The Society of Professional Journalists’ decision to give its prestigious "First Amendment Award" to embattled New York Times reporter Judith Miller is a blow to freedom of expression. By rewarding a reporter who was apparently collaborating with and protecting a powerful official in an effort to punish the free speech of a government critic, the SPJ is undermining, not advancing, the principles of the First Amendment. The award, coming two days after details of Miller’s involvement in the CIA leak story and her grand jury testimony were revealed by the New York Times (10/16/05), was defended by SPJ board member [...]
Apr
01
2005
Blunting Bolton's Problems
The day after George W. Bush nominated John Bolton as the new American envoy to the United Nations, the headline in the New York Times (3/8/05) was “Bush Nominates Weapons Expert as Envoy to U.N.” But calling him an “expert” might need a little explanation--and the Times should know this as well as anyone. In September 2003, Bolton was set to testify before Congress about various weapons threats around the world. The Times' Judith Miller wrote a story in advance (9/16/03), noting that Bolton was worried about Syria's chemical weapons systems, and claiming that Bolton's take was backed up by [...]
Mar
01
2005
John Hess, 1917-2005
Editor's Note
This issue's cover story concerns the late journalist Gary Webb, but another reporter's recent death was just as great a loss. John Hess, a great reporter and a great friend of FAIR, died on January 21 at the age of 87. John used to say that the term "investigative reporter" was redundant, because all reporters are supposed to be investigators, rather than simply parroting what people in power were saying. On one issue he was nearly alone in showing skepticism: As far back as the 1980s, John was debunking claims of a "crisis" in Social Security, pointing out how such [...]
Dec
07
2004
NY Times Responds to FAIR on Fallujah Killings
December 7, 2004 On November 16, FAIR issued an action alert about misleading reporting in the New York Times regarding civilian casualties in Fallujah. FAIR noted that in coverage of the recent U.S.-led assault on the city, the Times characterized civilian deaths from the April siege of Fallujah as "unconfirmed" on three separate occasions ("mostly unconfirmed reports of large civilian casualties"--11/8/04; "unconfirmed reports of heavy civilian casualties"--11/9/04; "unconfirmed reports of large civilian casualties"--11/15/04). What follows is the response from Times public editor Daniel Okrent, which was posted on the paper's website (12/1/04): -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Reporting Civilian Casualties Since the beginning of [...]
Nov
16
2004
New York Times Rewrites Fallujah History
(NOTE: Please read the update to this alert.) In three recent reports about the military invasion of the Iraqi city of Fallujah, the New York Times has misreported the facts about the April 2004 invasion of the city and the toll it took on Iraqi civilians. On November 8, the Times reported: In April, American troops were closing in on the city center when popular uprisings broke out in cities across Iraq. The outrage, fed by mostly unconfirmed reports of large civilian casualties, forced the Americans to withdraw. American commanders regarded the reports as inflated, but it was impossible to [...]
Sep
01
2004
Spinning the Bomb
The New York Times has distorted nuclear issues from the beginning, author finds
News Zero: The New York Times and the Bomb By Beverly Ann Deepe Keever Common Courage Press Reviewed by Karl Grossman The New York Times has for decades downplayed—indeed suppressed—the dangers of radioactivity, according to an exhaustive study by a professor of journalism at the University of Hawaii. Beverly Ann Deepe Keever is a former reporter (and Vietnam correspondent) for outlets like the New York Herald Tribune, Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. Her book News Zero: The New York Times and The Bomb, just published by Common Courage Press, begins with the birth of the nuclear age—and finds that distortion [...]
Apr
20
2004
New York Times Responds to FAIR
New York Times public editor Daniel Okrent posted a response to FAIR's April 15 Action Alert: Different forms of articles require different approaches for their writers. An April 15 "Reporter's Notebook" by Sheryl Gay Stolberg, made light of some aspects of the hearings of the 9/11 commission, and in so doing roused the ire of FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting), a liberal press watchdog group. FAIR and many of its adherents felt that the report on an exchange between commission member Richard Ben-Veniste and Attorney General John Ashcroft was trivialized by its inclusion in Stolberg's article. Further, they argued, [...]
Apr
16
2004
Turning Questions into Conspiracy Theories
(NOTE: Please read the update to this alert.) In its eagerness to find a lighter side to the September 11 commission hearings, the New York Times ended up trampling on the news. In a "Reporter's Notebook" feature in the Times' April 15 edition, reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg wrote a series of what might be called human interest items on the hearings: A former FBI director doesn't know how to type; the audience chuckled at Janet Reno's being flummoxed by an acronym. The last item, however, presented a legitimate question about pre-September 11 warnings as a joke. "It wouldn't be a [...]
