FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
Homeland’s key plot themes are the infiltration of the US administration by Muslim extremists (a nod to Islamophobic conspiracy theories); suspicion of ordinary Muslim Americans, especially converts; and the psychological turmoil of the leading Muslim character, who is caught between his all-American family and the pull of extremist indoctrination.
A colossal wave of abortion restrictions have battered reproductive rights across the nation, leaving in its wake the greatest threat to choice in recent memory. Nevertheless, the corporate media have responded with a collective yawn, suggesting a deep-seated indifference toward the people these anti-choice provisions will harm the most—poor women of color.
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos paid $250 million for the Washington Post—but Amazon is being paid more than twice that by the CIA.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership would seem to be a major story with significant real-world impact. But despite its apparent newsworthiness, there were no stories about TPP on the three major network news shows.
Right from the beginning, the January 6 episode of CNN‘s Crossfire sounded like a bad idea. Here’s the announcement that aired at the top of the show: How far below zero does it have to get to cool off the global warming debate? To make things clearer, the top of the show announcement continued: This […]
Watching the corporate media tributes to former South African leader Nelson Mandela, you had to assume that certain aspects of Mandela’s life would be forgotten or downplayed.
To fend off a serious threat to their survival, major newspaper owners promoted a new sense of journalism, one that still dominates the news industry today.
Carlos Slim is the world’s richest person. His father, Julién Slim Haddad, immigrated to Mexico from Lebanon as a teenager, and by the time Carlos was born, the family was well-off, having acquired a number of businesses and real estate in Mexico City. Slim took his father’s financial lessons to heart, starting a stock brokerage […]
In focusing solely on whether some poor Americans can swap places with those in the middle or upper classes, media coverage skirted the larger issue: the growing distance between top and bottom earners.
The George Zimmerman not-guilty verdict was upsetting to those who campaigned for justice for Trayvon Martin, but it wasn’t necessarily surprising to those who have seen many examples of similar killings of young people of color go unpunished. UCLA history professor and author Robin D. G. Kelley (Huffington Post, 7/15/13) wrote, “Justice was always going […]
Attacking Edward Snowden’s character with an amateur understanding of mental health medicine not only distracts from the the secret mass surveillance of U.S. citizens, it also further marginalizes an already highly stigmatized portion of our society.
many high-profile members of the media elite live a rather charmed life. The journalism business looks to be in a disastrous state—but the view from the top is just fine.
When a journalist dies, how can you tell if they’ve had a career that’s upheld the proudest journalistic traditions of challenging the powerful and fearlessly exposing the truth? The New York Times will attempt to piss on that career in the journalist’s obituary.
Snowden, in Marshall’s view, is the kind of leaker who belongs in prison: “I do not see how you can’t prosecute Snowden.” For Marshall and other journalists who fundamentally identify with the state, it’s OK to help journalists to debate surveillance policy—it’s just not OK to try to change it.
The brutal gang rape of a university student in Delhi last December out-raged the establishment media, which were quick to paint India as a nation plagued by deep-seated sexism and misogyny. The New York Times opined (12/29/12) that the rape reflected “an alarming trend in India” of “tolerat[ing] shocking abuse of women” who are “shamed […]
As the Supreme Court finished hearing oral arguments on two same-sex marriage cases, the Wall Street Journal editorial page (3/27/13) proclaimed what has become a mantra of the right on this subject: The liberal media frame opponents of marriage equality as bigots. America’s cultural and media elites are attempting to browbeat the High Court into […]
Withholding important news over supposed national security concerns is nothing new. And in many cases, no official request is even needed—the decision-makers seem to have internalized the notion that keeping the government’s secrets is part of their job.
Joe Biden’s popularity stems from his perception of “folksiness.” In reality, though, Biden’s record is anything but working class–friendly.
The headline on a story by Washington Post media reporter Paul Farhi is “On Iraq, Journalists Didn’t Fail. They Just Didn’t Succeed.” To make that case, though, he has to redefine “failure” so far down that it’s hardly possible to avoid failing.
There are instances where guns are successfully used for self-defense or protection, but those are isolated anecdotes, vastly outweighed by the numbers of gun crimes, and the fact that a gun in your home is far less likely to successfully defend against an attacker than it is to kill or harm you or a family member.
