Action Alert: NPR, USA Today Misreport Iranian Nukes
FAIR’s new alert looks at recent coverage of Iran at NPR and USA Today. If you’d like to share your letter to those outlets, you can do so in the comments thread below.
Peter Hart
Heading to War With Syria
Providing convincing evidence that chemical attacks actually were the work of the Syrian government should be the first order of business. But it’s hard not reach the conclusion that some in the media have already made up their minds.
FAIR TV: Snowden the ‘Spy,’ Stop-and-Frisk Factcheck, Student Loan Rates
On FAIR TV this week: CBS tries to call Edward Snowden a “spy,” and Bill Kristol makes his ABC comeback with a bogus defense of New York’s stop-and-frisk police searches. Plus: Student loan rates are slashed, say the TV reports. But are they actually…going up? Watch it all this on this week’s episode:
Newt and CNN: Working the Refs Works
What better way to show you care about ideological diversity than by hiring the guy who attacked one of your own reporters for asking him a question he didn’t like?
Bradley Manning’s Name Is Chelsea Manning
Chelsea Manning’s announcement that she identifies as female and would prefer to be referred to that way seemed to befuddle many in the media, with some outlets apparently unclear about how to identify her.
When the State Attacks Journalism
Attacks on journalists should outrage every reporter–and anyone who cares about a free press.
Frisking Bill Kristol
Neocon pundit Bill Kristol was wrong every which way about the Iraq War. So why’s he on ABC talking about stop and frisk?
Richard Engel and U.S. Aid to Egypt
Since Engel’s point was that things must stay as they are, it’s not likely that the NBC reporter’s words will cause much controversy–certainly things would be different if he’d have given an equally impassioned rationale for cutting off aid to Egypt’s military government.
What Do You Call Edward Snowden?
CBS’s Scott Pelley suggests that Edward Snowden admitted to being a “spy” for Russia. But he’s not the only one using odd language to describe the NSA whistleblower.
Student Loan Rates Drop—or Maybe They Rise?
The new student loan law lowers rates–and then, almost certainly, raises them in the near future. But hey–at least it’s bipartisan.
Defining Drone Deaths in Yemen
The United States has reportedly carried out nine drone attacks in the last few weeks in Yemen, generating headlines about the targeting and killing of suspected Al-Qaeda militants in the impoverished country. But how can media know for sure who is being killed? The uptick in attacks is apparently related to the alleged terrorist chatter […]
FAIR TV: Terror Alerts and the NSA, Snowden’s Asylum, Covering Weiner
The media are using the government’s warnings about a terror attack to boost NSA surveillance. Plus media get mad about Russia’s decision to grant whistleblower Edward Snowden temporary asylum. But what’s the U.S. record on extradition? Plus ABC covers the Anthony Weiner campaign–and can’t much figure out why it’s doing so. Watch it all […]
Iran Has Space Program—Some See Crisis!
A well-respected research group posted a short article on its website about the location of a second launchpad for Iran’s space program. That’s not big news–but it can be made to sound like scary news in the New York Times.
Was George W. Bush Aiding Al-Qaeda?
The government says Bradley Manning helped Al Qaeda when he revealed information about civilian casualties. By that logic, didn’t George W. Bush do a lot more by causing those casualties?
NSA Defenders Take to the Airwaves
After intelligence reports about a possible Al-Qaeda attack , the Sunday chat shows were packed with politicians claiming that this meant that the NSA had been vindicated.
Ted Koppel and Terrorism
Veteran journalist Ted Koppel says we shouldn’t overreact to terrorism. This is the same Ted Koppel who, just a few years ago, argued that the U.S. response to any terrorist attack should be to attack Iran.
Covering Weiner
“We shouldn’t even be wasting our time talking about Anthony Weiner,” the pundits say– and then they continue to talk about him anyway.
Amazon, WikiLeaks, the Washington Post and the CIA
What does Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos have in store for the Washington Post? No one can say for sure, but we can say that when Amazon didn’t like what WikiLeaks was publishing it shut down access to the site.
FAIR TV: Misreporting WikiLeaks, NYT Defines the “Center,” MSNBC’s Walmart “Debate”
This week: The corporate media finally paid attention to the Bradley Manning trial–but NBC botched some of the history. Plus the New York Times tries to show how Democrats are moving ‘away from the center.’ But how do they define the center anyway? And we look at an MSNBC debate over Walmart and a living […]
Snowden’s Asylum and Double Standards
Russia’s decision to grant Edward Snowden temporary asylum is being covered as a grave breach, a “snub,” and an act of defiance. But what about the cases where the United States has refused to extradite those accused of horrible crimes in the rest of the world?
