Media Opinion on DC Shooter Avoided Reality That Violence Abroad Can Come Home
Six of eight opinion pieces on the DC National Guard shooting ignored extensive evidence that the suspect’s US military experience impacted his mental state.
‘The Assassination of Patrice Lumumba Is One of the Most Important Assassinations of the 20th Century’
“We see the centrality of Lumumba to not only post-independence Congo, but a post-independence Africa.”
Deathly Silence: Journalists Who Mocked Assange Have Nothing to Say About CIA Plans to Kill Him
Covert plans for the state-sanctioned murder on British soil of an award-winning journalist should attract wall-to-wall media coverage.
Media Cry Wolf for Third Time on Afghan ‘Bounties’
Intelligence officials have pulled this same stunt twice in the last six months, first crying wolf over Russia, then Iran, accusing them of doing exactly the same thing: paying off the Taliban to kill Americans.
A CIA Officer Has a Headache. Media Blame Russia.
With tremendously high stakes, media rely largely on the testimonies of US officials, many of them anonymous, who have a clear incentive to lie and defame three countries with whom the United States is currently ramping up tensions.
Corporate Media Looks to Purveyors of State Violence Abroad to Condemn State Violence at Home
By relying on CIA testimony, media shift the focus away from the tyranny in our own backyard in favor of pointing fingers at the “despotic leaders” of “the Third World”—never mind the fact that the US has no qualms with oppressive leadership in the Middle East when it aligns with our interests.
You Don’t Need to Believe China About China’s Coronavirus Success
The reality is that it’s very hard to hide an epidemic. Stopping a virus requires identifying and isolating cases of infection, and if you pretend to have done so when you really haven’t, the uncaught cases will grow exponentially.
WSJ Says CIA Chief Wouldn’t Do Anything ‘Inappropriate’—Despite Record of Torture and Coverup
A Wall Street Journal report (5/25/19) by Warren Strobel whitewashed CIA Director Gina Haspel’s career and put a positive spin on the CIA’s insulation from public accountability with its turn towards its greatest opacity “in decades.” While one might expect CIA officials to support greater secrecy around the organization, it’s odd that ostensibly independent […]
ACTIVISM UPDATE: WaPo Editor Responds on Polio, Pakistan and the CIA
Washington Post editor Martin Baron responded to FAIR’s recent action alert calling on the Washington Post to acknowledge the role of CIA deception in fueling distrust of vaccination in Pakistan.
ACTION ALERT: WaPo Must Acknowledge CIA Role in Pakistan Polio Crisis
Please tell the Washington Post to acknowledge the role of CIA subterfuge in fueling the anti-vaccination sentiment that has led to a resurgence of polio in Pakistan.
A Tough Time to Be a Spy, NPR Reports
NPR’s Morning Edition has just run an upbeat segment on how violating other people’s borders is now a tad more challenging for American spies than it was in past decades.
‘Liberal’ MSNBC Runs All-Star Lineup of Awful Right-Wing Guests
Please send your suggestions to MSNBC about who would make better guests than mercenary entrepreneurs, former CIA directors and white nationalists.
‘The Doves Are Hawks and the Hawks Are Super-Hawks’
“This collection of perjurers and war criminals, because they’re critical of Trump, they’re put forward on MSNBC and CNN…as some sort of heroes that are going to save the republic.”
Despite Confession, CIA’s Role in Mandela’s Capture Can Still Hardly Be Told
In 1990, FAIR (Extra!, 3-4/90) noted that in all the coverage of Nelson Mandela’s release from 27 years of prison, virtually no one mentioned the role of the CIA in his capture. When Mandela died in 2013 (FAIR Media Advisory, 12/10/13), we asked, “Can the Story Be Told Now?” The answer was still no.
Vox’s CIA-Backed ‘Democracy’ Standard Is OK With Slavery and Women Not Voting
Vox, which constantly tells its readers that life is actually swell, with the momentum of history indisputably on the road to justice, decreased poverty and less war, consistently uses a method of ranking countries to prop up its argument that “democracy” is on the rise. But dig into the criteria being used and you find a troubling definition of “democracy” that serves the interests of US power—and wealthy elites.
‘Do Something’ About Refugees? US Has Done Plenty to Create Them
It didn’t take long for the universal and entirely justified outrage over a photograph of a dead three-year-old to be hijacked by the “do something” pundits.
SoundBites January/February 2015
Making ‘Torture’ Impossible When the Washington Post (12/9/14) described on the Senate Intelligence Committee report on the treatment of prisoners at CIA “black sites,” it said it documented “harsh interrogation measures,” “painful procedures” and even “seemingly arbitrary violence.” But what it didn’t say was that this treatment was “torture”—except when saying it was “deemed torture […]
ABC Makes US the Victim in CIA Torture Report Story
The Senate report revealed shocking, even sickening treatment of the CIA’s captives. But ABC’s focus wasn’t on the US government abuses detailed in the report, but “the fear that its release could threaten American lives.”
Torture Enablers Spin Unreleased Senate Report
The Senate’s report on CIA torture will be released in a matter of days, so why the need to give defenders of torture a platform to excuse themselves in advance?
The CIA Aided Polio’s Comeback—but Media Have Forgotten the Story
There’s a crucial piece of information missing in the New York Times and CBS’s reports on the return of polio from near-extinction—one that these outlets know full well.
