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. Get involved in the FAIR fight for better media coverage – sign up today.
Mr. Lowry MaysChairman & CEO Clear Channel Communications200 Basse RoadSan Antonio, Texas 78209 Dear Mr. Mays: A recent incident outside Clear Channel radio station KYLD, involving KYLD on-air staff, raises serious questions about Clear Channel Communications’ commitment to the public interest and its policy regarding the on-air behavior of its employees. On the morning of […]
In what amounts to a news blackout, the September 21–23 demonstrations at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention in San Francisco received no coverage in any major mainstream press or broadcast outlets outside the Bay Area. Given that the protests were meant to spotlight the undemocratic activities of the NAB and of corporate media […]
In what was widely seen as a victory for media and community activists, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) last January approved a plan to license low power (or “micro”) radio stations in many areas of the country. The FCC planned to begin the licensing process for non-commercial radio stations operating between 10 and 100 watts. […]
From September 21 – 23, media activists from across the country converged in San Francisco for a historic protest at the annual radio convention of the National Association of Broadcasters’ (NAB), culminating in a march and rally on September 23 attended by well over 1,000 people. FAIR endorsed and played an active role in the […]
Dear Mr. Fritts, We are writing to remind the NAB that this country’s airwaves are the property of the American people. Independent, critical and genuinely representative media are crucial to a healthy democracy; without them, citizens lose the means to control and participate in the public debate that sets the nation’s political agenda. As it […]
The September edition of Men’s Health magazine features an 8-page “special report” ranking the ten most “male friendly” and “anti-male” schools in America. Much of the article can best be characterized the way author Lawrence Roy Stains describes UC Santa Cruz: “Mean, with a trend toward ugly.” But some of it is downright dangerous, as […]
On September 12, the New York Times ran a blatantly biased front-page article by U.N. correspondent Barbara Crossette about Iraq’s decision not to allow two teams of United Nations experts into Iraq to assess the effects of the sanctions. This article is only the latest example of Crossette’s alarming willingness to repeat increasingly shrill—and largely […]
A previous FAIR action alert (8/25/00) called on citizens to urge the Commission on Presidential Debates to include viable third-party presidential candidates. Now, media activists and pro-democracy advocates need to speak out promptly in the wake of George W. Bush’s recent offer to debate Al Gore three times: — on an NBC “Meet the Press” […]
On September 20 – 23, 2000 in San Francisco, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) hosted the radio industry’s annual convention. One of the most powerful lobbies in the country, the NAB represents corporate media and works tirelessly to keep control of the airwaves away from the public and firmly in the hands of big […]
Commercial broadcasting has gone through stunning changes in recent years, as deregulation and consolidation have shifted the balance of power to a small handful of companies with interests and investments spread across the media landscape. Ironically, the changes have been most profound in radio, a medium ideally suited to local ownership and diverse content. That […]
You walk into an election booth in November to vote for a well-known, respected candidate who’s vigorously campaigning for president, but the candidate’s name has been excluded from the ballot. Is the election rigged? You’d probably ask the same question if you tuned into the presidential debates on TV and the candidate you planned to […]
The speakers lists for two high-profile lecture series at the National PressClub in Washington, D.C. raise serious questions about who the organizationconsiders “newsworthy.” The Press Club’s regular “Luncheon Speakers” and “Newsmakers” events forWashington-area journalists give various luminaries a platform to influencethe weekly news cycle. Yet of more than 100 individuals invited to addressthese NPC audiences […]
On Monday, August 14, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) stepped up its assault on free speech rights, using the pretext of a bomb scare to shut down the Independent Media Center‘s (IMC) satellite cast and, later the same night, turning a peaceful, legal concert and rally into what the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) […]
A new round of scrutiny directed at a report by ABC’s John Stossel once again raises questions about whether Stossel distorts factual evidence in his reporting. The new revelations, brought to light by the Environmental Working Group and published in the New York Times on July 31, concern “The Food You Eat,” areport that aired […]
Once again, White House Drug Czar Gen. Barry McCaffrey is using federal funding to bribe corporations to surreptitiously insert government-approved messages into media content. Salon.com (1/13/00) first broke the story that McCaffrey was giving TV networks a financial incentive to put messages about drugs into entertainment programming. Congress authorized McCaffrey’s Office of National Drug Control […]
Early coverage of the upcoming protests at the Republican and Democratic national conventions has followed a familiar pattern: Mainstream media are stoking fears about the potential for violence in Philadelphia and Los Angeles by rewriting the actual history of police brutality at last year’s anti-WTO demonstrations in Seattle. In its place, media are developing a […]
Robert Giles, former editor and publisher of the Detroit News, is a leading candidate for the position of curator at Harvard’s Nieman Foundation for Journalism. The prospect of Giles overseeing a center that teaches media ethics has alarmed many of those familiar with his role in the long-running labor dispute at the News and the […]
In response to a letter from a FAIR activist protesting the exclusion ofcommunity journalists from the IMF and World Bank’s April meetings, IMFSenior Press Officer William Murray sent the following note: “Thank you for your letter dated June 17, 2000 to Managing Director HorstKoehler regarding our press credential policy. Let me explain briefly whatthe […]
FAIR’s June 22 action alert, “Nader Left Out of Media Websites,” generated well over a thousand activist letters to mainstream news websites, urging them to include Ralph Nader, the leading third party presidential candidate,in their election coverage. Since then, many of the sites FAIR named in its alert have changed some of their election pages […]
When dozens of women were sexually assaulted in and around Central Park on June 11, the story became front page news locally and nationally. While many outlets focused on allegations that police officers did little to prevent the attacks or help the victims, a disturbing trend emerged in coverage of the story. In a media […]
