FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
CNN‘s newest show–OutFront, featuring Erin Burnett–did a “factcheck” of the protest in Lower Manhattan that was long on attitude and short on accuracy. If you’d like the network to take another look, see FAIR’s latest Action Alert. Please leave copies of your messages to CNN, or responses to the alert, in the comment thread below.
I checked out a post from the Web-based publication Capital (9/28/11) about media coverage of the Occupy Wall Street protest because CJR (9/29/11) told me it was a “smart post” that “crunched the numbers” and showed “how there really is no media blackout.” I have to say I would have thought CJR would have higher […]
The same corporate media that will rush to cover the latest burp from Tea Party protesters seem strikingly uninterested in demonstrators camped out in Manhattan’s financial district, protesting the corporate takeover of U.S. politics. Please see FAIR’s latest Action Alert (9/22/11) to call on the broadcast TV networks to pay attention to this activism. You […]
In the L.A. Times today (9/21/11), media reporter James Rainey asks a very important question: In a week that saw the number of people in poverty hit a half-century high and President Obama propose a tax increase on those with million-dollar incomes, will America and the American media finally dig in for a serious conversation […]
Politicians beware: Thomas Friedman is still threatening to launch a third party. In his New York Times column today (9/21/11), Friedman moans: One would hope that our politicians would rise to the challenge by putting forth fair and credible recovery proposals that match the scale of our debt problem and contain the three elements that […]
Fox Sports, covering a football game between the Chicago Bears and Atlanta Falcons (9/11/11), put up a bunch of headlines about Bears quarterback Jay Cutler’s knee problems: Cutler Leaves With Injury Cutler Lacks Courage Cutler’s No Leader “These are the actual headlines from the local papers in Chicago,” announcer Daryl Johnston declared. Wow, were the […]
Columnist Michael Barone, best known for editing The Almanac of American Politics, wrote a piece (Boston Herald, 9/20/11) declaring that Barack Obama’s “Sellout to Unions Staggers Economy.” After noting that “some pro-union moves have a certain ritual quality,” he got down to the really troubling behavior: Other steps are more important. Fully one-third of the […]
Send a message to CNN about the cable network’s partnership with the Tea Party Express, a far-right group with a history of virulent racism, to produce a Republican presidential debate: See “CNN Throws a Tea Party,” FAIR’s latest Action Alert. Please post copies of your messages to CNN, or comments on this Action Alert, in […]
When someone acts out in reality the violent fantasies that are far-right bloggers’ stock in trade, they pretend to have nothing to do with it.
The New York Times‘ Katharine Seelye begins her report (8/24/11) on yesterday’s Virginia-centered earthquake with a dangerous inaccuracy: Of all the things there are to worry about, earthquakes are fairly low on the list for those on the East Coast. Actually, people on the East Coast should probably worry about earthquakes a lot more than […]
August 6, 2011, when 38 soldiers, including 30 U.S. troops, were killed when their helicopter was shot down, was the “deadliest day” of the Afghan War, several media outlets told us: David Muir (ABC World News Saturday, 8/6/11): “It was the deadliest day of the war in Afghanistan, 30 Americans, 22 Navy SEALs lost.” David […]
If the White House encouraged Americans to prevent colds by wearing sweaters, one would hope that media outlets would point out that there’s no evidence that being chilly has anything to do with catching a cold. Likewise, if the Interior Department green-lights a plan to drill for oil in the Arctic Ocean in order to […]
Amid tough competition from his corporate media colleagues, Meet the Press host David Gregory has stood out as a journalist who has consistently misinformed the public about the impact of Social Security and other entitlement programs on the deficit. To find out how he’s been wrong and to tell him to correct his errors, see […]
In the debt ceiling debate, Republicans and corporate media have somewhat similar strategies: The GOP can’t reach an agreement with the Democrats, because that would be a win for Obama. The media, meanwhile, can’t say that the Democrats are doing the right thing, even when they’re doing exactly what media pundits demand that they do […]
Glenn Beck (7/25/11, via Mediaite, 7/25/11) explains on his radio show why the right-wing Norway terror suspect is what we call left-wing here in America: This was one of the episodes where I showed the railroad tracks that were different than America. In America, the left railroad track is gigantic government—it could be Communist or […]
Newsweek (7/17/11) begins a piece on David Petraeus becoming CIA director with an account of how he got the “short-term job done” after he was named commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan: Now, after 13 months, the 58-year-old Petraeus is coming home to head the Central Intelligence Agency. Since that day in the Oval Office, […]
A New York Times piece by C.J. Chivers (7/13/11) presents a scary picture of Libyan rebel behavior: Rebels in the mountains in Libya’s west have looted and damaged four towns seized since last month from the forces of Col. Muammar el-Gadhafi, part of a series of abuses and apparent reprisals against suspected loyalists that have […]
A New York Times piece (6/17/11) on Social Security actually quotes a defender of Social Security–but as that source notes, “the context looks designed to refute me.” In a story about the AARP suggesting that maybe Social Security benefits will have to be cut, the Times‘ Erich Lichtblau writes: But other advocacy groups that are […]
“Connecticut is closing out its most activist, liberal legislative session in memory,” Peter Applebome reports in the New York Times (6/8/11), with “the largest tax increase in Connecticut history” as the centerpiece of his case. “They decided to tear up the antitax, budget-slashing, confront-the-unions script that has characterized state legislative sessions elsewhere,” Applebome writes, noting […]
“Fed Wants Priority Put on Deficit” was the New York Times‘ headline over Binyamin Appelbaum’s June 8 story on the front page of the business section. Summarizing a speech Fed chair Ben Bernanke gave the day before, Appelbaum wrote, “He said that growth remained slow and uneven, but he made no mention of the possibility […]
