FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
On August 11, 1930, Harry Jacob Anslinger became the director of the newly formed Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN) in Washington, D.C. He would run the FBN with an iron fist through six presidential administrations spanning more than three decades. An imposing, husky, bull-necked figure nearly six feet tall, he looked like a tough law-and-order […]
It’s no great wonder that much of the Italian media did not report critically on the electoral campaign of multi-billionaire Silvio Berlusconi. After all, he owns Italy’s three main private TV networks and other major media outlets. But what excuse does the U.S. press have for its flaccid coverage of Berlusconi, Italy’s richest man, who […]
When would-be papal assassin Mehmet Ali Agca was pardoned by the Italian government and sent back to his native Turkey in June, a New York Times editorial (6/16/00) typified the prevailing U.S. media spin. The lead of the editorial described the commutation of Agca’s life sentence for the May 1981 papal shooting as “a reminder […]
The electoral breakthrough of the extreme-right Austrian Freedom Party—which came in a close second with more than a quarter of the vote in that country’s national elections last October—generated front-page coverage in most European newspapers. Editorial commentary emphasized the importance of keeping the Freedom Party, led by Jörg Haider, from joining a new governing coalition. […]
On May 1, a week before the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe, the New York Times ran a front-page article by Stephen Kinzer under the headline, “Germans More Willing to Confront Nazi Crimes.” Referring to “a month of observances at former Nazi concentration camps” in the lead of his […]
This is the first issue of Extra! with a special focus on radio—a medium that too often escapes critical scrutiny. As you might expect, FAIR regularly hears complaints about the generally one-sided talk show barrage on commercial radio. What may surprise you is that we get even more complaints about National Public Radio—not because NPR […]
The most significant story of 1992, according to Project Censored’s panel of judges, was the story of the ’80s: how major news media failed to report on the economic cost of Reaganomics while directly benefitting from conservative economic policies. “As they were dispensing their relentlessly positive news about Reaganism, they were being allowed by the […]
There’s an old grade-school joke that about homework that went something like this: The more you study, the more you know. The more you know, the more you forget. The more you forget, the less you know. So why study? Substitute “watch TV news” for study, and it still sounds like a joke, but it’s […]
News media consistently deferred to David Duke when framing his candidacy for governor of Louisiana, calling him a “former Ku Klux Klan leader” and an “ex-Nazi.” Such descriptions are deceptive, for there is little that is “former” or “ex-” about Duke’s white supremacist beliefs.
A New York Times editorial (7/24/91) typified much of the coverage of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) scandal when it chastised “the sluggish reaction of Attorney General Dick Thornburgh and his Justice Department,” which failed to respond to mounting evidence of corruption in “what may well constitute the biggest banking scandal in […]
Months after the Exxon Valdez spill, national media began to focus on the damage not done by Exxon’s blunder, heralding Big Oil’s efforts to preserve Alaska’s environment. Out of the jaws of catastrophe, Exxon snatched a news spin increasingly to its liking.
Most mainstream human rights organizations place a de facto priority on questions of physical integrity and violations of political and civil rights. Social and economic rights are addressed only insofar as they have a direct bearing on the political and civil issues; labor organizing, for example, is a form of free association, and restraints on […]
A wave of exhilaration surged through the crowd when the first contingent of Chinese workers joined student hunger strikers in Tiananmen Square. Three thousand students started their protest in May, two days before Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev arrived for historic talks with China’s rulers. By the time Gorbachev left Beijing, mass demonstrations had spread to […]
‘The enthusiasm for free-market initiatives and other reforms became the new rationale for turning a blind eye to the continuing repression in China.’
No sooner was it established that Pan Am Flight 103 had been destroyed by a bomb than the U.S. media went into its predictable ritual. Journalists prepared President Reagan and President-elect Bush with all the usual questions: How can we bring terrorists to justice? Will we retaliate against any country harboring those responsible for bombing […]
