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.
TV Guide’s Oct. 9 – 15, 1999 cover story, titled “How Women Took Over The News,” paints a pretty then-vs. -now picture of gender equity in the newsroom, in which “Women are on every beat, in every aspect of news, as fixtures in jobs traditionally held by men.” Way back when, TV Guide reminisces, women […]
When New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani appeared on three national television shows attacking the Brooklyn Museum and its current art exhibit, “Sensation,” none of the shows saw fit to include an advocate of civil liberties or artistic freedom. Giuliani appeared unopposed on NBC‘s Meet the Press, ABC‘s This Week With Sam and Cokie, and […]
(Note: Click here to read Stossel’s response to this report.) On September 19, ABC broadcast a one-hour news special titled “Is America # One?” by ABC News correspondent John Stossel. By comparing the economies of Hong Kong, the United States and India, Stossel attempts to show that laissez-faire economic policy is “what makes a country […]
Viacom‘s planned purchase of CBS—which, if approved, would be the “biggest media deal ever”—is getting a lot of coverage as a business story, but very little attention as a public interest issue. If the merger goes through, it will create the second largest media corporation in the world, worth about $80 billion. Viacom/CBS‘s holdings would […]
Two recent stories about nationally syndicated radio talk show hosts have once again raised the issue of sexism and racism on the radio. On August 24, Walt Disney Company issued an apology for a radio promotion that aired repeatedly during the nationally syndicated Mark & Brian show, which originates from KLOS-FM in Los Angeles, a […]
The ongoing story of East Timor’s referendum on independence has received a moderate amount of coverage in the mainstream media. But news outlets have frequently failed to put the Timor story in a full and accurate context. For example, in reports from East Timor’s capital, the Associated Press and some other news outlets continue to […]
Journalism best serves the common good when it focuses attention on social problems that its audience can help to solve. But establishment media outlets like the New York Times are often far less interested in the ills caused by the U.S. government than they are in the sins of distant regimes–especially those that have been […]
Two mainstream news outlets reported on the case of Pennsylvania death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal, claiming to present new evidence pointing to Abu-Jamal’s guilt. But the evidence that both outlets rely on—testimony of a supposed confession made eight years ago—is questionable on its face, and an old letter that has subsequently surfaced suggests that this […]
In a major relaxation of broadcast ownership rules, the Federal Communications Commission has announced it will allow networks to own two TV stations in the same city. Previously, the FCC limited a network or other company to one television station per city. Under the new regulations announced August 5, a company can own two television […]
Internet gossip columnist Matt Drudge has been signed by ABC to host a weekly radio talkshow. ABC Radio executive Geoff Rich boasted that “never before has a national talkshow debuted in so many top markets.” (AP,7/8/99) ABC seems unperturbed by accusations that Drudge often purveys inaccurate information. A notable example was the retraction Drudge had […]
On July 8, ABC‘s World News Tonight aired two stories on the subject of treating AIDS in African countries. ABC‘s conclusion: It’s better for poor Africans to die than to have access to cheap AIDS drugs. The South African government is currently in a trade dispute with the United States over this issue: South Africa, […]
The Federal Communications Commission is currently seeking public comment that would end the agency’s long-standing ban on low-power (or “micro”) radio. Microradio is currently an illegal form of radio broadcasting, which takes advantage of unused radio spectrum to broadcast low-watt transmissions. Microradio has the potential to be an ideal, low-cost form of community media. The […]
The idea that the economy is booming and that the rising tide is lifting all boats is a popular one in the corporate press right now. Money magazine’s May cover story was entitled simply “Everyone’s Getting Rich,” while CNN‘s Talkback Live opened up its June 30 broadcast with this introduction: “Behind the mind-boggling wealth of […]
During a June 25 appearance at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather expressed an openness to investigating alleged NATO war crimes committed in Yugoslavia. “If our government engages in war crimes it’s at least as important, and I would agree with you, more important that we report the […]
An article in the June 24 New York Times reported on the trial in Turkey of captured Kurdish guerrilla leader Abdullah Ocalan. The Times provided background on the war between Kurdish separatist guerrillas and Turkish security forces: The war that Ocalan has waged has cost more than 30,000 lives and made him the object of […]
Dan Rather: On my second trip to Belgrade I was there the night they turned off the lights. Remember, the first time we had a raid that shutdown the power, turned off the lights for most of Yugoslavia and that also meant turning off the water because the water needed the power to go. You […]
Michael Wines’ Letter to “FAIR Correspondents” Here is the full text of Michael Wines’ response to letters generated by FAIR’s June 17, 1999 action alert, “The New York Times‘ Yawning Gap: Between Glowing Portrait of Western Idealism and Reality of U.S. Policy.” Dear FAIR correspondents, Because I cannot reply to all correspondence, especially that which […]
In the June 13 New York Times “Week in Review,” Michael Wines cautioned that despite America’s “victory over Communism and inhumanity” in Kosovo, all is not well in the world. Americans often perceive their morals as universal, Wines says, but in fact there is “a yawning gap between the West and much of the world […]
The June 1st broadcast of CNN‘s “Larry King Live” show featured celebrity reporters and fashion journalists discussing a famous American woman’s most salient features. “She has a bad figure. She’s bottom heavy and her legs are short,” reported CNN‘s style editor, Elsa Klensch. But, “she’s making the most of it,” by “seeking high-end fashion advice […]
On June 5, 1999, thousands of anti-war activists protested the bombing of Yugoslavia by rallying in Washington, D.C. and marching from the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial to the Pentagon. A June 7 Nexis search of the major American news outlets (including newspapers such as the New York Times and the Washington Post, along with ABC, NBC, […]
