Sexism — FAIR: Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting

Jun

2012

Being Transgender in American Media

Most journalists get pronouns right, but issues wrong

Jenna Talackova--Photo Credit: Flickr Creative Commons

GENDER FOCUS Give the corporate media cookies for finally getting pronouns right when reporting on transgender people. That only took dozens of years. Now if we could curb the media fixation on genitalia, we might be really getting somewhere. Because when it comes to covering transgender issues, media are still asking all the wrong questions, and framing the stories in the most offensive ways. Let’s examine the media swarm around Miss Universe Canada contestant Jenna Talackova. In April, Talackova was ousted from the pageant because of her transgender identity, and then later reinstated. Sure, reporters and newscasters were practically bursting [...]

Apr

2012

Women's Bodies, Men's Voices

All-male contraception debates signal rollback of reproductive rights

By Megan Tady

In mid-February, Congress convened an all-male panel to discuss “religious freedom” (read: birth control), and rejected a woman who attempted to testify. The next day, a gaggle of only men appeared on the MSNBC talkshow Morning Joe (2/17/12) to consider the atrocity of an all-male panel weighing women’s reproductive rights. The irony was lost on the fellas, but not on this broad, though I did consider asking four celibate men to write this column for me while I blushed demurely in the corner every time the word “contraception” was mentioned. Then I remembered it’s not 1950. Here’s what’s really got [...]

Dec

2011

Questions Are Discouraged When Women in Military Die

Pentagon seeks to spin, squelch stories on female fatalities

By John Lasker

More than 140 U.S. military women have died in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the military has officially placed nearly 50 of these deaths in the ambiguous “non-combat” category (Democracy Now!, 7/23/08). Some women’s veterans and advocacy groups, such as VETWOW (Veteran Women Organizing Women), say at least 20 of these non-combat deaths are suspicious, and their families are speaking out to some degree, questioning the military’s official explanations. In at least two of the 20 deaths under scrutiny, the military has tried to strongarm media that were questioning the official ruling —in one case threatening to pull military advertising if [...]

Nov

2011

Julie Berebitsky on sexual harassment, Jim Horn on education

Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: Sexual harassment has been in the news recently because of allegations that GOP presidential hopeful Herman Cain sexually harassed women in the 1990s. But what does the way media discuss sexual harassment tell us about how we view women, especially working women? We'll talk to Julie Berebitsky, professor of history and womens' studies at Sewanee: The University of the South. Also on CounterSpin today, the corporate media message on schools and so-called education reform is consistent: more testing, more charter schools, and more pressure to weed out underperforming teachers. But what happens when facts [...]

Jul

2011

Devin Burghart on Norway terror, Julianne Escobedo Shepherd on Strauss-Kahn case

Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: The US media narrative equating terrorism with Islam was on embarrassing display last week following the Norwegian terror attacks, a story which raised issues about right-wing extremism, and the links between violent speech and violent actions. We'll speak with Devin Burghart, the vice president of the Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights, who has written about white nationalism in Norway and the US. Also on CounterSpin today, some things about the Dominique Strauss Kahn rape case are all-too familiar: a famous, powerful suspect, an anonymous accuser whose background and personal life are [...]

Jan

2011

Bob Parry on GOP 'info war,' Nancy Lockhart on Scott sisters

Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: the Tea Party takes power in Washington. The new Republican majority in the House of Representatives brought a certain type of political theater—giant gavels, the reading of the Constitution, and John Boehner's tears. But there is another kind of theater to come, as Republicans vow to launch a variety of investigations of the Obama White House. Robert Parry of Consortium News will join us to talk about how these efforts are likely to play in the press. Also on CounterSpin today, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour commuted the sentences of Jamie and Gladys Scott. The [...]

Aug

2010

Who Gets to Review and Be Reviewed?

Authors, book critics drawn from narrow pool

By Steve Rendall and Zachary Tomanelli

When it comes to political books, the New York Times Book Review and the C-SPAN book show After Words share an exceedingly narrow view of whose books deserve review—and who is fit to discuss them. A FAIR study found that these important media venues for discussion of newly published books were overwhelmingly dominated by white and male authors, reviewers and interviewers. FAIR’s study examined every episode of After Words from March 2008 to January 2010, and the reviews of politically themed books in the New York Times Book Review from January 2009 to February 2010. In total, the study counted [...]

Jun

2010

Wealth Gap Yawns--and So Do Media

Little interest in study of massive race/gender disparities

By Julie Hollar

The Insight Center for Community Economic Development (3/8/10) released a stunning report about the wealth gap for women of color: Single black women have a median wealth of $100 and Hispanic women of $120—dramatically lower than white men ($43,800), white women ($41,500) or black men ($7,900). Insight Center for Community Economic Development, March 2010 The median wealth for single white women in their prime working years, age 36-49, is 61 percent of the wealth of their male counterparts, who own $70,030. That’s terrible, but the corresponding ratio between women and men of color is nearly off the charts, at just [...]