FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
FAIR’s Action Alert network is a powerful activism tool that encourages the public to become critically engaged with media. FAIR distributes timely, focused reports via email, critiquing a particular instance of media inaccuracy or bias, and encourages members to communicate directly to journalists to demand more responsible reporting. This activism get results! With the help of our readers and podcast listeners, FAIR has forced rewrites of stories, propelled important but under-reported stories from the sidelines to the mainstream and succeeded in getting different perspectives into the news.
(NOTE: Please read the update to this alert.) The New York Times, revealing the interrogation techniques the CIA is using against Al-Qaeda suspects, seemed unable to find a source who would call torture by its proper name. The May 13 article, headlined “Harsh CIA Methods Cited in Top Qaeda Interrogation,” described “coercive interrogation methods” endorsed […]
On the television network that his company owns, Disney CEO Michael Eisner dismissed the idea that forbidding Disney subsidiary Miramax to distribute a controversial new documentary by Michael Moore was a form of censorship. “We informed both the agency that represented the film and all of our companies that we just didn’t want to be […]
The Disney corporation is forbidding its subsidiary, Miramax Films, to distribute Michael Moore’s new documentary, the New York Times reported today. The film, Fahrenheit 911, explores the Bush family’s close personal and financial ties to the Saudi royal family, and describes how the current Bush administration helped evacuate relatives of Osama bin Laden from the […]
A May 3 FAIR Action Alert encouraged readers to contact the broadcast networks about the scant coverage given to the April 25 March for Women’s Lives in Washington, D.C. CBS sent this response to FAIR activists: On April 25, The Evening News did two pieces on the march, therefore devoting a major portion of The […]
(NOTE: Please read the update to this alert.) On Sunday, April 25, hundreds of thousands of people filled the streets of Washington, D.C. to demonstrate for women’s reproductive rights. Crowd estimates ranged from 500,000 to 1.15 million, but it was clear that the March for Women’s Lives was one of the largest demonstrations in the […]
New York Times public editor Daniel Okrent posted a response to FAIR’s April 15 Action Alert: Different forms of articles require different approaches for their writers. An April 15 “Reporter’s Notebook” by Sheryl Gay Stolberg, made light of some aspects of the hearings of the 9/11 commission, and in so doing roused the ire of […]
(NOTE: Please read the update to this alert.) In its eagerness to find a lighter side to the September 11 commission hearings, the New York Times ended up trampling on the news. In a “Reporter’s Notebook” feature in the Times’ April 15 edition, reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg wrote a series of what might be called […]
On the April 7 edition of the PBS NewsHour, anchor Jim Lehrer offered a rationale for the U.S. closure of the Al Hawza newspaper, affiliated with Shiite cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr. But so far the program has been unable to supply evidence to back up Lehrer’s charge, and is refusing to correct the host’s error. Lehrer […]
As the casualties mount in the besieged Iraqi city of Fallujah, Qatar-based Al Jazeera has been one of the only news networks broadcasting from the inside, relaying images of destruction and civilian victims– including women and children. But when CNN anchor Daryn Kagan interviewed the network’s editor-in-chief, Ahmed Al-Sheik, on Monday (4/12/04)– a rare opportunity […]
On its June 28 broadcast, CBS Evening News debuted a new campaign feature called “What Does It Mean To You?,” an attempt to contrast John Kerry and George W. Bush’s positions on major issues. But the first installment’s discussion of public school vouchers presented a slanted view on a very controversial topic. The report began […]
(NOTE: Please read the update to this alert.) Journalist Christian Parenti was invited to talk about Iraq on the March 2 broadcast of PBS‘s NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. But Parenti’s criticism of the reconstruction contracts granted to corporations like Halliburton and Bechtel apparently crossed a line for the program’s host. According to a report by […]
A year after the invasion of Iraq began, the Sunday morning interview shows all focused on the anniversary. But viewers would have had a hard time finding a debate on the controversial decision. ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos featured an interview with Secretary of State Colin Powell, who was also the sole guest on […]
(NOTE: Please read the update to this action alert) Backers of a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage have created a misleading impression of their legislative plan– a deception that some media outlets have not properly explained to readers and viewers. The dispute centers on the fact that some advocates claim that the proposed Federal […]
(NOTE: Please see the Activism Update regarding this alert.) Vice President Dick Cheney rarely submits to one-on-one interviews, so the chance to question him directly presents a valuable opportunity for journalists. Unfortunately, National Public Radio‘s Juan Williams failed to challenge Cheney’s questionable claims about Iraq on the January 22 broadcast of NPR‘s Morning Edition. In […]
Dennis Miller’s new CNBC political talk show hasn’t even debuted yet, but it’s already mixed up in a serious conflict of interest. The conflict—brought to our attention by weblogger Roger Ailes (no relation, apparently, to the Fox News chief)—began with the show’s hiring of Mike Murphy as a consulting producer. The problem isn’t that Murphy […]
The controversy over comparisons between George W. Bush and Adolf Hitler in two ads submitted to the anti-Bush ad contest run by the online activist group MoveOn.org says less about the state of left discourse than it does about the double standards at Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation. News Corp‘s Fox News Channel started the controversy […]
George F. Will, columnist for the Washington Post Writers Group, devoted his column on March 4, 2003 to the thoughts of press baron Conrad Black. After spending two paragraphs describing complaints about George W. Bush’s preparations for the invasion of Iraq, Will wrote: “Into this welter of foolishness has waded Conrad Black, a British citizen […]
NOTE: Please see the update to this action alert: “ABC Responds to Critics of Campaign Coverage” (12/12/03) A day after ABC‘s Ted Koppel moderated a debate between the Democratic presidential contenders, the network decided to withdraw three off-air producers from the campaigns of Dennis Kucinich, Carol Moseley Braun and Rev. Al Sharpton. ABC‘s decision […]
If Friedman had actually listened to what speakers at the rally had to say, he would have heard plenty of discussion of the day’s violence.
The nightly network newscasts devoted significant broadcast time to the debate over the restructuring of Medicare. But while some reports described the corporate interests that stood to gain under the plan to offer a prescription drug benefit, few addressed the question of why Congress would pass a law so beneficial to the pharmaceutical and health […]
