FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
Two disappointing reports in major newspapers on the healthcare debate. In the Los Angeles Times, Noam Levey writes (“Consensus Emerging on Universal Healthcare“) that the momentum for real change is obvious in Washington–but that it only goes so far: The idea of a federal, single-payer system patterned on those in Europe and Canada, long a […]
This news comes from an AFL-CIO blog (via Adam Serwer at TAPPED): This report likely wonâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t be on CNN‘s Headline News, but after five years, former workers at CNN have finally gained justice. In a decision made public today, an administrative law judge ordered the network to rehire 110 workers who were fired because they […]
There are two major conflicts in Africa that receive U.S. media attention. In Congo, it is estimated that 5 million people have died in a conflict that has raged for about 12 years. In the Darfur region of Sudan, estimates can range from 200,000 to 400,000. The Darfur conflict, though, has received much more press […]
Under the headline “Pollsters Debate America’s Political Realignment,” the Washington Post‘s Robert Kaiser tries to weigh the arguments about the political makeup of the United States in light of the 2008 election. But Kaiser’s rendition of this debate only serves to confuse matters. There are basically two sides to this clash: those who say the […]
The New York Times‘ Week in Review section yesterday (11/23/08) gathered a group of op-eds under the heading “Transitions,” which they described as “a series of Op-Ed articles by experts on the most formidable issues facing the new president.” The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were the topics under examination; we’ve examined who gets to […]
In a column in the Baltimore Sun, journalism professor John F. Kirchdoes a quick tally of coverage of third-party presidential candidates in 2008: According to a basic Lexis/Nexis database search of election coverage from August 5 to November 5, the Washington Post and the New York Times published a combined 3,576 news stories, editorials, op-eds, […]
In “Clout Has Plunged for Automakers and Union, Too,” the New York Times‘ Micheline Maynard makes this curious observation: [GM CEO Rick ]Wagoner and Ron Gettelfinger, head of the UAW, appeared on local TV in Detroit this week, but no Detroit representatives landed spots on the Sunday morning talk shows out of Washington. Senator Levin […]
On Fox News Sunday (11/16/08), NPR reporter Mara Liasson offered her take (which was essentially the same as neo-con co-panelist Bill Kristol) on why picking Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State would be good for Barack Obama: In terms of Obama, I think he wants–it would send a lot of important signals. Number one, she […]
A new media watchdog series, the IFC Media Project, makesits debut tonight on the Independent Film Channel. Host Gideon Yago has spent time at MTV and CBS, experiences that he tells the New York Times helped turn him into a media critic: In an interview last week, he said he had watched “news stories that […]
From the Washington Post yesterday–emphasis added: The United States and Pakistan reached tacit agreement in September on a don’t-ask-don’t-tell policy that allows unmanned Predator aircraft to attack suspected terrorist targets in rugged western Pakistan, according to senior officials in both countries. In recent months, the U.S. drones have fired missiles at Pakistani soil at an […]
The Washington Post editorial yesterday on Nicaragua begins: Through much of the 1980s, the United States waged a proxy war to prevent Daniel Ortega and his Sandinista party from consolidating a dictatorship in Nicaragua. In 1990, Mr. Ortega finally agreed to hold a presidential election, which he lost…. That history is false. Nicaragua held a […]
Today’s Washington Post (11/14/08) explains that Obama’s economic advisers “span the policy spectrum:” They include free traders and “fair traders,” deficit hawks, Wall Street executives, corporate moguls and labor advocates. Why the different typographical treatment of free trade and fair trade? The implication is that “free trade” really is free, whereas “fair trade” is just […]
One interesting post-election story has been the treatment of Rahm Emanuel, a center-right Clinton Democrat who will serve as Obama’s chief of staff. While some Republicans claim Emanuel is too “partisan,” some media defenders argue that he’s not, since his politics are not all that liberal. Time magazine’s Karen Tumulty explains: The strongest signal of […]
The Wall Street Journal has named right-winger Gerard Baker (formerly at the Times of London) its new deputy editor-in-chief. This reaction I find somewhat puzzling: It would be one thing for Baker to move to the conservative editorial page, but the self-described “right-wing curmudgeon” will have a role overseeing news coverage, a move that surprised […]
There’s been a fair amount of speculation about what Fox News Channel will do in the new political climate.The online teaser for tonight’s edition of the O’Reilly Factor gives us some sense of the, uhh, future: Monday, November 10: The Factor confronts Rev. Jeremiah Wright! You won’t want to miss it!
New reports of civilian casualties in Afghanistan (37 dead) were covered in the Los Angeles Times on Sunday. The story provides a decent sense of thedeath toll, but near the end makes a rather bizarre point (see bold): Afghan weddings are traditionally large, drawn-out affairs, and wedding parties several times have been the target of […]
The relentless speculation over who should be in Obama’s cabinet continued in the Los Angeles Times, where readers were clued in to the debate over naming Larry Summers Treasury Secretary: Obama faces conflicting advice from his close advisers, from Capitol Hill and from important Democratic constituencies. Some argue that, with the economy gripped by a […]
Today’s USA Today editorial: How Obama Can Be a Uniter If Barack Obama wants to show he meant what he said about bridging the blue state-red state divide, there’s an easy way do it: Ask the best of President Bush’s appointees to stay on and adopt some of Sen. John McCain’s better ideas. If Obama […]
Yesterday’s L.A. Times (emphasis mine): Analysts predict that a debate will unfold within Iran’s elite over whether the Islamic Republic or the United States should make the first move in any post-Bush dialogue. Some point to the injustices allegedly committed by the U.S. against Iran, such as the 1953 overthrow of the democratically elected government, […]
The U.S. election, to no one’s surprise, was of great interest to Iran. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s letter of congratulations to Obama is being widely covered, though this passage in today’s New York Times jumped out: Mr. Obama has said that he would engage in aggressive diplomacy with Iran, and that he might offer economic incentives if […]
