FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
During his well-publicized appearance with Jon Stewart (Daily Show, 3/12/09), CNBC’s Jim Cramer tried to present himself as a rational financial journalist, dismissing his on-air wild man persona as entertainment. But if you listened to his calm, sober pronouncements, they really weren’t all that rational. For instance, he said by way of apology, referring to […]
In a typically half-empty David Brooks piece (3/13/09), the columnist praises Barack Obama for embracing “rigor” in education policy, for endorsing “testing and accountability,” for “mak[ing] sure results have consequences.” He complains about the “education establishment’s ability to evade the consequences of data” and that watered-down proficiency standards mean that “parents think their own schools […]
With all the recent headlines posing Rush Limbaugh as the GOP’s de facto leader, Media Matters’ Julie Millican and Nathan Tabak provide a timely look back (3/3/09) at the well-documented record of hateful views espoused by the most popular talk radio host in the United States: On August 23, 2006, discussing the CBS reality TV […]
From the end of the NBC Nightly News (3/3/09): CHUCK TODD: And finally, let’s close with Michelle Obama. Amazing numbers for a new first lady. Sixty-three percent positive rating. What makes it more remarkable, six months ago you and I were talking about at the Democratic Convention, she might be a liability if he’s not […]
Greg Sargent has some observations (Plum Line, 3/4/09) about the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s new website up called “I’m sorry, Rush” that lampoons the many GOPers who have been forced to prostrate themselves before Rush Limbaugh after criticizing him and enduring the Wrath of Rush or his listeners. The site appears to be off to […]
In his online column (2/26/09) for the Maynard Institute, Journal-isms, Richard Prince reports on those who see the New York Post‘s recent cartoon of a chimpanzee shot-dead–so that now “they’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill”–as “an opportunity to examine the factors that led to the cartoon’s appearance in the […]
Ira Forman set off a furor in the blogosphere this week when he reported that CBS‘s pick for senior VP of communications, Jeff Ballabon, had once suggested “that Democrats are inherently bad people.” (Forman—who is the executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council—maintains that this is what Ballabon had stated during a debate between […]
You’d think that reporting on federal budget bills costing billions of dollars would be difficult. But it’s easy, really: All you have to do is remember that budget items involving animals or unusual foods are funny. ABC‘s Jonathan Karl has mastered the genre. Reporting on the ominous spending bill (World News, 2/24/09), he declared: “The […]
This AP “fact check” (2/24/09) of President Barack Obama’s speech is, as usual, a sad effort. You really need to have some threshold for calling “gotcha,” and some of these—maybe all of these—really don’t measure up. Obama says, “Regulations were gutted for the sake of a quick profit at the expense of a healthy market,” […]
Apparently the New York Times hasmoved Elisabeth Bumiller over to the Pentagon beat. Her record as Bush White House correspondent produced some memorable missteps (“You can’t just say the president is lying,” for example), so it wasn’t a surprise to see her byline under the story, “From a Carrier, Another View of America’s Air War […]
The February 18 Democracy Now! segment on Fox reality TV star Sheriff Joe Arpaio features Arizona’s East Valley Tribune reporter Ryan Gabrielson telling Amy Goodman exactly how Arpaio’s officers went to the homes of the two publishers for Phoenix New Times, which—there was an investigation being conducted into a case where New Times published Joe […]
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 […]
Politico reported (2/16/09) that a new poll shows that support for the Fairness Doctrine has dropped. Unfortunately, the policy described in the poll question bears no relationship to the Fairness Doctrine as it actually existed. The Rasmussen polling firm asked respondents whether “the government should require all radio stations to offer equal amounts of conservative […]
In the same column (2/16/09) that he cites Sam Donaldson’s reputation as a “blowhard liberal,” the Washington Post‘s Howard Kurtz has an item in which he complains that “the Vogue cover story on Michelle Obama, by editor at large André Leon Talley, is nothing if not laudatory.” Kurtz writes: The Talley article mentions briefly that […]
Salon critic Glenn Greenwald’s look (2/14/09, ad-viewing required) at the journalistic powerhouse that was a recent New York Times David Brooks-Gail Collins Internet “conversation” yields the Greenwald observation that “Brooks did an excellent job of explicitly demonstrating most everything that is relevant–and destructive–about the mentality of the standard Beltway journalist.” Greenwald quotes Brooks being “really […]
Gail Collins covered Albany in a way that was both informative and funny—no mean feat. Then she went to work for the New York Times and has never been the same since.
Sometimes it’s really baffling that Thomas Friedman is considered one of our nation’s most important thinkers on political and economic matters. Here he is today (2/11/09) channeling what “non-Americans” have to say: Dear America, please remember how you got to be the wealthiest country in history. It wasn’t through protectionism, or state-owned banks or fearing […]
“Though seemingly forgotten by most TV talking heads,” it’s still fresh in Robert Parry’s mind (Consortium News, 2/9/09) how “it was only three years ago, when the Republicans had control of both the White House and Congress—and ‘filibuster‘ was a dirty word”: It was usually coupled with “obstructionist” amid demands that any of George W. […]
We noted recently Fox News‘ peculiar understanding of the Fair Use doctrine, which allows writers, artists and others to make reasonable use of copyrighted material so long as they don’t infringe on the copyright owners’ commercial rights; Fox interprets this to mean that critics should only be allowed to make use of Fox video if […]
CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric (1/27/09) introduced a segment on civilian casualties in Afghanistan by saying, “Our Elizabeth Palmer spoke with the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, who says the Taliban have become masters of manipulating public opinion.” That commander, Gen. David McKiernan, was CBS’s sole on-camera source for the segment, making assertions like […]
