FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
The New Yorker magazine wrote an editorial (10/17/94) to mark President Aristide’s return to Port-au-Prince. “Political murders,” the liberal weekly stated, “have practically ended…. Haiti’s extreme human rights emergency — the reign of torture, terror and death…is for the moment over.” In fact, as the Weekly News Update on the Americas (published by the Nicaragua […]
For three and a half months, the world waited for Rush Limbaugh’s promised “point-by-point rebuttal” to FAIR’s report, “Rush Limbaugh’s Reign of Error” (Extra!, 7-8/94). On Oct. 11, Limbaugh’s “rebuttal” finally arrived–not with a bang but a dud. Limbaugh’s 37-page manuscript addresses only about half of the points on which FAIR had documented his inaccuracy. […]
The New York Times Book Review (10/16/94) ran a lengthy piece that had a simple message: It’s all right to believe that some races are genetically inferior to others. That was the underlying theme of Malcolm W. Browne’s review of three books: the widely publicized The Bell Curve, by Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray, Philippe […]
The article “The ‘Stolen Feminism’ Hoax” in the September/October ’94 issue of Extra! misstated the number of seats on the National Council on the Humanities board. There are 26 seats on the board. President George Bush made eight appointments to the board, of whom three were members of the National Association of Scholars. The September/October […]
Both are nationally recognized. Both have written best sellers. Both are articulate and at the top of their fields. Which woman did PBS choose to host a show? Charlayne Hunter-Gault or Peggy Noonan One has 16 years of PBS experience. The other has no PBS experience. One is an award-winning journalist. The other is a […]
Fund-Raising Tall Tales “If you enjoyed Tales of the City and you’d like to see more programming like that, please become a member,” host Rafael PiRoman declared during a fund drive for New York PBS affiliate WNET (9/13/94). PiRoman didn’t mention that PBS, in the face of right-wing attacks, has refused to fund the sequel […]
The front page of the New York Times Week in Review section is a platform that both reflects and helps set the conventional wisdom. Michael Wines, one of the Times‘ top political reporters, used that space on September 11 to amplify the claims by “Mr. Clinton’s loyal critics in Congress and Democratic research circles…that only […]
Rush Limbaugh‘s long-touted “5,000 word response” to FAIR’s “Reign of Error” report has been released—after nearly three and a half months. Unfortunately for Limbaugh, it doesn’t rebut; mostly it changes the subject, dodges and wastes thousands of words on tangents and what-I-really-meant-to-say digressions. Whereas the FAIR report offered facts to specifically rebut Limbaugh’s claims, his […]
Husbands are battered as much as wives in the U.S.? John Leo, syndicated U.S. News & World Report columnist, is sure of it. “There’s no doubt about this,” Leo said as a guest on CNN‘s Crossfire (7/2/94). “It was established in 1980 by a female researcher.” When co-host Michael Kinsley asked him if it seemed […]
On December 8, 1993, Nightline gave Paul Hill an extended platform to advocate the killing of doctors who perform abortions, unchallenged by any pro-choice perspective. On July 29, 1994, Hill allegedly murdered Dr. John Britton and his escort at a Florida clinic. FAIR warned after Paul Hill’s Nightline appearance of the dangers of turning proponents […]
Over the past few years, mainstream media coverage of the dangers of cigarette smoking has dramatically increased. But the tobacco industry is fighting back. One of the industry’s most visible counterattacks was a series of full-page ads from Philip Morris, which ran in 40 newspapers across the country, reprinting an article from Forbes MediaCritic (Summer/94) […]
Rush Limbaugh has tried to defend a few of the dozens of inaccuracies FAIR documented in “Limbaugh’s Reign of Error” (Extra!, 7-8/94). Unfortunately, his responses to charges of inaccuracy were filled with the same sorts of inaccuracies that our original report documented. Limbaugh’s most extended response was made on his July 5 radio show, where […]
On ABC‘s Nightline, from July 1993 until the November 1994 election, there were only two mentions of the Canadian single-payer healthcare system: On a March 1994 show, an insurance representative made dire, unsupported predictions that with single-payer “there will definitely be limitations on your selection options in your future.” On a September 1993 broadcast that […]
If You Remember the 60’s…You’re Not Rush Limbaugh LIMBAUGH: “The liberals sit out there and suggest, as Vic Fazio did, that it is the radical right that’s acting in a stealth manner. And the Christians and the religious right are about to take over America. Note that Mr. Fazio probably had no trouble with the […]
Koppel Covers for Limbaugh’s Rumor-Mongering Ted Koppel’s special (ABC Viewpoint, 4/19/94) on press coverage of Whitewater was a perfect opportunity to take Rush Limbaugh to task for spreading unfounded conspiracy theories. But instead, ABC journalists Koppel and Jeff Greenfield let Limbaugh off the hook. On his March 10 radio broadcast, Limbaugh had announced the following […]
From dioxin to Whitewater, from Rodney King to Reaganomics, Rush Limbaugh has a finely honed ability to twist and distort reality.
“Reign of Error: From AIDS to ozone, from Whitewater to the Bible, Limbaugh seems to be able to dissemble and disinform on virtually any subject.” — report from Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), listing “dozens of [Limbaugh’s] statements and writings it says are inaccurate,” Associated Press, June 28, 1994. “Limbaugh’s Reign of Error” was […]
Listeners to National Public Radio‘s Morning Edition are familiar with two regular pundits–former U.S. Representatives Tom Downey (D.-N.Y.) and Vin Weber (R.-Minn.)–who are supposed to give contrasting viewpoints on congressional events. But on the healthcare issue, NPR‘s point-counterpoint team are working for the same side–the side of the health insurance industry and healthcare companies who […]
In the wake of an atrocity, news reports usually have a major focus on the victims of the crime. Reporters talk to the families of the dead, sympathizing with their mourning and asking them for details about the lives of those who were lost. Photographs of those who have died and the bereaved put a […]
ABC News‘ Diane Sawyer, who reportedly had her annual salary doubled from $3 million to approximately $6 million, once lectured a single mother who illegally worked two low-paying part-time jobs to supplement her monthly welfare check of $600 (Primetime Live, 9/17/92): “You know, people say you should not have children if you can’t support them.” […]
