FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
The New York Times report, “Trial on Guatemalan Civil War Carnage Leaves Out U.S. Role,” raises at least one obvious question: How much has U.S. coverage of the Ríos Montt trial talked about U.S. support for genocide?
What should we make of the so-called “trifecta” of scandals hitting the Obama White House? And what questions should we ask about the IRS/Tea Party story? Also this week: Chris Matthews wants Obama to take charge–just like the union-busting Ronald Reagan. And the Newseum decides two Palestinian journalists shouldn’t be considered part of their tribute […]
Benghazi, the Justice Department seizing AP phone records, and the IRS targeting Tea Party groups: Much of the Beltway press corps–which has pushed the Benghazi story for months–is seeing the Obama presidency in a state of near free-fall. But what’s actually happening?
The Justice Department’s seizure of AP phone records constitutes a troubling encroachment on the freedom of the press and underscores longstanding concerns about the Obama administration’s willingness to trample the First Amendment.
During the run-up to the Iraq War, the New York Times amplified erroneous official claims about weapons of mass destruction (FAIR Action Alert, 9/8/06). Looking at the paper’s coverage of allegations of chemical weapons use by Syria, some of the same patterns are clear: an over-reliance on official sources and the downplaying of critical or […]
Praise for a conservative president’s breaking the air traffic controllers’ union–that’s what you hear on the liberal cable channel.
CBS anchor Scott Pelley declared, “We are getting big stories wrong, over and over again.'” Well, that sounds like pretty dramatic self-criticism. But, as usual with corporate media self-critiques, Pelley’s criticism mostly misses the mark.
The controversy over Heritage’s dubious immigration report led Bill Keller of the New York Times to write a column about the big lessons of this scandal. And the first lesson? Think tanks on “both sides” are up to no good.
Benghazi isn’t the scandal that Obama’s critics make it out to be, the Washington Post’s Jackson Diehl writes. But the real point of his column is to protect the legacy of the Bush White House’s Iraq claims.
A memorial for journalists who died while reporting the news wouldn’t seem to be the kind of thing that would attract controversy, but that’s exactly what’s happened with an exhibit at the Newseum.
This week on FAIR TV: CBS Evening News looked like it was covering an immigrant rights rally– but it was merely a set up to talk about chaos at the border. Time’s Joe Klein goes after the “gun lobby” by saying… both sides are at fault? And Cokie Roberts hears the public doesn’t want to start a war with Syria. Why does she think that’s “dangerous”?
The controversy over the attacks at a diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, is a great test of the right’s tired claim that the corporate media have a liberal bias. If that were true, then this “scandal” would exist almost entirely on Fox News Channel and conservative talk radio.
There’s another Libya story that should be getting attention. It’s not, and never really has, because the dead are Libyan civilians, killed by U.S./NATO airstrikes.
After years of mismanagement, the Tribune Company newspapers–including the Chicago Tribune and L.A. Times–are up for sale. And one of the potential buyers? The Koch brothers.
Yes, those Koch brothers. Let’s send the Tribune Company a message.
The “center” doesn’t usually indicate where most of the public is, but rather where elites have determined an appropriate middle between opposing arguments.
The claims made about Israeli airstrikes against Syria could be true, or not. What is certain is that the assessments of the airstrikes are being shared anonymously by governments involved in carrying them out, a scenario that cries out for more skepticism.
U.S. suggestions that the Syrian government could have used chemical weapons have been treated as fact by some media outlets, and are helping to fuel the case for greater U.S. military involvement.
This week on FAIR TV: Do the claims about Syria’s chemical weapons hold up? Tom Friedman’s column about the “sick madness” of attacking innocents. The Week magazine turns the Caucasian Tsarnaev brothers into non-whites.
Decrying “the ability of well-funded extremist groups to thwart the will of the overwhelming majority,” Time’s Joe Klein cites defenders of Social Security–who, of course, are trying to thwart the will of an overwhelming minority.
If Guantanamo prisoners are being held without charge, and there is no available evidence to charge them with any terrorism-related offenses, why is the Washington Post talking about the possibility that they may “reengage in extremist activity”?
