FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
In civics classes, high school students are taught that the First Amendment is the foundation upon which political freedom stands. But in their journalism classes, they are frequently taught the opposite lesson, as Hazelwood, a late ’80s Supreme Court ruling that gives principals the power to review and censor high school newspapers, continues to have […]
“Unplanned pregnancies. HIV infection and AIDS, other sexually transmitted diseases. Cigarettes, alcohol and drug abuse. Eating disorders. Violence. Suicide. Car crashes.” The 21-word lead-in to a Washington Post (12/22/92) report sums up today’s media image of the teenager: 30 million 12- through 19-year-olds toward whom any sort of moralizing and punishment can be safely directed, […]
When the Russian crisis began, CBS anchor Dan Rather suggested (9/21/93) that Boris Yeltsin “didn’t go far enough” in getting rid of the “hard-liners.” But how does a president legally get rid of elected members of parliament? President Yeltsin did it by simply dissolving parliament on Sept. 21, a blatantly unconstitutional move that won immediate […]
Imagine that a small country is invaded in 1975 by a powerful neighbor well over 100 times its size, a major recipient of U.S. military and economic aid. About one-third of the population—over 200,000—people die as a result of the invasion, politically created starvation, and the ongoing occupation. Despite the atrocities and numerous U.N. resolutions […]
It is writers like Katie Roiphe, who reject documented proof of the existence of acquaintance rape without even studying the data, that deserve her own charge of having a “utopian vision of sexual relations.”
The “Rodney King riots” in Los Angeles last year prompted some journalists to think critically about their failure to fully cover the urban problems that lay behind the unrest. At the time, MacNeil/Lehrer’s David Gergen (5/1/92) admitted that there “has really been almost a conspiracy of silence within our political leadership and often with our […]
The use of prime-time TV to sell the public a bill of goods hit a new low a little over a year ago, when, on May 15, 1992, CBS aired a two-hour primetime special called Ancient Secrets of the Bible. Produced by David W. Balsiger, the program claimed to present “startling and surprising evidence” to […]
Between April 1 and May 29, 1993, at least 40 op-ed pieces in the New York Times dealt with Bosnia and the possibility of U.S. military intervention. Most of the regular columnists were in favor: Anthony Lewis, William Safire, Leslie Geib, Anna Quindlen. A.M. Rosenthal dissented, and guest columnists were split: Sen. Dennis DeConcini (D-Ariz.), […]
From the outset, press coverage of New York City’s efforts to provide self-cleaning toilets on the streets has had a single spin: Disabled ideologues are ruining this good project for the rest of us. “The issue most likely to doom the plan is access for the handicapped,” wrote New York Times Metro reporter Celia W. […]
For most mainstream papers, police reporting means relying mainly on police sources—a practice that contributes to the undercoverage of police brutality. The impact that an independent reporter can have by listening to unofficial sources points out the importance of alternative media —and the influence such outlets can have on the mainstream. On Nov. 15, 1992, […]
When founded two decades ago, National Public Radio defined itself as an independent alternative to mainstream commercial broadcasting. Unlike the corporate giants, NPR would “promote personal growth rather than corporate gain,” and “not only call attention to a problem, but be an active agent in seeking solutions,” according to the network’s 1971 mission statement. To […]
This is the first issue of Extra! with a special focus on radio—a medium that too often escapes critical scrutiny. As you might expect, FAIR regularly hears complaints about the generally one-sided talk show barrage on commercial radio. What may surprise you is that we get even more complaints about National Public Radio—not because NPR […]
The US press was full of explanations for the attack on Iraq in January 1993, many of them misleading or wrong.
The Super Bowl is one of the most widely viewed television events every year. Unfortunately, many women’s shelters report that Super Bowl Sunday is also one of the worst days of the year for violence against women in the home. At the request of FAIR’s Women’s Desk and other advocates for women, NBC Sports aired […]
Most of the major media reacted to George Bush’s last-minute pardon of leading Iran/Contra figures with less than outrage. The conventional wisdom in media circles for years has been that the scandal is old news and it should just go away. Robert MacNeil of the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour (12/24/92) spoke for many in the media when […]
If the North American Free-Trade Agreement (NAFTA), negotiated last summer by the United States, Mexico and Canada, is ratified by Congress this year, credit should go to the leading voices of the US press—which displayed unyielding devotion to the conservative gospel of free trade.
An op-ed in the Nov. 11, 1992 New York Post worried that 25 percent of African-American New Yorkers rely on black-owned WLIB and “militant black weeklies” for their news—not on “mainstream media whose perspective could counter extremist views.” While FAIR encourages news consumers to get the widest selection of sources possible, we’re also worried about […]
If there is one image that has come to epitomize the abortion debate, it is pro-choice and anti-abortion demonstrators shouting at each other, brandishing placards. Mainstream media specializes in “extremists of both ends” coverage, bemoaning the “angry rhetoric” of both sides. The search for “compromise” has long been a staple of abortion reporting, and in […]
Coverage of the 1992 Democratic convention often drew sharp contrasts with earlier conventions–that were covered in almost exactly the same terms.
It was fashionable to bemoan the networks’ lack of gavel-to-gavel coverage of the Democratic conventions. ABC‘s Peter Jennings (Washington Post, 7/12/92) said it was “a little sad” that the networks were passing up “a chance to present the democratic process in the purest sense.” Of course, modern stage-managed conventions are anything but a democratic process—and […]
