FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
Joerg Haider’s Freedom Party’s rise to power as a partner in the Austrian government has gotten a lot of coverage in the U.S. media, but there has been little recognition of it as symptomatic of a resurgence of the extreme right in Europe, and of the implications this may have for European integration. When the […]
Dear Mary Frances Berry, FAIR would like to voice our support for the striking freelance journalists and contributors at Pacifica Network News. As a media watch group dedicated to promoting greater diversity in the press, FAIR has been alarmed by the worsening crisis at Pacifica, by the trend toward censorship, retaliatory personnel moves and a […]
When a group of prominent international legal scholars filed a war crimes complaint against NATO for its actions in Yugoslavia, the Washington Post‘s coverage (1/20/00) was dismissive– demonstrating a poor grasp of international law and the war in Yugoslavia, and relying on an “expert” with a blatant and unmentioned conflict of interest. The Post article, […]
FAIR News Advisory FAIR joins with community radio listeners nationwide in lamenting this month’s official departure from Pacifica Radio of veteran news anchor Verna Avery-Brown. “For more than a decade, Verna has been a voice of independent, committed journalism,” said FAIR founder Jeff Cohen. “Her consistent coverage of underreported stories and her unique style of […]
A national coalition of over 30 feminist, progressive groups and individuals– including Barbara Ehrenreich, Gloria Steinem, the National Organization for Women, the Feminist Majority Foundation, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and women and men from the labor, black, Latina and South Asian grassroots communities– has met with PBS to discuss why a recent […]
“In their zeal to placate the Republican Congress and supplement their budget with money from right wing foundations like Olin, Scaife and Bradley, public television decision-makers haven’t just changed directions– they’ve lost the compass. “The ‘gender wars’ series (funded by these same three foundations, and featuring their grantees) was a procession of opinions masquerading as […]
A group of 11 well-respected figures from the public interest community—most with many years of connection to Pacifica Radio—have declared their readiness to join the Pacifica board as a group in an effort to establish a new beginning for the nonprofit radio network. The 11 individuals, a sort of “board-in-waiting,” are from the fields of […]
A front-page New York Times article about the precarious situation in East Timor (9/12/99) began by reporting that Indonesian “Gen. Wiranto, conceded Saturday that he had lost control of elements of his military” that were operating on the island. The article’s headline, “Jakarta Concedes a Loss of Control,” echoed this view. The assertion that Wiranto–Indonesia’s […]
For over a decade, conservatives in Congress have threatened to cut or eliminate funding for public broadcasting because of its supposed “liberal bias.” Since then, corporate funding of public television has increased markedly. These pressures have inspired a rightward shift in public television’s programming– FAIR studies have consistently found that the sources, hosts and guests […]
PBS says the series “National Desk” is meant to generate controversy and debate. Isn’t this a good thing? It would be, if public television’s overall lineup were balanced with controversial shows from both the left and the right. PBS has a history of playing the controversy card when criticized for running a right-wing program, while […]
This month marks the anniversary of the August 7, 1998 terrorist attacks on American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, which claimed the lives of 224 people, including 12 Americans. The anniversary has received substantial media attention, including stories on NBC‘s Sunday Today (8/8/99), ABC‘s World News Saturday (8/7/99), CBS‘s Evening News (8/7/99), and the Washington […]
As a media watch group supportive of independent voices in a media environment dominated by conglomerates, FAIR has watched in agony the deepening crisis at Pacifica (and KPFA). Over the years, FAIR had been sympathetic to national board efforts to professionalize the network and give it a stronger national identity. We believe such improvements could […]
In April, FAIR called on Pacifica Radio to adopt more open and accountable management processes, in the wake of intense protests over the dismissals of KPFA general manager Nicole Sawaya and veteran journalist Larry Bensky. Recent events at KPFA, Pacifica‘s flagship station in Berkeley, CA, have served to underscore the need for mediation and dialogue […]
A new study of news and public affairs programming on PBS stations has found that the voice of business is much louder than all others — a troubling finding for a broadcast system established to “provide a voice for groups that may otherwise be unheard.” Four years after Congressional leaders failed to “zero out” public […]
As NATO’s bombing of Yugoslavia neared its conclusion, the press began debating whether or not the war was a success. Many mainstream commentators and reporters were critical of NATO’s tactics, but NATO’s basic spin on the war—it was a just war waged against genocidal evil, and it has improved the region’s chances for peace and […]
The June 7 breakdown of military talks between Yugoslav and NATO generals was almost uniformly greeted by the major U.S. media as a sign that the Serbs were reneging on their agreement to pull troops out of Kosovo and allow in an international security force. Tom Aspell of NBC News reported that morning that “all […]
Media commentators have been asserting that the Kosovo peace plan adopted June 3 by the Serbian Assembly vindicates NATO’s airstrikes on Yugoslavia. A New York Times editorial (6/4/99) claimed the plan, if genuine, shows that NATO’s “sustained bombing has been more effective than many critics allowed” and represents a “victory for the principles of democracy […]
—New evidence has emerged confirming that the U.S. deliberately set out to thwart the Rambouillet peace talks in France in order to provide a “trigger” for NATO’s bombing of Yugoslavia. Furthermore, correspondents from major American news organizations reportedly knew about this plan to stymie the Kosovo peace talks, but did not inform their readers or […]
Introduction Public television has survived. The high profile assault from conservative critics, which was front-page news in the early 1990s, now seems like ancient history. As we enter the digital television age, we no longer hear Congressional threats to “zero out” public television, plans to “privatize” public broadcasting have receded from the opinion pages, and […]
Appendix A: Comparative Data, 1992 data and 1998 data Appendix B: World News for Public Television In November 1998, more than 40 public television stations started airing a British evening news program, World News for Public Television, produced by ITN in London. While the program was not broadcast widely enough in its initial months to […]
