FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
NPR ombud Alicia Shepard responded to the over 1,500 activists who wrote to NPR regarding the Howard Zinn obituary that aired on All Things Considered. Her response is below. Thanks to all of those on the list who wrote to NPR. Activist Historian Howard Zinn’s Obit Causes a Firestorm There’s a taboo not to speak […]
When progressive historian Howard Zinn died on January 27, NPR’s All Things Considered (1/28/10) marked his passing with a declaration that his life’s work was worthless. After quoting positive assessments from Noam Chomsky and Julian Bond, NPR’s Allison Keyes turned to far-right activist David Horowitz, a practitioner of what the Nation (11/12/07) calls the New […]
Israel Is Not Iran You call attention in your January 2010 issue (“NYT’s Double Standard on Nuclear Proliferation”) to the “unfair” treatment of Iran in comparison to Israel regarding the nuclear issue. You forget that Iran is a signatory to the international non-proliferation treaty. Israel is not. Neither the IAEA nor the international community can […]
Newspeak 2010 “The First Amendment confirms the freedom to think for ourselves.” —Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy (1/21/10), granting corporations the power to spend untold billions to do our thinking for us ‘Back to Basics’ Here’s a cable news discussion of the Massachusetts Senate race (noted by Political Animal, 1/19/10): Ad exec-turned-pundit Donny Deutsch described […]
Nostalgia for Reaganesque Lies Time columnist Joe Klein (12/3/09) was not altogether impressed by Obama’s decision to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan (an “iffy proposition,” as Klein put it). But Klein’s main gripe was that Obama should have justified the war differently: “Once you have made the decision to go, or to redouble your […]
When progressive historian Howard Zinn died on January 27, NPR‘s All Things Considered (1/28/10) marked his passing with something you don’t often see in an obituary: a rebuttal. After quoting Noam Chomsky and Julian Bond, NPR‘s Allison Keyes turned to far-right activist David Horowitz to symbolically spit on Zinn’s grave. “There is absolutely nothing in […]
The New York Times refuses to confirm or deny a report that its Jerusalem bureau chief, Ethan Bronner, has a child who is an enlisted member of the Israeli Defense Force–even though such a relationship would pose a serious conflict of interest. The Electronic Intifada website (1/25/10), following a tip, asked Bronner whether it was […]
FAIR presented a petition with more than 11,000 names to PBS on January 13, calling for worthy replacements for the exiting programs Bill Moyers Journal and Now. In all, 14,462 people signed the petition, including names added after it was delivered to PBS. In a January 22 response, PBS described its new Friday night offering, […]
Responding to complaints by FAIR activists and others (FAIR Action Alert, 1/6/10), Washington Post ombud Andy Alexander (1/10/10) denied that a Post article (12/31/09) underwritten by an anti-Social Security crusader constituted “propaganda,” but he acknowledged that the piece contained serious flaws. The Post had come under fire for running a piece from the Fiscal Times, […]
Click here to sign FAIR’s petition Two of the hardest-hitting shows on public television–Now and the Bill Moyers Journal–will be going off the air in April, as FAIR reported last month (Action Alert, 12/15/09). The two shows stand out as examples of what PBS public affairs programs should be: unflinching independent journalism and analysis. The […]
The Washington Post‘s publication of a “news” article written by an organization created to advance an ideological agenda is a troubling reminder of the declining ethical standards at one of the nation’s most influential newspapers. The article, headlined “Support Grows for Tackling Nation’s Debt” (12/31/09), was a product of the Fiscal Times, described in an […]
Much of the media response to the worst economic contraction since the Great Depression resembles nothing so much as President Herbert Hoover’s response to the original Great Depression. Faced with an economic crisis, Hoover tried to balance the budget by cutting government spending—disastrously reducing demand at a time when the economy had an oversupply of […]
Hard to Imagine The New York Times (11/21/09) on Japan’s elite “press clubs”: a century-old, cartel-like arrangement in which reporters from major news media outlets are stationed inside government offices and enjoy close, constant access to officials. The system has long been criticized as anti-democratic by both foreign and Japanese analysts, who charge that it […]
Public’s Longstanding Opposition to Roads and Bridges Matt Bai wrote of the Obama administration in the New York Times (9/9/10), “Little was achieved by way of investing in 21st-century infrastructure, largely because the public never seemed open to the idea of huge new spending.” Really? When Bloomberg (12/10/09) polled on this last year, its write-up […]
Education Needs Structural Change The reforms I hear bandied about today are reheated versions of those I observed during my 50-year teaching career. For all their good intentions, reformers do not have a clue on how to bring about substantive fundamental change. This includes Randi Weingarten and Arne Duncan—two sincere individuals. Jonathan Kozol [“A Deeper […]
Wasteful Stimulus—or Simulated Waste? ABC’s Good Morning America (8/3/10) aired a so-called “exclusive” that unveiled a list of supposedly wasteful stimulus projects compiled by two Republican senators. Correspondent Jonathan Karl led off his segment by telling viewers that half a million dollars went to fix up a visitors center near Mount St. Helens that was […]
Extra! Let NYT Off the Hook on Books I would like to take issue with Steve Rendall and Zachary Tomanelli’s handling of book reviews in the latest Extra! (“Who Gets to Review and Be Reviewed?,” 8/10). First, I question giving primacy to ethnicity and gender as opposed to political ideology. The former two are easier […]
For 17 years our colleagues Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon have worked with FAIR to present the P.U.-Litzers, a year-end review of some of the stinkiest examples of corporate media malfeasance, spin and just plain outrageousness. Starting this year, FAIR has the somewhat dubious honor of reviewing the nominees and selecting the winners. It’s a […]
Click here to sign FAIR’s petition Bad news for PBS viewers: Now and the Bill Moyers Journal will be taken off the air in April 2010. Both programs stood out as all-too-rare examples of the hard-hitting, independent programming that should thrive on public television–which is why PBS should replace these programs with similarly thoughtful shows […]
What standard for truth in advertising does the New York Times use in publishing advocacy ads? A double standard, an exchange of letters received by FAIR suggests. The first letter was sent by Sam Husseini, media director for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (and former FAIR staffer), when he saw an ad in the New York […]
