FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
Jodi Jacobson from RH Reality Check joins CounterSpin this week to talk about the media’s decision to let Tea Party activists define their movement as one that doesn’t focus on red meat “social issues.” As Jacobson argues, that distinction doesn’t really square with the far-right views espoused by leading Tea Party Republican candidates. The New […]
MSNBC personality Chris Matthews—who sometimes claims he was opposed to the Iraq War—worked behind the scenes to get anti-war colleague Phil Donahue fired.
You may have heard that Barack Obama shared some thoughts about Fox News Channel in a recent interview with Rolling Stone. When asked about the channel, Obama pointed out that media outlets with a political perspective have been relatively common throughout U.S. history, but that he believed Fox‘s perspective is “ultimately destructive for the long-term […]
Apparently not, judging by theWashington Post‘s October 3 story (“Military Drones Aid CIA’s mission”) about the CIA’s expansion of its drone war in Pakistan.It is “part of a high-stakes attempt by the Obama administration to deal decisive blows to Taliban insurgents,” and also “a significant evolution of an already controversial targeted killing program.” Post readersget […]
I tuned into C-SPAN on Friday night and caught part of a panel discussion hosted by Arianna Huffington. One of the panelists was Weekly Standard reporter Stephen Hayes, who is perhaps best known for advancing the bogus theory that Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda were in cahoots. And oddly enough, the discussion turned to misleading political […]
If you listen to CounterSpin this week (and you should be downloading the podcast EVERY WEEK), you’ll hear this item: USA Today ran a version of an AP story September 29 about the outrageous and depressing fact that not a penny of the $1.5 billion the U.S. pledged to Haiti for rebuilding after the devastating […]
Over the course of two months, the war in Afghanistan lost its commanding general over an embarrassing article in Rolling Stone magazine (6/22/10), and the website WikiLeaks (7/25/10) posted tens of thousands of classified documents that offered a stark reminder—if one were needed—of the brutal, futile nature of the U.S.-led war. But while both revelations […]
An important story is happening right now that’s not getting a whole lot of media attention. A military court is investigating claims that members of a U.S. Army Stryker unit randomly killed Afghan civilians. Some of the soldiers say they were pressured by a commanding officer into participating in the crimes. There are also reports […]
Two things that are true: –The discussion of Larry Summers leaving his job as director of the White House Economic Council often failed to provide any sense of progressive criticism of his tenure, or of White House policy. (Republican criticism was well-represented, though.) –The Washington Post‘s “Topic A” op-ed features are often terrible. On Sunday […]
Longtime Hugo Chavez critic Jackson Diehl leads his Washington Post column today (9/27/10): Debate in Washington about Hugo Chavez —to the extent that it exists—generally centers on whether the Venezuelan strongman is a genuine threat to the United States or a buffoonish nuisance who is best ignored. This narrow debate over Chavez’s rule in Venezuela […]
CNN president JonKlein is out–replaced byKen Jautz, who was theboss at Headline News. He is, among other things, the guy who brought Glenn Beck to television: CNN‘s Headline News has hired radio talkshow host Glenn Beck to host a one-hour primetime show, according to a Daily Variety report (1/17/06). Variety quotes CNN Headline News president […]
We’re really proud of the FAIR Blog; it’s the easiest, fastest way for us to post short, sharp critiques of the corporate media. And it’s a place where our readers can chip in, too–to point us to new information, or to tell usthey think we’re completely missing the point. The blog, like everything else FAIR […]
The media accolades that have greeted the new documentary Waiting for Superman confirm what FAIR documented in the September issue of Extra!—that the corporate media debate over education “reform” is heavily tilted in the direction of those who bash teachers’ unions, cheer the White House’s Race to the Top grants and charter schools, and lionize […]
On Wednesday night’s broadcast of the PBS NewsHour (9/23/10), Gwen Ifill announced: “Now to the first of several conversations on whether or not to extend tax cuts that expire at the end of the year.” The first guest was Republican Glenn Hubbard, who Ifill told viewers “was the chair of the Council of Economic Advisers […]
Newsweek columnist Robert Samuelson (9/18/10) has had it with the way we discuss economics: With every election, we descend into soundbite economics. Rhetorical claims grow more partisan and self-serving…. These debates confirm the dreary state of economic discourse. He points his finger at both the right and the left, but then goes on to basically […]
In the New York Times today (9/20/10), Michael Shear writes: But as the first full week of the 2010 general election season opens across the country on Monday, Washington is scheduled once again to debate immigration and gay men, lesbians and bisexuals in the military, two deeply divisive social issues that threaten to polarize the […]
PBS ombud Michael Getler, inspired at least in part by this post on FAIR Blog, addressed Dick Armey’s recent appearance on the PBS NewsHour in his September 17 column. Getler wrote that the Armey segment, which was paired with a later interview with Arianna Huffington, “didn’t work,”since the guests seemed to havevery different agendas. The […]
With all the talk of the Iraq War winding down (never mind the ongoing violence, the U.S. troops still fighting, or the continuing U.S. casualties), filmmaker Michael Moore makes an important point about how the war started—specifically, that it happened not despite but because of the way the “liberal media” behaved: But most importantly, they […]
The New York Times (9/16/10) points out in a write-up of its new poll : The economy and jobs are increasingly and overwhelmingly cited by Americans as the most important problems facing the country, while the deficit barely registers as a topic of concern when survey respondents were asked to volunteer their worries. Huh. The […]
Los Angeles Times columnist James Rainey (9/15/10) takes a look at “experts” appearing on local newscasts who are actually paid spokespeople for commercial interests–without viewers being made aware of this fact. He focuses on “toy expert”Elizabeth Werner, who makes appearances on local stations to talk up new products–on behalf of a company paid by toy […]
