Corporate Media Push Biden Toward an Issue-Free ‘Patriotism’
A victory lap for the corporate press and the Democratic establishment against the party’s left flank.
Extra! is FAIR’s hard-hitting newsletter of well-documented media criticism. The 4-page, ad-free, newsletter publishes ten times a year bringing you the media analysis and activism that you expect from FAIR. Extra! receives no money from advertisers or corporate underwriters, and depends on subscribers for its existence. Please subscribe and help make it possible for us to keep investigating and publishing.
A Covid Crisis or New Normal? Depends if It’s Australia or US
While the most important lesson for US readers might be that a major Australian city is under near-total lockdown for infection rates that in the US can’t even get elected officials to require mask-wearing, virtually none of the media coverage made this comparison.
As US Teeters on Authoritarianism, WaPo Pushes ‘Both Sides’ Fantasies
In the extensive genre of corporate media obfuscation about right-wing paramilitary violence, a WaPo piece stands out even amidst some tough competition.
Extra! August/September 2020 Soundbites
Lack of a BLM Covid Spike Should Make Us Listen to Epidemiologists Though joined by many other outlets, the Atlantic was particularly urgent in its warnings that protests against police violence would create a new spike of Covid-19 cases. “The wave of mass protests across the United States will almost certainly set off new chains […]
Politico Worries Arms Industry Endorsement of Biden Might Cause Problems — for Arms Industry
Election Focus 2020: The obvious questions the endorsement raises are how it might influence Biden’s military policy, and perhaps whether such an endorsement would be demotivating for antiwar voters in Biden’s voter base.
Why Is a Case of Bubonic Plague in Inner Mongolia a Worldwide News Story?
Why does this medical misfortune in Inner Mongolia, one of hundreds of cases of bubonic plague that will occur worldwide this year, deserve a story in major news outlets?
Media Call for ‘Diversity’—When What Media Need Is an End to White Supremacy
Media need to stop saying “missteps” when they mean sustained, systemic failures. Journalists ought to speak plainly, including when they’re talking to themselves.
Corporate Media Sideline Proposals to Relieve Those Hardest Hit by Covid Crunch
Covid-related arrears put nearly a quarter of all US households at risk of eviction or foreclosure, according to one estimate (Washington Post, 5/31/20). The poor and people of color are the hardest hit, not just by the novel coronavirus but also by the economic fallout: More than half of lower-income adults say they or someone […]
As Cops Targeted Reporters, Media Grew Increasingly Critical of Police Violence
As protests against police violence erupted around the nation, Twitter and Facebook were filled with videos of heavily armored police forces indiscriminately pepper-spraying marchers, firing flashbangs at crowds containing children and the elderly, and shooting projectiles at people standing outside their own homes. To most of those immersed in the social media environment, looted or […]
We Can Stop a Million Deaths—but Will We?
It may be unlikely that the United States will summon the political will to implement a realistic plan for not just delaying, but stopping Covid-19. But it’s crucial for media reporting on options in the fight against the outbreak to distinguish.
Failing to Connect Dots on Trump’s Threats to Post Office
The right-wing vendetta against the Postal Service long predates the pandemic, but gutting it now has the potential to undermine the integrity of the November election. Yet establishment media seem remarkably uninterested in connecting the dots.
Media’s Watchdogs Barked—at Those Who Stood in the Way of Corporate Bailouts
For a perfect illustration of how corporate media function as ruling class propagandists, watch how they spun a titanic upward redistribution of wealth as a “rescue plan” for the US economy. In discussions of the (officially) estimated $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act—the largest government spending program in US history—before it […]
Extra! Soundbites June 2020
The difference between the US and Vietnamese governments is not how much they surveil their citizens—but whether they use the information they collect to protect their citizens’ health.
We Can Stop a Million Deaths—but Will We?
It may be unlikely that the United States will summon the political will to implement a realistic plan for not just delaying, but stopping Covid-19. But it’s crucial for media reporting on options in the fight against the outbreak to distinguish.
Love Letters to Andrew Cuomo Failed to Check His Record
Election Focus 2020: Particularly in times of crisis, when executive power tends to expand dramatically, media should be holding the powerful to account, not settling for “better than Trump.” And there is plenty to hold Andrew Cuomo to account for.
Lives or Profits? For Corporate Media, It’s a Tough Question
It is perhaps not surprising that the view that profits are more important than lives has been treated as a reasonable opinion by corporate media.
NYT’s Post-Mortems for Sanders’ Campaign Helped Pull the Plug
Election Focus 2020: With only about half the states having cast their votes in the Democratic primaries, the Covid-19 pandemic has frozen the majority of campaign activity, but the New York Times has already chosen its winner.
NYT Op-Ed Promises: I’ll Steer Your Ads Away From Journalism That Hurts Your Profits
It’s a savvy businessperson who can get the New York Times to publish a free advertisement on their behalf. So kudos to L. Gordon Crovitz, former publisher of the Wall Street Journal, who convinced the Times (1/21/20) to run a column under his byline that included this pitch for his company’s services: Advertisers such as […]
NPR’s Targeted Disinformation on Bernie Sanders
Election Focus 2020: a piece by two of NPR’s leading political reporters, which aired just before the Iowa caucuses, provides a view of how journalists speak with authority on issues they seem to know very little about.
Trump’s Nonsense Goes Viral as Scientists Warn of Disaster
The more that news reports focus on parsing the words of elected officials rather than going to the sources who can tell us what science says is really going on, the more they do a disservice not just to readers, but to the cause of stopping a pandemic.
