Our Poor, Defenseless Military Industrial Complex
When Donald Trump took to Twitter to describe the $716 billion Pentagon budget as “crazy,” the prospect of a cut to the military elicited a storm of condemnation across the media landscape.
‘Trump Says…’: The Journalistic Scourge of Echo-Chamber Headlines
Time and time again, major news organizations have fallen victim to the trap of taking whatever was the latest thing to come out of Trump’s mouth and reflexively turning it into a stenographic, town-crier-like “Trump says…” or “…tweeted Trump” headline.
Slate’s Readers May Be Liberal, but Its Labor Politics Are Kochian
The Slate Group refuses to back down from its demand that a contract make union fees optional, creating a so-called “right-to-work” environment that unions regard as union-busting.
WaPo: Trump Needs to Destroy Venezuela to Save It
Tamara Taraciuk Broner of Human Rights Watch and Johns Hopkins professor Kathleen Page took to the pages of the Washington Post to whitewash Donald Trump’s successful efforts to make Venezuela’s economic crisis much worse.
Police Drones Expand as Media Shrink
Media’s propensity to serve as stenographers and lapdogs for law enforcement is nothing new. But the coverage of the NYPD’s drone roll-out is particularly egregious, because of how the move in the Big Apple could significantly impact surveillance and civil liberties nationwide.
William Blum, US Policy Critic Derided by NYT, Dies at 85
You know you’ve lived well—well enough to rattle the establishment—when the New York Times smears you in the obituary it runs about you (FAIR.org, 6/20/13). That distinction was achieved by William Blum, historian and critic of US foreign policy. Once a State Department computer programmer who aspired to “take part in the great anti-Communist […]
Refugee Caravan: Lots of Coverage, Little Context
There is very little discussion of why refugees are so desperate to leave their countries and travel to the US. When any explanation is given for why people are migrating, it is extremely shallow.
Clear-Eyed Antidotes to Soft-Focus Accolades for George H.W. Bush
It isn’t merely that it’s no part of journalists’ job to stoke misty visions of powerful public figures, dead or living; asserting that George H.W. Bush was America’s lovable Grandpa—that only the insolent would gainsay such an image—erases the many people harmed grievously by his actions and inactions.
Factcheck False Equivalence
Precisely because of President Trump’s unprecedented propensity to lie, there can be a latent urge among factcheckers to find similar examples of dishonesty among the left, to provide some semblance of “fairness.” And, at times, these efforts can devolve into obtuse, bad-faith examples of nitpicking and false equivalence.
Don’t Do Anything About Climate Disaster, USA Today Warns Dems
USA Today insists, without offering evidence, that Democrats’ efforts to forge climate policy had an important role in the rise of the Tea Party and Republicans’ victory in the 2010 midterm elections.
Misreporting Manafort: A Case Study in Journalistic Malpractice
A piece that started as a factual news report was transformed into an allegation—after it went viral and was picked up across international media.
Free the Free Press From Wall Street Plunderers
The demise of the real news reporting by our city and regional papers is a product of their profiteering owners–the new breed of fast-buck hucksters who’ve scooped up hundreds of America’s newspapers from the bargain bins of media sell-offs.
Not So Black & White: NYT Touts Rural Voters, Buries Racism in Mississippi Election Analysis
To emphasize the power of rural white voters in Mississippi—and elsewhere—without explicating that state’s long, sordid past as the lynching capital of the country does a disservice to the facts.
Pundits Policing Protest at Tucker Carlson’s House
Commentary on a demonstration outside the home of Fox News host Tucker Carlson earlier this month used an exaggerated version of events to delegitimize a wide range of protest tactics.
NPR Infomercial for Its Sponsor Amazon Omits Labor and Environmental Criticisms
NPR did have a throwaway line about how Amazon was a “sponsor” of NPR, but it’s unclear how pointing out that the company you’re writing a press release for helped pay for the press release makes it any better.
Minimal Media Attention Helped Sink Crucial Climate Initiatives
Climate change took a backseat to other issues in this year’s midterm elections, and humanity may end up paying the price. The majority of climate change-related ballot measures failed, many climate deniers in the Republican party won or kept their seats, and even Democratic winners were not pressed on their commitment to climate change legislation […]
Shielding Hogan From the Democratic Wave
To win reelection in deep blue Maryland, Larry Hogan had to appear “bipartisan,” “moderate” and “pretty much the opposite of Trump”–which is how the Washington Post portrayed him.
Who, Us? Corporate Media Ignore Their Role in Trump’s Refugee ‘Invasion’ Panic
The political press dutifully chased Trump’s rhetorical tail as Election Day neared, and repeatedly ceded its editorial judgment and newshole to the nativist fearmongering he used to stoke the Republican Party’s base.
Transgender Lives Are Not Up for Debate
Many in the media have been quick to denounce the Trump administration’s attempts to define away transgender people—without, however, assessing the ways that media coverage of trans issues have set the stage for this formalized discrimination.
When Media Say ‘Working Class,’ They Don’t Necessarily Mean Workers—but They Do Mean White
If you’ve seen a piece on the impact of the working class on the midterm elections, it has most likely dealt specifically with working whites. But the media focus distorts the composition of this class, racial and otherwise.
