FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
When a regulator’s appointment is hosannaed by the corporations he is supposed to be regulating, the public should be concerned. When the person charged with defending the public interest in telecommunications acknowledges that he has “no idea” (Columbia Journalism Review, 7-8/01) what the public interest is, telegraphs his willingness to eliminate virtually every remaining check […]
Introduction Surveys of working journalists have found that they experience pressure from powerful interests, outside and inside the news business, to push some stories and ignore others, and to shape or slant news content. The sources of pressure include the government, which enlists media to support its actions and policies; corporate advertisers who may demand […]
Despite some limitations, the 10-year-old Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is an historic call for an end to barriers facing this country’s 50 million disabled people in nearly every arena of life. But major news outlets present the ADA as mainly a regulatory issue affecting private businesses, rather than a human rights issue facing society […]
Confronted by protests from the NAACP and others about discrimination in their primetime lineup, the four leading TV networks (ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox) did what powerful institutions often do in such situations: They feigned affront, denied the facts, made excuses and attacked the messenger, then offered patchwork “solutions” and returned to business as usual. […]
June 16, 1999, Carthage, Tennessee. Vice President Al Gore has just held his presidential campaign launch rally, and CNN goes live to on-scene reporter Jeanne Meserve, who begins: Bill, as you know, these political events are very carefully choreographed, and the Gore campaign cannot be happy about the fact that heckling broke out at the […]
The “perp walk,” in which recent arrestees are paraded for news cameras, and the “ride along,” in which media accompany cops on the job, are standard features of mainstream media’s reporting on crime. But both practices, which involve close relationships between reporters and police, have been challenged by courts in recent months. Media aren’t […]
Mainstream news media are shortchanging the public—especially women—in their coverage of affirmative action. Consideration of affirmative action’s impact and meaning for women of all colors is largely missing from news stories, and women are severely underrepresented on opinion pages. Worse—with a few exceptions, major media are reporting the debate on affirmative action without reference to […]
In mainstream media accounts, the relationship between higher wages for workers (“wage pressure” or “labor costs”) and inflation is simple and certain—as when the New York Times flatly reports (6/5/98) the “concern among investors” that “inflation could increase this year because of rising wage pressures.” A typical story (Boston Globe, 4/5/98) explains that “businesses react […]
There have been numerous instances when media have seized on a supposed medical “phenomenon” and hyped it beyond recognition, distorting facts irresponsibly or simply getting them wrong. But few media fabrications have been as invidious, persistent or politically devastating as that of the so-called “crack baby.” Mid-1980s case studies suggested a possible link between women’s […]
If a newspaper has a political agenda, presumably it would be most visible on its editorial page. Examination of editorials in some of the most prominent dailies—the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and USA Today—on a range of economic and social issues shows that they tend to articulate the same […]
It’s easy to imagine why corporate-owned media might be eager to report the political downfall of Ron Carey—the man who in August 1997 led the 1.4 million-member Teamsters union in the most prominent and popular strike in recent memory. The sudden media fascination with union politics is a little suspicious; many a tainted Teamsters […]
The Public Broadcasting Service last year refused to air Out At Work, a film about workplace discrimination against gays and lesbians, because it was partially funded by unions. The rejection was an unsettling example of the obstacles labor advocates face in participating in media discussion. PBS‘s defense of the funding double standard—which penalizes not just […]
The nation’s newspapers are incensed at the idea that President Bill Clinton might not get “fast track” authority to negotiate trade pacts that Congress can only approve or disapprove, but not amend. Pointing to negative effects of NAFTA, a wide range of critics want future pacts to integrate protections for workers and the environment, and […]
The benefits of the North American Free Trade Agreement were obvious to mainstream U.S. media back in 1992-93. The New York Times (7/21/92) said NAFTA promised “jobs, wealth and economic activity throughout the continent.” The Washington Post declared (9/14/93) that “the list of new opportunities and advantages is a long one,” while insisting (5/11/93) that […]
Patrick Buchanan’s campaign for the Republican presidential nomination presented the establishment media with a dilemma: How do you present someone as an extremist when you’ve employed him as an opinion-shaper for many years? The need for most media to label Buchanan as out of the mainstream may not stem from his well-documented record of bigotry […]
“As corporate America looks beyond downsizing,” began an item in March 19’s Wall Street Journal, “executives search for smart ways to handle virtual offices, telecommuting and team environments.” As part of “corporate America,” corporate-owned media also appear interested in “looking beyond” mass layoffs–but certainly not in challenging them. It’s true that coverage like the New […]
For three and a half weeks last December, hundreds of thousands of workers and students took to the streets all over France. Thousands of nonunion workers and citizens joined the protests against government “austerity” proposals that would slash benefits, increase health care costs and cut funding for education. Something important was happening, but the mainstream […]
The AFL-CIO’s first contested presidential election in 40 years gave the labor movement a brief moment in the media spotlight in October. Although TV news largely ignored the story (on the night of the election, ABC‘s Nightline was devoted to the new baseball season), daily newspapers that rarely focus on labor ran front-page articles on […]
“Quotas Quashed,” crowed the front page of the June 13 New York Post. “High Court Sinks Most Affirmative Action Programs.” Inside, Post writers described the Adarand v. Pena ruling, in which the Supreme Court tightened criteria for some race-conscious federal programs, as a “bombshell decision” that “dealt a crippling blow to affirmative action.” All the […]
In a bizarre column blaming TV talkshows, in part, for the “sexually irresponsible culture of poverty,” Newsweek‘s Joe Klein (2/6/95) provided telling insight into how some in mainstream media see their relationship to poor people: “Television is the only sustained communication our society has with the underclass,” Klein wrote. “It is the most powerful […]
