FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
Howard Zinn pens a forceful response to what he terms Edward Rothstein’s “sour commentary” on Studs Terkel (New York Times, 11/2/08). Read Zinn’s defense here. For good measure, here’s FAIR’s take on the same, as heard on this week’s CounterSpin: Author and radio legend Studs Terkel passed away on October 31 at the age of […]
The point of Michael Shear’s post-mortem in today’s Washington Post (“Right Turn in July Put McCain on Unfamiliar Path“) is that John McCain ditched his “maverick” shtick only this summer: Starting in July, McCain largely abandoned the well-known brand he had built over a decade: a moderate, steady, experienced maverick whose great political skill was […]
THEN (CNN‘s Capital Gang, 11/6/04): MARK SHIELDS: Bob Novak, is 51 percent of the vote really a mandate? BOB NOVAK: Of course it is. It’s a 3.5 million vote margin. But the people who are saying that it isn’t a mandate are the same people who were predicting that John Kerry would win. When -the […]
Writing in Newsweek, Allison Samuels considers what Michelle Obama would mean to African-American women if she were first lady–and also the kinds of problems she’ll confront with the mainstream media: Whatever she does, I hope she doesn’t fall victim to critics with little point of reference. Take this month’s issue of Town and Country magazine. […]
Fresh off his suggestion that his success was proof of the existence of God, Bill O’Reilly draws a new parallel— one that really doesn’t merit a response (at least a verbal one): O’Reilly says his views have made him a target. “My life is dangerous now,” he said. “You know, I have bodyguards and security. […]
After the Washington Post‘s David Broder weighed in with his thoughts on what he “learned” about John McCain in the course of the campaign–among other things, that it was a “falsehood” to suggest McCain was similar to George W. Bush–it was time for Post readers to find out what the Dean of the Washington Press […]
I mean, there are a lot of narratives that the press bought into in this campaign. Don’t forget the inevitability of the Rudy Giuliani campaign and Fred Thompson’s great appeal…. I think the number of times we’ve been wrong in this campaign is far greater than the number of times we’ve been right.—Time‘s Karen Tumulty […]
The dean of D.C. press corps’ column yesterday was headlined “What We’ve Learned About McCain,” but it’s not clear “we” were watching the same campaign. After paying tribute to McCain’s heroism, his “backbone,” his “patriotic impulses,” and on and on, Broder got down to supposed lessons– McCain didn’t manage his relationship with a wounded GOP, […]
This is the tease for tonight’s O’Reilly Factor: New Gallup poll shows McCain gaining ground. Karl Rove, Dick Morris and Dennis Miller weigh in.
In a lengthySunday piece, New York Times reporters Robert Worth and Eric Lipton detail new U.S. plans for ramping up military aid to the Lebanese government. The piece relies heavily on quotes from U.S. and Lebanese officials, who unsurprisingly support this effort; one Israeli sourceis the most critical voice, wary of arms shipments to a […]
Today New York Times reporter John Harwood wonders what happened to the idea, voiced in the aftermath of the 2004 election, that the country would see a long era of Republican dominance: How did such a turnabout happen so fast? In part, the answer stems from developments so rare that, as the former Federal Reserve […]
Looking past the election, Newsweek editor Jon Meacham explains in this week’s issue that the incoming administration could use some advice: Even stipulating that giving advice is easy and taking action is hard, though, it is pretty clear that what we are calling the “Nightmare on Pennsylvania Avenue” (the economy, the wars, the lack of […]
On CNN‘s Reliable Sources (10/19/08), host Howard Kurtz and Time magazine’s Mark Halperin had the following exchange: KURTZ: Mark Halperin, we learned this morning that Barack Obama in the month of September raised $150 million…. If a Republican had not taken public financing and had raised all that money, and the Democrat was struggling financially, […]
From the New York Times report on Barack Obama’s huge rally in St. Louis: Even Mr. Obama, who can wear self-possession like an overcoat, seemed taken aback. Translation? Also in the Times on Sunday, Matt Bai’s magazine piece about Obama and white voters included this observation: Obama was wearing his classic starched white shirt. (How […]
It should be noted that Jon Meacham’s Newsweek cover story–dissected here–is matched in the magazine by a “Counterpoint” from columnist Jonathan Alter. It’s instructive to see the arguments side by side; Meacham argues for a center-right America (more right than center, it would seem), while Alter argues that, “since about 1980, we’ve been living in […]
There is plenty one could say about the New York Times‘ October 19 report on allegations of Iranian training of Iraq insurgents. The Times points out up front that the information is derived from “accounts given to American interrogators by captured Iraqi fighters.” Under what circumstances were the Iraqis interrogated? The paper doesn’t say. The […]
On Sunday, the New York Times and Washington Post labeled protests against a possible U.S./Iraqi security agreement as primarly the work of followers of cleric Muqtada al-Sadr; the Post‘s headline was “Sadr Loyalists Protest Proposed U.S. Presence,” while the Times was somewhat muddled, leading with language about the marchers being Sadr followers, but also noting […]
What happens after your credulous reporting helps sell the public argument on the case for the Iraq invasion, and your name becomes more or less synonymous with the broad media failures on the war? You get hired by Fox News, according to today’s Washington Post. Fox‘s John Moody’s comments are worth a special note: “She […]
A rare story in the New York Times about an independent presidential candidate finds several hundred attendees at a Ralph Nader rally on Wall Street, which leads the Times to write: In the $700 billion bailout plan for the financial system, Mr. Nader, now on his fourth presidential run, has finally found a real-life event […]
Time magazine columnist Joe Klein– in a column that generally tilts in Obama’s favor– starts off with a rather curious observation about healthcare policy (see bold): This really gets down to the fundamental difference in our philosophies,” John McCain said, quite accurately, in the heat of the third presidential debate. “If you notice … Senator […]
