FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
Writing for CJR.org (6/16/09), Media Bloodhound blogger Brad Jacobson finds that “former CNN correspondent-turned-PR consultant Gene Randall’s video ‘report‘ for oil giant Chevron might be unprecedented for how it blurred the line between public relations and journalism,” but is still more worried that “the Randall/Chevron production raises not only ethical questions, but also the question […]
Senator John Kerry’s post to the SaveTheInternet.com blog (6/16/09) looks at the fact that “nine of the most popular 10 phones are locked in a deal with one of these big wireless carriers,” and how this corporatization limits the new medium: Here’s the issue I think we need to wrestle with: Wireless service providers are […]
Robert Parry of Consortium News (6/15/09) gives hearing to a “strong case” to “undercut the widespread media assumption” of electoral fraud in Iran. But, true or not, “the rush to the ‘fraud’ judgment among much of the U.S. news media is shaping the political realities” and posing that “Ahmadinejad’s ‘theft’ of the election proves that […]
The unlikely news source Voice of America (6/15/09) has Adam Phillips’ profile of Amy Goodman and “the largest public media collaboration in the United States,” Democracy Now!, in which Goodman lays out “her job as a journalist” as “to bring out ‘the voices of people closest to the story at the grassroots’”: In Goodman’s program, […]
Blogging about a male-only film promotion contest at San Diego’s Comic-Con, Charlie Jane Anders (io9.com, 6/15/09) also notices the “L.A. Times published an insulting ‘guide for girls‘” about the convention–which starts out by assuring readers that contrary to what you might believe, the event “is not just for nerdy guys anymore. And it’s not all […]
NPR Check blogger Mytwords has some advice (6/14/09) “in these times of austerity and job ‘shedding‘ at NPR“: “Instead of spending all the money it must take to embed a reporter like Tom Bowman with the U.S. military in Afghanistan, why not cut him out of the picture and just hand a microphone to one […]
Dean Baker (Beat the Press, 6/14/09) has caught “Fox on 15th (a.k.a. ‘The Washington Post‘)” once again “departing from normal news practice” with “another editorial complaining about President Obama’s deficits on the front page.” The piece‘s subhead–“Concern Mounts in White House as 2010 Elections Loom”–prompts some hard questions from Baker: “Who is concerned? The story […]
Deeming “the battle against baseless, worthless grants of anonymity by journalists” to be “at this point, probably futile,” Salon‘s Glenn Greenwald (6/15/09, ad-viewing required) is exasperated to see how “even many of the nation’s best and most valuable reporters–such as the New Yorker‘s Jane Mayer–seem helplessly addicted to it.” Greenwald points to “an otherwise solid […]
Political Animal blogger Steve Benen (6/11/09) has a look at the remarkable occurrence of Fox News‘ Shep Smith “reminding the viewing audience, shortly after the shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, of the DHS report that warned of potentially violent radicals” and “talking about the emails he’s seen from Fox News viewers” he calls […]
Columnist Katha Pollitt (Nation, 6/10/09) has examined the extent to which, “in the immediate aftermath of Dr. Tiller’s murder, it was astonishing how many men were called upon to weigh in on abortion on national television”: CNN featured William Schneider, Sanjay Gupta and Bill Press. On Fox, Bill O’Reilly defended his use of “baby killer” […]
In wonderment that, as “Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is making the rounds of the Capitol this week,” corporate pundit “jackasses are still saying she has to explain her ‘wise Latina’ comment,” Laura Flanders (Women In Media & News, 6/4/09) remarks that “the money-media have spent the week making the comment ‘controversial’ (and then calling […]
Jessica Heslam of the Boston Herald gives ample space (6/12/09) to New York Times chief Arthur Sulzberger Jr. to proclaim he had “no alternative other than to proceed with the wage reduction” of 23 percent at the Boston Globe, because the Globe union’s “Guild leaders made [agreement] impossible,” and even quotes the Newspaper Guild president […]
Writing that “it takes at least tacit faith in massive violence to believe that after three decades of horrendous violence in Afghanistan, upping the violence there will improve the situation,” FAIR associate Norman Solomon (Huffington Post, 6/8/09) tells us that, when last Sunday’s edition of the Washington Post printed the routine headline “Iraq War Deaths,” […]
Finding the May 21 New York Times article on unconvicted (often even uncharged) former Guantanamo prisoners supposedly “rejoining” terrorist groups “especially troubling” in that “it turns the truth upside-down,” Dan Kennedy (UTV, 6/9/09) explains how reporter Elisabeth “Bumiller’s story played into the darkest fears promoted by Cheney and his fellow conservatives by making it appear […]
Responding to “both Likud Party members in Israel as well as their Americans supporters” who “complain that the Obama administration is unduly ‘interfering’ in Israeli politics”–as exemplified by Ben Smith of Politico reporting that “the administration’s escalating pressure on Israel to freeze all growth of its settlements on Palestinian land has begun to stir concern […]
Reporting that “reactionary radio host and white supremacist Hal Turner was taken into custody Wednesday after remarks urging Catholics to ‘take up arms’ against two Connecticut lawmakers and a state ethics official over legislation… regarding the church,” independent news outlet Raw Story‘s John Byrne (6/4/09) deepens the story by recalling that “Turner used to be […]
If you’ve ever wondered why the New York Times‘ labor coverage is just so bad, a lot can be learned by looking at the company’s treatment of its own workers. Newspaper Guild president Dan Totten has published an open letter (6/3/09) about how the Boston Globe-owning Times has chosen to “behave in a highly challenging […]
Washington Monthly contributing editor Art Levine has a piece for In These Times (5/31/09) reporting on economist Anne Layne-Farrar’s recent congressional appearance in which she warned about the horrendous impact of the Employee Free Choice Act. Its potential to increase union membership from between five and 10 percent, she said, ‘would result in an increase […]
Looking at last week’s “whole series of bad reports on the state of the economy,” Dean Baker of Beat the Press and the Center for Economic and Policy Research tells readers of London’s Guardian (6/1/09) if they think “these reports might have led to gloomy news stories,” such assessments are to be found “not in […]
Pratap Chatterjee‘s new TomDispatch essay (5/31/09) explores how Dick Cheney’s mercenary corporation Halliburton recently has managed to largely “Stay Out of Sight While Profiting From the War in Iraq” despite what Tom Engelhardt’s introduction calls “hatfuls of charges against the company for a laundry list of alleged misdeeds“: There were no protesters outside the [annual […]
