FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
Writing that Huffington Post reporter Sam Stein’s tough questioning of President Obama was a healthy “confrontational question,” Steve Benen of the Washington Monthly‘s Political Animal blog thinks that (2/10/09) “more importantly, as Ezra [Klein at the American Prospect] noted, it was ‘confrontational from the left rather than from the center.’” Benen then looks at stimulus […]
Salon‘s Glenn Greenwald (2/10/09, ad-viewing required) gets worked up over one entry in the National Review‘s “25 Best Conservative Movies of the Last 25 Years”: One of its writers, S.T. Karnick–who… considers Rambo to be a sterling theatrical achievement that celebrates authentic Christian values–named the genuinely superb 1985 Terry Gilliam film, Brazil, as #22 on […]
Courtesy of Ben Armbruster (Think Progress, 2/9/09), generally right-leaning media “critic” Howard Kurtz displays a total lack of self-reflection when, after discussing the sexism Katie Couric faced “as the first woman to anchor a network news program,” Kurtz then asked Couric if her new hairstyle has something to do with her most recent successes: KURTZ: […]
Jon Stewart has a Daily Show bit (2/9/09) replaying Bill O’Reilly’s staunch declarations that “we hate those paparazzi, we think they’re the scum of the earth” because “the right to privacy is a basic constitutional tenet.” That sounds like quite a principled stand; the only trouble comes when Stewart then shows O’Reilly Factor clips of […]
Calling it “something of a breakthrough” that, at his most recent press conference, Barack Obama took a question from Sam Stein of the Huffington Post, Steve Benen (Political Animal, 1/10/09) explains that Washington Post media writer Howard Kurtz isn’t quite correct in saying “Obama made a bit of history by calling on the first blogger […]
Mark Howard (News Corpse, 2/9/08) rebuts “complaints from Republicans, who accused the president of politicizing the Census” by announcing that the new Director of the Census–being a “far-right Republican running an agency for which he has shown contempt”–will have to “work closely with the White House”: “The Census has always been political…. George Bush installed […]
Washington Post TV writer Lisa de Moraes’ report (2/6/09) on a Barack Obama speech planned for networks’ cherished prime-time hours gives plenty of room to TV executives’ grievances–namely, Obama is going on national TV to talk about the economic crisis–during primetime, when some of their best shows are on! “His economic stimulus package apparently does […]
Media Matters‘ Jamison Foser (2/6/09) has “one fact that should be made clear in every news report about the stimulus package working its way through Congress, it is this: Government spending is stimulative“–and Foser provides evidence that, “unfortunately, many of the reporters who have shaped the stimulus debate don’t seem to understand that.” After quoting […]
NPR critic Mytwords was pleasantly surprised (NPR Check, 2/9/09) by Ari Shapiro’s All Things Considered report “covering the ACLU case against Jeppesen–a subsidiary of Boeing–that has provided the torture flights for the CIA’s extraordinary rendition program.” That is, until “about three quarters of the way through,” when “Shapiro closed the piece by featuring attorney David […]
“Though seemingly forgotten by most TV talking heads,” it’s still fresh in Robert Parry’s mind (Consortium News, 2/9/09) how “it was only three years ago, when the Republicans had control of both the White House and Congress—and ‘filibuster‘ was a dirty word”: It was usually coupled with “obstructionist” amid demands that any of George W. […]
Remembering how, “for days, the mainstream media talked endlessly about… Michael Vick. Dogfighting. Blood sport,” OnlineJournal.com writer Missy Comley Beattie (2/9/09) recalls being “utterly dismayed that so many people who expressed outrage over Vick’s crime, seemed to pay little or no attention to the killing of civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan.” Which leads Beattie to […]
Chronicling how “media continue to do more to misinform the public than to inform them” about the current economic crisis, Dean Baker (Beat the Press, 2/8/09) spots “the absolute worst in journalistic practices” when “a front-page Washington Post article explains the Obama administration’s policy by telling readers that the ‘approach reflects Treasury Secretary Timothy F. […]
La Frontera Times reporter Alfredo Gutierrez has the latest (2/6/09) from new Fox reality show star Joe Arpaio. The Arizona sheriff, under FBI investigation for violating civil rights in his crusade against immigration, recently marched all of the Maricopa County immigrant detainees–chained together in full prisoner uniforms–down the street “from the Durango Jail to the […]
The folks at Think Progress recently brought us “a report showing that, in the debate over the House economic recovery bill on the five cable news networks, Republican members of Congress outnumbered their Democratic counterparts by a ratio of 2 to 1.” Now that the legislation “passed the House last week with zero Republican votes, […]
Editor & Publisher‘s Greg Mitchell gives another glimpse (Mother Jones, 2/5/09) at his Why Obama Won book, which found “reporters and pundits focused on flag pins, bowling and fairly trivial faux pas”–thus yielding “far more media lowlights than highlights.” Resisting the urge to “do a full article just on William Kristol‘s errors and flubs at […]
It’s disturbing enough to read Chris Tomlinson’s account (Huffington Post, 2/5/09) of the fact that “the Pentagon now spends more than $550 million a year–at least double the amount since 2003–on public affairs, and that doesn’t including personnel costs” and how “over the past two years, the number of public affairs officers trained by the […]
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs‘ Michael Gillespie (1-2/09) saw Alison Weir of If Americans Knew speak about her group’s “look at a category that would be universally accepted as significant and quantifiable” to examine U.S. media coverage of the Israel’s occupation of Palestine: “We settled on coverage of deaths among both populations.” Explaining that […]
How distorted is the corporate media concept of critical journalism? Just look at Media Matters‘ write up (2/5/09) of a cable news show that named one commentator its “Muckraker of the Day” for presenting bogus evidence against global warming: On the February 2 edition of MSBNC‘s 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, anchor David Shuster let syndicated columnist […]
Wendy Norris of the Colorado Independent (2/2/09) reports that the “National Hispanic Media Coalition is urging the FCC to explore the extent, effects and potential counter-responses to ethnic bias on radio” and “probe whether there is a connection between odious radio yakking and hate crimes.” The coalition’s latest focus is a UCLA Chicano Studies Research […]
Having been traveling, Salon.com‘s Glenn Greenwald (2/4/09, ad-viewing required) found himself “subjected to far more cable news over the last 24 hours than I typically endure in an entire month.” Some results from Greenwald’s impromptu casual survey: The consensus regarding Tom Daschle seems to be that his withdrawal was necessitated due to (a) Obama’s incessant […]
