FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
During an ABC Nightline interview on May 21, 2003, host Ted Koppel suggested that his guest was engaging in “class warfare” by arguing that the wealthy should pay increased taxes. While the exchange was not unusual—Koppel’s use of the term “class war” to characterize bottom-up or populist economic rhetoric is the norm—what was unusual was […]
After the conservative site Forbes.com published a story headlined “Obama’s Doctor Knocks ObamaCare,” it was quickly picked up by the right-wing Drudge Report, where, presumably because of its conservative pedigree, right-wing commentators ran with it as if it were a point scored by the right against the White House. Some conservative blogs suggested that the […]
The Holocaust Museum murder was just the latest event to prompt a demented Glenn Beck segment (6/10/09). Warming up for the really crazy part of the segment, Beck spoke with Joel Rosenberg, a bible prophesy expert and “End of Days” proponent. But Rosenberg, who likes to talk about how Russia and Iran are the Gog […]
In his June 11 Washington Post column about a Capitol Hill hearing featuring single-payer advocates (imagine that!), Dana Milbank sheds no light on the policy debate, but manages to reveal just how deeply enveloped he is inside the Beltway bubble. “Socialism is not dead,” smirks Milbank. “It has, however, been confined to a House subcommittee.” […]
In Tuesday’s New York Times online edition, the paper’s neo-neo-con columnist Ross Douthat laid out a sprawling argument that seemed to conclude that pro-choice activists and the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade ruling were responsible for violence against women’s healthcare providers, including the murder of Dr. George Tiller last week. “If anything, by enshrining a […]
Fox News’ latest sensation Glenn Beck has invited comparisons of himself to Howard Beale, the barking-mad TV host in 1976’s black comedy Network, who urged viewers to throw open their windows and shout, “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore.” Beck recently told the New York Times (3/30/09): “I […]
While Glenn Greenwald and Camille Paglia catch us up on the increasingly hateful and dangerous language emanating from conservative talk radio–including Mark Levin show substitute host Andrew Wilkow repeatedly calling a gay man a “vile sodomite” and Limbaugh sub Mark Davis joking about the murder of top Democratic officials–there are other signs the genre is […]
When Oprah Winfrey addressed Duke’s 2009 graduating class at a May 10 commencement, she talked about the pleasures of being wealthy: “It’s great to have nice homes!… It’s great to have a private jet. Anyone that tells you that having your own private jet isnâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t great is lying to you.” “But,” said Oprah, “you haven’t […]
Reading some of the latest headlines, one might think that Spanish investigations and possible indictments of six former Bush officials for alleged involvement in torture were dead in the water. As the Associated Press banner put it (4/17/09): “Spain: No Torture Probe of U.S. Officials,” while the Los Angeles Times headlined a news brief (4/17/09), […]
In his op-ed “Take the Limbaugh Challenge” (L.A. Times, 3/29/09), conservative writer Andrew Klavan states as a “certainty” that L.A. Times readers don’t listen to Rush Limbaugh’s show: If you are reading this newspaper, the likelihood is that you agree with the Obama administration’s recent attacks on conservative radio talker Rush Limbaugh. That’s the likelihood; […]
In an op-ed in today’s L.A. Times, former Times writer Allan M. Jalon tells the story of how the FBI used the Los Angeles Times to destroy politically active actress Jean Seberg. According to Jalon, J. Edgar Hoover planted the rumor with a Times gossip columnist that the father of the baby Seberg was pregnant […]
Corporate media outlets treat U.S. intelligence agencies with solemn reverence when those agencies are reinforcing official views about American enemies and friends. This is true even when the same media outlets are duped by intelligence agencies time and again. But stray from the nationalist straight and narrow, and these otherwise respected sources risk becoming invisible, […]
The capacity for U.S. editorial writers to twist reality when it comes to “free trade” is astounding. But when “free trade” collides with Colombia policy in the minds of the same editorialists, the potential for illogic becomes truly Orwellian. Take Wednesday’s Los Angeles Times editorial (“Obama Should Press for Colombia Free-Trade Pact”) pushing for passage […]
There is money to be made from fear—and business has been good for those hawking the online child predator threat. Exploiters of the scare range from the Internet-policing groups who ferret out suspects and share information with authorities (and sometimes, for a fee, with journalists) to vendors of software intended to help parents monitor and […]
Sean Hannity is a great American. You can hear it every day on his national radio show, where the standard caller greeting to the host is, “Sean, you’re a great American!” The catchphrase is so well-known, it’s been commercialized! And who is more patriotic than Hannity, who uses his daily radio and Fox News Channel […]
News that an arrest may be in the offing in the Chandra Levy murder case–no, it’s not Gary Condit, but a man currently incarcerated for a similar crime–inspires many unpleasant strolls down media’s memory lane. But the most unpleasant might be Jonah Goldberg’s ode to pack journalism and rushing to judgment (Jewish World Review, 7/11/01; […]
George Will’s history of misquoting data to distort the climate change debate goes back nearly two decades—that we know of. As Extra! reported in 2003, in 1992 Will trashed Al Gore (Washington Post, 9/3/92) for being “cavalier with the truth” in his “wastebasket worthy” book Earth in the Balance. More from Extra!: Will confronted Gore […]
The New York Times‘ Travel section featured a February 8 piece by Ned Martel headlined, “In Grenada, Leaving the Past Behind,” where the reporter refers to the 1983 U.S. invasion of the tiny Caribbean nation. A more accurate headline might have read, “Leaving the Facts Behind.” Here’s how Martel summed up the invasion story: In […]
Click here to download pdf. Any evenhanded comparison of the Colombian and Venezuelan governments’ human rights records would have to note that, though Venezuela’s record is far from perfect, that country is by every measure a safer place than Colombia to live, vote, organize unions and political groups, speak out against the government or practice […]
Far from holding the feet of the powerful to the fire, “liberal” Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen is the very model of the establishment-protecting beltway hack. Glenn Greenwald walks us through Cohen’s history of cheering for the capital’s criminal class, with a focus on the columnist’s latest call to sweep torture under the rug.
