other a brief ABC World News Sunday story (3/6/11) about Afghan president Hamid Karzai's "harsh words for the U.S." after the "mistaken killing of nine Afghan boys in an airstrike." On the PBS NewsHour? Two brief mentions (3/2/11, 3/7/11), both during the "other news [...]
Feb
18
2011
How to Save Ourselves From the 'Save PBS' Routine
It is as predictable as can be: Invigorated Republican politicians announce their intention to kill public broadcasting, which they claim is a bastion of liberal bias. Defenders of NPR and PBS step in to defend the system. The Republicans, who were unlikely to win a vote on their plan, retreat for the moment. Public broadcasting is "saved." (See Slate, 2/10/11.) The public broadcasting fight of 2011 is playing out the same way. A more productive discussion of public broadcasting is sorely needed--one that is not reduced to "save it" or "kill it." The purpose of public broadcasting is clear: to [...]
Feb
10
2011
Duvalier = Aristide?
Equation of dictator with popular ex-president distorts Haitian history, reality
It was certainly surprising to see former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier return to the country on January 16. To say he has blood on his hands is an understatement: The Duvalier regimes were responsible for tens of thousands of deaths and widespread torture (Human Rights Watch, 1/17/11), and stole half a billion dollars from the country (Miami Herald, 1/17/11). Soon thereafter, former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide announced his intention to return to his country from exile. Aristide, twice elected and twice overthrown by coups, remains a popular figure in Haitian politics. His first stint in office was remarkably peaceful (Extra!, 11-12/94); [...]
