FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
“The companies may pay the fines, but the shareholders really pay that, and the people who actually committed the crimes at these big banks or corporations, they’re not the ones who are paying the fines. In fact, often, they get raises, or they keep their jobs.”
Drug company CEO Martin Shkreli became the target of public outrage by raising the price of a drug from $13 to $750 a tablet. Plus: The Volkwagen case raises yet again the question of whether our legal system can adequately respond to corporate crime.
The New York Times tells readers Barack Obama was moved to negotiate a deal with Iran because of his personal “faith in diplomacy.” Our guest has an alternate view.
How do you know that the women whose murders the Washington Post is reporting were sex workers or dealing with substance abuse?
When do journalists choose to unleash the weaponized language of “terrorism”—and what effect does that have on public opinion and policy? University of Illinois professor Travis Dixon has researched media patterns on the issue.
in a piece all about the “mismatch between public perceptions and actual cases,” the entity most charged with matching sure these match–the news media–doesn’t get much scrutiny
In theory, factchecking is one of the most important functions of journalism. In practice, systematic efforts by corporate media to “factcheck” political statements are often worse than useless.
Solitary confinement is discussed so matter-of-factly in US media that you wouldn’t guess that many people in the world consider it to be torture. Plus: Despite ever-growing popularity, women’s sports just don’t seem to garner big-time media interest.
The media-driven conversation on policing and public safety begins with the simplistic premise that the amount and aggressiveness of policing solely determines the crime rate.
“Incidents involving white law enforcement and black suspects have raised concerns across the US,” writes the Associated Press.
But the “incidents” raising concerns have not involved black “suspects.”
A Wall Street Journal article left out arguably the most interesting part of the story: The NYPD’s backing away from stop-and-frisk and reduced interest in small-time busts was accompanied by a 5 percent reduction in major crimes.
The specter of ISIS constantly trying to enlist dozens of Americans, often for attacks on US soil, is a crucial element in maintaining the current war effort. The media inability to point out that these “plots” are almost always entirely of the FBI’s making helps perpetuate the illusion and inflate perceived risk.
For NYPD officials, the New York Post report was a perfect example of why the NYPD needed millions of dollars to fight “frivolous” lawsuits. But there’s a problem: One of the key details of the report appears to have been made up out of whole cloth.
USA Today could have averaged several recent years to see if there was a meaningful trend. But instead the newspaper decided to feed the narrative that police officers are under attack.
Progressive Democrats launched an unexpected attack on a Congressional spending bill, leaving some pundits complaining once more about nasty Beltway polarization. But legislators were trying to do something substantive: Stop an attempt to roll back an important part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law. Journalist David Dayen will join us to explain what was at stake.
Also this week: It was two years ago that 10 first graders and 6 adults were killed by a troubled young man with an assault rifle. Media were transfixed by the disaster at Sandy Hook Elementary School, but did it affect the way they report on gun control? We’ll talk about guns and the press with Ladd Everitt, communications director at the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.
“Rush Limbaugh talks race relations.” You know, that Rush Limbaugh–the guy who once quipped, “Have you ever noticed how all newspaper composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?”
“Black lives matter” is the rallying cry of the burgeoning movement against police killings. The Associated Press, covering that movement, has produced a perfect example of what journalism looks like when black lives don’t matter.
On Fox News Channel, the real “bad guy” in Ferguson was the victim Michael Brown. The New York Times softens language around police violence. And a commercial for a new movie is “news”–on the movie studio’s TV network.
If only police officer Daniel Pantaleo had been able to somehow control his own arm, Eric Garner would not have died.
The St. Louis Police Academy held a special class for “upper-echelon law enforcement professionals” on how to “WIN WITH THE MEDIA” after an “officer-involved shooting.”
