FAIR: Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting
The national media watch group
Issues like oil spills, land use rights, groundwater pollution etc. are all complaints made by critics of the Keystone XL pipeline. And looming over all of them is the way that tapping the tar sands will exacerbate climate change. But the media doesn't seem to care.
If you were unnerved to see Democratic and Republican presidential candidates competing over which was a bigger fan of coal, you weren't alone. And: Is affirmative action in danger?
The Washington Post had a two-page spread in its September 11 edition devoted to a "debate" on energy policy. But industry critics were missing from the picture. Why? Perhaps because the oil industry, undisclosed to Post readers, was sponsoring the discussion.
Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: This week marks the two-year anniversary of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Media will be checking in on the Gulf to mark the anniversary—but what will their reporting on this ongoing environmental catastrophe look like? We'll talk to journalist Antonia Juhasz about her new report in the Nation, "Two Years Later: BP's Toxic Legacy." Also on the show: Comments CNN contributor Hilary Rosen about Mitt Romney's wife induced the punditocracy to take up questions of women’s work - and that's never pretty. But besides the silly things that were said, what about some [...]
Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: You've heard the gas industry PR—their ads are all over television and public radio. And the message—that gas drilling is a safe, affordable path to energy independence—is being echoed by some pundits. Anti-fracking activists sure think otherwise, and they're challenging the media-industry line. We'll talk about this with Brendan deMelle of DeSmog Blog. Also on CounterSpin today, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow has a new book taking a critical look at U.S. military power. But how critical? And what lessons can we draw about exactly what kind of critique the corporate media will allow? Author [...]
Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: The right is charging that Barack Obama is responsible for high gas prices, but it’s a given among liberals that Barack Obama has no power over the matter. Media Matters and Think Progress have published pieces chiding Fox News blaming Obama for the high prices at the pump, but could Fox News be right? (Even if for the wrong reasons?) We’ll talk to Tyson Slocum of Public Citizen’s Energy Project about gas prices and politics. Also on CounterSpin today: Remember the debate over health care reform? You might want to forget it, but it's [...]
Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: The Solyndra scandal is the kind of story tailor made for Fox News: A green jobs creating solar power company receiving millions of dollars of taxpayer funds celebrated by the Obama White House... goes belly up. Much of the coverage all but shouts 'Scandal!'. It's not that there's nothing here, but the story we're hearing about Solyndra might not be the one we should be hearing. Journalist and activist Harvey Wasserman will join us to talk about that. Also on CounterSpin today: Sponsored by the same foundations and corporate interests behind what's called education [...]
Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: Why have more than 700 people been arrested at the White House in recent days? Don't ask nightly news-- they've so far yet to find anything newsworthy in the largest environmental action in years: a massive protest against the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. We'll get the story TV's missing from Lorne Stockman, Research Director at the group Oil Change International. Also on CounterSpin today, the Center for American Progress has published a new report on Islamophobia that looks at a prominent network of organizations and individuals who promote hatred of Islam and Muslims in [...]
