FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
On its surface, the announcement by ABC‘s This Week that the website PolitiFact would monitor the show’s content was a welcome development, despite the obvious downside that the Web-only factchecking would deprive the show’s TV audience of needed correctives. But an evaluation of the record thus far suggests that even this limited attempt to test […]
CNN Scrapes the Bottom of the Barrel John King promised that his new CNN show, replacing the failed Lou Dobbs program, would focus on news, not opinion; he told Politico (11/12/09) that he was averse to guests “on news shows who start the conversation with a bias.” So who does CNN hire to do regular […]
Silencing supporters of single-payer, or Medicare for All, is a media staple, but PBS‘s Frontline found a new way to do that on the April 13 special Obama’s Deal—by selectively editing an interview with a single-payer advocate and footage of single-payer protesters to make them appear to be activists for a public option instead. The […]
Over the course of the past year, the New York Times has provided ample coverage to a series of potential U.S. Senate candidates from New York–none of whom are actually running for office. Meanwhile, a candidate who is in fact challenging incumbent Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand in the September 2010 primary has been all but erased […]
A leaked videotape of a 2007 U.S. helicopter attack in Baghdad that killed a dozen Iraqis was unveiled on April 5 by the website WikiLeaks. To much of the corporate media, though, it was either not worth reporting at all, or an unfortunate incident to be defended.
Hunting for Orion in Green Press List I enjoyed the environment focus published in my recent e-edition of Extra! (2/10), but I am puzzled by the omission of Orion magazine from Miranda Spencer’s round-up of notable environmental magazines and websites (“Environmental Journalism in the Greenhouse Era”). Orion magazine is an extremely ambitious and high-end nature […]
CBS‘s Face the Nation (3/28/10) covered the passage of healthcare reform by inviting Democratic National Committee chair Tim Kaine and two Republican critics on the program–one of whom spread misinformation that went unchallenged by host Bob Schieffer. What’s notable about this is that CBS has since posted on its website a debunking of the two […]
Can a journalist neutrally cover a conflict that his child is fighting in? That’s the question posed by the news that the son of New York Times Jerusalem bureau chief Ethan Bronner joined the Israeli Defense Forces. The Times’ policies acknowledge that family members’ activities might require a journalist to “to withdraw from certain coverage”; […]
Better to Mislead Than to Take a Side In the third paragraph of a report on the stimulus program in the New York Times (2/18/10), readers were told, “There is little dispute among economists that the measure has kept the jobless rate from being even higher than it is.” Clear enough. But since reporting must […]
PBS ombud Michael Getler (3/18/10) responded to a FAIR Action Alert (3/10/10) that criticized PBS‘s choice of Jon Meacham as co-host of the PBS public affairs show that will fill the slot left vacant by Now and Bill Moyers Journal. Wrote Getler: During the past week, my office has received about 3,000 e-mails from people, […]
In a response to a FAIR action alert (3/11/10), New York Times public editor Clark Hoyt (3/21/10) acknowledged that the paper got key facts wrong in reporting on the undercover videos attacking the community organizing group ACORN. The main issue was the fact that James O’Keefe, the activist who produced the videos, did not actually […]
Since Glenn Beck left Headline News for Fox, CNN executives apparently feel that their staff is short on unbalanced hatemongers. To make up the gap, they’ve just hired Erick Erickson as a political commentator. “Prominent conservative commentator and RedState.com editor Erick Erickson will join CNN as a political contributor,” CNN announced in a March 16 […]
Ignoring calls from numerous critics, the New York Times refuses to own up to mistakes in the paper’s coverage of the now-famous right-wing videotapes attacking the community organizing group ACORN. Instead, the paper’s public editor, Clark Hoyt, is relying on an absurd semantic justification in order to claim the paper does not need to print […]
PBS is reportedly in final talks with Newsweek editor Jon Meacham to be co-host of its forthcoming Need to Know program (New York Times, 3/9/10). Meacham’s consideration for a show that would replace hard-hitting independent programs Now and the Bill Moyers Journal sends a clear and troubling message about PBS‘s priorities (Extra! Update, 6/05). Meacham […]
According to a report on the New York Times website (3/9/10), PBS is in talks with Newsweek editor Jon Meacham to be co-host of its forthcoming Need to Know program. If the report proves accurate, it gives viewers little hope for the kind of critical, uncompromising programming that public television was created to foster. Meacham’s […]
Much of the reporting on Haiti disaster relief has portrayed the U.S. as doing its best, under near-impossible circumstances, to bring food, water and medical aid to earthquake-stricken Haitians. And indeed, many American efforts have given aid and comfort to Haitians—but Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, says the U.S. […]
On February 16, ABC World News and NBC Nightly News aired incomplete and unbalanced reports following Barack Obama’s announcement of $8 billion in new loan guarantees for a nuclear power plant in Georgia. ABC reporter Jake Tapper announced that “for years leading Democrats and liberals opposed nuclear energy. No new nukes was the cry. So […]
Sign FAIR’s petition here! Scores of pundits appearing on cable news networks are paid corporate lobbyists and PR flaks—and the networks aren’t disclosing their corporate ties. In a new report in the Nation (3/1/10), reporter Sebastian Jones writes: Since 2007 at least 75 registered lobbyists, public relations representatives and corporate officials—people paid by companies and […]
New York Times public editor Clark Hoyt (2/6/10) responded to messages from FAIR activists (Action Alert, 1/27/10; FAIR Blog, 1/27/10) by affirming that a reporter covering a conflict in which his child is an armed participant ought to be reassigned. But Times executive editor Bill Keller (2/6/10) rejected Hoyt’s reasoning, saying that Jerusalem bureau chief […]
Under the headline “Social Security Races to ‘Negative’: Rash of Retirements Push Fund to Brink,” USA Today‘s February 8 front page presented an alarmist view on a story that is regularly misreported in the corporate media (Extra!, 7-8/95, 1-2/05; FAIR Action Alert, 10/19/07). Reporter Richard Wolf leads with this warning: “Social Security’s annual surplus nearly […]
