FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
Under the headline “Lawmakers Aiming to Increase Civility,” the New York Times (1/17/11) reports from the front lines of the improved, post-Tucson political climate: And the House speaker, John A. Boehner, used the phrase ”job-destroying” instead of “job-killing” in reference to the Democrats’ healthcare overhaul in a speech to colleagues on Saturday–a subtle but pointed […]
If you listen to CounterSpin this week (and you should be downloading the podcast EVERY WEEK), you’ll hear this item: USA Today ran a version of an AP story September 29 about the outrageous and depressing fact that not a penny of the $1.5 billion the U.S. pledged to Haiti for rebuilding after the devastating […]
An AP piece published across the Web today (9/16/10) carries this headline: AP-GfK Poll: Nearly Half Oppose Tax Hikes for Rich. Well, that’s one way of looking at it–just like you could report the results of the 1988 election by saying that Michael Dukakis got “nearly half” of the popular vote. The more logical way […]
Reporting on Andrew Breitbart’s latest bit of deceit–using a selectively edited video to paint a low-level USDA official Shirley Sherrod as a racist–has given the media a chance to resurrect one of their favorite myths: Breitbart’s triumphant takedown of the community-organizing group ACORN. In September 2009, Breitbart’s website BigGovernment.com posted videos, made by conservative activists […]
FAIR has long complained (Extra!, 7-8/95; Extra Update!, 12/98) about corporate media’s avoidance of the word “terrorism” to describe the murder of doctors who perform abortions, even though it meets the standard definition: the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve a political purpose. But the term is still glaringly absent from the corporate media […]
AP‘s story (1/28/10) on Ben Bernanke’s reconfirmation as chair of the Federal Reserve states plainly what is more usually the unstated assumption in corporate media coverage of the Fed: The battle over Bernanke’s confirmation has been a test of central bank independence, a crucial element if the Fed is to carry out unpopular but economically […]
AP‘s Calvin Woodward, who has the standing assignment of “factchecking” political speeches, continues to be an embarrassment to genuine factcheckers everywhere–substituting his own weird value judgments, semantic games and crystal-ball gazing for genuine examination of facts (FAIR Blog, 10/30/08, 2/25/09, 4/30/09). In his post–State of the Union effort (1/27/10), he singles out Barack Obama’s call […]
Ousted President Manuel Zelaya has returned to Honduras, though not to office.Unfortunately, press accounts still manage to mangle the story behind his ouster, relying on those who supported the coup to explain what happened. In today’s New York Times (9/22/09): At the time of his removal, Mr. Zelaya was planning a nonbinding referendum that his […]
Editor & Publisher‘s Joe Strupp (9/4/09) has an update on U.S. papers’ “mixed reaction to the controversial Associated Press photo distributed today of a Marine who died in combat in Afghanistan last month.” The picture’s inclusion in “a group of images taken by AP photographer Julie Jacobson” predictably was “blasted” by Secretary of Defense Robert […]
Eighteen-year-old Caster Semenya, a runner from South Africa, just blew away the competition in the women’s 800-meter world championship race. But the news reports yesterday weren’t about that–they were about whether she’s “really” a woman or not. And supposedly serious outlets like the AP and CNN are sinking to tabloid levels of coverage on the […]
In his latest “Dispatch from the Bolivarian Revolution”, blogger Eric Wingerter (BoRev.net, 7/18/09) asks, “Man oh man, how bad does AP reporting have to get before a group of Latin American studies professors from top U.S. universities decides they need to take out a FULL-PAGE AD in the Columbia Journalism Review to respond?” His answer […]
As news comes of “yet another horrific mass shooting by yet another disaffected man armed with ammo and a deep hatred of women“–this time “killing three women and injuring nine more” at a Pennsylvania health club–Jennifer Pozner (Women In Media & News, 8/5/09) notices that “the gunman’s stated intention to target only women is eerily […]
Reporting for Associated Press (7/3/09), David Bauder has an update on CNN‘s insistence on “standing behind” Lou Dobbs, who has “become a publicity nightmare for CNN, embarrassed his boss and…on top of all that, his ratings are slipping.” Bauder asks outright: “How does Lou Dobbs keep his job” while plugging the conspiracy theory that Barack […]
In another example of how the racist record of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s top Republican questioner has gone down the memory hole, Associated Press had a whole story (7/19/09) about Sen. Jeff Sessions’ assertions that Sotomayor was too prejudiced to get his vote without mentioning that the Senate Judiciary Committee had rejected Sessions when […]
Washington Monthly‘s Political Animal blogger Steve Benen (7/16/09) has observed that on July 15, “the Associated Press reported that the House Democratic healthcare plan cost ‘$1.5 trillion,’” and “by the afternoon, the AP reporting didn’t attribute the price tag to anyone; it just stated the figure as fact.” Even though “the day before the AP […]
Editor & Publisher is running a wire item (Associated Press, 7/16/09) on the Richmond Times-Dispatch‘s recent front-page editorial and website video “expressing regret for supporting the state’s fight to maintain separate schools for blacks and whites in the 1950s.” The paper’s confession of its “central role in the ‘dreadful doctrine’ of Massive Resistance–a systematic campaign […]
Investigative reporter Gareth Porter’s careful reading (Dissident Voice, 6/28/09) of “the official military investigation into the disastrous May 4 airstrike in Farah province” of Afghanistan, which “omitted key details” and “gave no explanation” for reasserting “that only about 26 civilians had been killed”–“well-documented reports by the government and by the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission […]
An AP story (6/7/09) previewing today’s European Parliament election is headlined on MSNBC, “Europe Leans Right Ahead of Parliament Voting: Amid Economic Gloom, Conservatives Look Set to Win Big in Europe-Wide Poll.” The article, by Michael Weissenstein and Robert Wielaard, begins: Europe was leaning to the right ahead of European Parliament elections Sunday, with voters […]
“If media reports are to be believed,” Gabriel Arana of the Nation writes (5/27/09), “an Armageddon-like rash of drug-related violence–unlike any seen since ‘Miami Vice years of the 1980s‘–has crossed from Mexico into the United States, ‘just as government officials had feared.’” But that’s a pretty big if, even though “in the national media, it’s […]
This Associated Press story (“Debate Over Who Sotomayor Is a Sensitive One,” 5/29/09) sure is confused. Luckilyreporter Sharon Thiemermakes at least that much clear from the very start: There are two sides to Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor: a Latina from a blue-collar family and a wealthy member of America’s power elite. The White House […]
