FAIR TV: Perception vs. Reality, 60 Minutes & the FBI, NPR Takes Netanyahu’s Side
60 Minutes cheers on the FBI, NPR takes Netanyahu’s side on settlements, and media blur the difference between perception and reality.
Peter Hart
Why ‘The Economy’ Isn’t Good News for Democrats
Trying to figure out why people who are struggling don’t give Obama credit for the economic boom? It doesn’t seem so mysterious.
Settlements or Neighborhoods? NPR Takes Netanyahu’s Side
NPR’s Morning Edition takes a look at Israeli prime minister’s misleading rhetoric about settlement expansion–but their only guest is an Israeli writer who agrees with him.
Bill O’Reilly, Bill Maher and Islamophobia
Fox host Bill O’Reilly decides to lend fellow Islamophobe Bill Maher a hand.
Public TV: Where the One Percent Rule
A recent essay in Harper’s (10/14) roiled the waters at PBS by arguing that public television is too often geared towards serving the “aging upper class: their tastes, their pet agendas, their centrist politics.” Perhaps that’s no surprise. A new FAIR study finds that the trustees of major public television stations are overwhelmingly drawn from […]
Audio: Gary Webb on ‘Dark Alliance,’ CIA and Drugs
A CounterSpin special broadcast about Gary Webb’s reporting featured excerpts from a talk by Webb, along with an interview with Norman Solomon discussing inaccuracies and distortions in establishment media attacks on Webb.
Another 60 Minutes Puff Piece
60 Minutes’ interview with FBI chief James Comey was essentially an ad for the FBI, absent any critical scrutiny or questioning.
PBS Goes Easy on Paul Ryan
Ryan wants to change his public image, and is relying on media coverage to help him do that. The NewsHour’s Judy Woodruff was unsurprisingly doing her part.
Breaking News: Ben Affleck Is a Famous Movie Star
There’s a lot going on in the world. So why did NBC Nightly News devote a four-minute segment to a movie star?
Fox Pundit: Civilians Die—Get Over It!
A Fox News military analyst is not afraid to talk about civilian deaths in Syria: He seems to want to see more of them.
NYT Fails First Test of New Torture Policy
The first test of the New York Times’ new policy on terming “torture” came with the release of an August 11 Amnesty International report on torture in Afghanistan. It’s a test the Times failed.
PBS Uses Advertising to Retaliate Against Critical Coverage
PBS was set up in part because of an understanding that advertising exerts pressure on media outlets. And now it’s using its own advertising to signal its disapproval of critical coverage.
TV Generals and Precision Bombs: Corporate Media Go to War
Generals, former generals and not much more: Corporate media are covering war the only way they know how.
The Other Kind of Climate Change Denial
A Washington Post columnist says that by “all logic” we should be drilling for more oil. What about the logic of climate change?
FAIR TV: Climate Blackout, Bombing Syria & Human Rights Rhetoric
The People’s Climate March wasn’t fit for TV news, Obama is a “reluctant warrior,” and the US has a “longtime concern” for human rights in Egypt.
Washington Post Slams Venezuela for Electing ‘Former Bus Driver’
It’s no secret that the Washington Post editorial page was quite alarmed by Venezuela’s shift to the left under former President Hugo Chavez. The Post–like the rest of elite US media (Extra!, 11/05)–was an unrelenting critic of Chavez’s policies. Some things haven’t changed. In a scathing editorial (9/20/14), the Post went after Chavez’s successor Nicolas Maduro, […]
Reluctant Warrior Bombs Yet Another Country
Can a president who has launched military strikes on seven countries really be called a ‘reluctant warrior?’
Climate Crisis? That’s Not News
Hundreds of thousands filled the streets of New York for the People’s Climate March. But some big corporate media outlets didn’t seem to think that was news.
Noam Chomsky in the New York Times!*
Okay, there’s a catch–it was on the letters page. Still, it was a surprise to see Noam Chomsky’s name in the Newspaper of Record. In a joint letter from Howard Friel and Chomsky’s longtime co-author Edward Herman, readers were exposed to an argument mostly unheard in the media frenzy for military strikes in Iraq and […]
Deep US Concern for Human Rights in Egypt? Time Says So
The idea that the United States is being forced to suspend any ‘longtime concerns’ about Egyptian human rights is hard to square with reality.
