FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
New York Times reporter Dan Barry has an “outsider visiting the Capitol” piece (8/3/11) about the strange things one encounters in the legislative sausage factory. In some rooms you are required to wear a necktie; others have no such rules. The place is confusing in other ways, too: “To reach the third level from the […]
There’s been plenty written about how reporters skew reality by treating “both sides” as equally intransigent or inflexible when it comes to the budget deficit battle. Another example, from the L.A. Times today (8/2/11): For Republicans, it was preventing any tax increase to upper-income families. For Democrats, it was ensuring no cuts to Social Security, […]
“Iran arming Iraq insurgents”was last month’s story. Today’s papers are telling a different story; the new line being pushed by U.S. officials is that Iran is supporting Al-Qaeda. Today’s Washington Post: Iran Allows Money, Recruits to Reach Al-Qaeda, U.S. Says ‘Secret deal’ allegedly supports activities of terrorists in Pakistan In the New York Times: Treasury […]
In the debt ceiling debate, Republicans and corporate media have somewhat similar strategies: The GOP can’t reach an agreement with the Democrats, because that would be a win for Obama. The media, meanwhile, can’t say that the Democrats are doing the right thing, even when they’re doing exactly what media pundits demand that they do […]
In a piece today, the Washington Post’s Greg Miller reports on a CIA base that will be used to conduct drone strikes in Yemen: The agency is building a desert airstrip so that it can begin flying armed drones over Yemen. The facility, which is scheduled to be completed in September, is designed to shield […]
Some of the media commentary around the debt ceiling bemoans the state of the partisanship in Washington. Much of the chatter is about a supposed failure to compromise. As Josh Marshall argues, “this is simply false, even painfully so.” By any reasonable standard, the White House and the Democratic leadership have made an array of […]
“Make Way for the Radical Center” is exactly the sort of headline that suggests a story one might want to skip. But this is a Tom Friedman column (7/24/11), so you know it’s going to be good for…something. This time around, the jet-setting third party advocate is writing about something called Americans Elect, which Friedman […]
Newsweek (7/17/11) begins a piece on David Petraeus becoming CIA director with an account of how he got the “short-term job done” after he was named commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan: Now, after 13 months, the 58-year-old Petraeus is coming home to head the Central Intelligence Agency. Since that day in the Oval Office, […]
On Tuesday FAIR documented that Fox host Bill O’Reilly called for the prosecution of media outlets that published Sarah Palin’s hacked emails in 2008—which might mean, if he were at all consistent, that O’Reilly wants to see his boss Rupert Murdoch do some hard time over the far more serious News Corp. hacking scandal. FAIR’s […]
The Washington Post‘s Juan Forero comments today (6/30/11) on how Hugo Chavez’s illness means that he’s off television: Chavez governs like the host of a reality show, cameras always rolling as he presides over summits, hectors opponents and warns of diabolical American plots to unseat him. Wherever would he get such ridiculous ideas.
“Tea Party Plans Its Own Debt Panel” reads a headline in today’s New York Times (6/27/11), where reporter Kate Zernike described efforts by the well-financed right-wing lobbying group FreedomWorks to organize a debt commission that will come up with yet another right-wing fiscal blueprint. They don’t have a plan yet–they’re merely talking about having meetings […]
When you see a headline like “Public Unions Take On Boss to Win Big Pensions,” you know what you’re going to get– more scaremongering about runaway public employee pensions. The New York Times delivers, with a lengthy front-page piece by Charles Duhigg that mostly takes the side of the Republican lawmakers trying to cut benefits […]
The headline in today‘s Post, previewing Obama’s speech tonight: Obama’s Challenge: Leaving, but Not Too Quickly Funny how it’s not the other way around–leaving too slowly would seem to be a larger political problem, given the state of public opinion. The Post reports: President Obama will face a stiff political challenge Wednesday in presenting his […]
“I mean, we are a profit-driven industry. And if you want the most eyeballs, you have to go with the thing that people are most talking about. But if you’re trying to do a quality program, then maybe you have got to go with Iraq and Iran.” —Politico‘s Julie Mason, explaining the amount of coverage […]
A New York Times piece (6/17/11) on Social Security actually quotes a defender of Social Security–but as that source notes, “the context looks designed to refute me.” In a story about the AARP suggesting that maybe Social Security benefits will have to be cut, the Times‘ Erich Lichtblau writes: But other advocacy groups that are […]
The story of Michele Bachmann‘s surging campaign momentum continues, this time courtesy of Beltway reporter Mark Halperin of Time magazine: Why has Michele Bachmann suddenly become the It candidate? With her impressive New Hampshire debate performance, Bachmann has gone from a conservative Sarah Palin-lite curiosity to a potential game changer. For two hours onstage with […]
Yesterday New York Times labor reporter Steven Greenhouse (6/16/11) reported on efforts in several states to get public-sector workers to increase contributions to state pension funds–or, to put it more bluntly, to take a pay cut. Political leaders are claiming this is simply the only thing they can do–and Greenhouse helps them make their case. […]
The emerging storyline after the Republican presidential debate this week was that far-right Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann is for real, mostly because she managed to sound, well, a little less crazy than she’s sounded before. (No, they didn’t quite put it like that.) There are stories about Bachmann’s new Bach-mentum in the New York Times […]
Some in the press still seem to have trouble defining whatever it is that motivates the Tea Party movement. I noticed this in an L.A. Times piece last week (6/5/11): Americans possess a long-standing wariness of power and its potential as a corrupting influence, especially in the hands of large institutions. That instinct bred our […]
Seriously, another one of these? Like last year, maybe some of the reporters involved find it valuable for the people they cover to get to know them on a more personal level, away from all the tough questions and dogged investigations.
