FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
Bill Keller’s New York Times column (3/19/12) begins with what might be a bit of self-deprecation: “When you’ve been wrong about something as important as war, as I have….” You might take that as a cue to stop reading right there. But Keller’s point is that people should think long and hard about signing on […]
Under the succinct Consortium News subhed “Too Late the Leak” (7/24/09), former CIA analyst Ray McGovern revisits the Downing Street Minutes–which he says should represent the kind of documentary evidence after which trial lawyers, intelligence analysts–and serious investigative journalists–lust. Though the unauthorized disclosure did not come early enough to head off the war, which had […]
Journalists typically condemn attempts to force their colleagues to disclose anonymous sources, saying that subpoenaing reporters will discourage efforts to expose government wrongdoing. But such warnings seem like self-puffery after one watches contemporary journalism in action: When clear evidence of wrongdoing emerges, with no anonymous sources required, major news outlets can still virtually ignore it. […]
Washington Post ombudsman Michael Getler used his June 19 column to respond to FAIR’s June 14 Action Alert regarding Post reporter Dana Milbank’s use of the term “wing nuts” to describe activists pressing the media to take the Downing Street memos more seriously. The relevant portion of Getler’s column is below, followed by FAIR’s response. […]
One of the features of the newfound media interest in the Downing Street Memo is a profound defensiveness, as reporters scramble to explain why it received so little attention in the U.S. press. But the most familiar line–the memo wasn’t news because it contained no “new” information–only raises troubling questions about what journalists were doing […]
After over a month of scant media attention, mainstream U.S. outlets have begun to report more seriously about the “Downing Street Memo,” the minutes of a July 2002 meeting of British government officials that indicate the White House had already made up its mind to invade Iraq at that early date, and that “the intelligence […]
Why is the press so uninterested in the Downing Street memo, despite the compelling evidence it provides that the Bush administration was intent on invading Iraq? Also this week: how does corporate media report on class divide?
Following FAIR’s call for more mainstream coverage of the “smoking gun memo”—the secret British document containing new evidence that the Bush administration manipulated intelligence to justify its plan to invade Iraq—a steady trickle of news reports have appeared. But that coverage has been downplayed in general and is still completely absent from the nightly news. […]
Despite traction in Congress, the Central American Free Trade Agreement is getting minimal media attention. . . Why is that? Also on the program: the London Times recently published a piece validating the legitimacy of the Downing Street memo. And yet there remains very little coverage in the US. Former CIA official Ray McGovern joins CounterSpin to discuss the memo and its significance.
NOTE: Please see the Action Alert related to this Advisory. Journalists typically condemn attempts to force their colleagues to disclose anonymous sources, saying that subpoenaing reporters will discourage efforts to expose government wrongdoing. But such warnings seem like mere self-congratulation when clear evidence of wrongdoing emerges, with no anonymous sources required– and major news outlets […]
