FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
The UN’s special human rights envoy found that the CIA’s drone strikes in Pakistan have “resulted in far more civilian casualties than the U.S. government has recognized.” But that message was muddled by the Washington Post’s he said-she said approach to the question of civilian deaths.
If It Weren’t for Those Meddling Iranians “This demonstrates the ever pernicious Iranian meddling in other countries in the region.” —unnamed U.S. official complaining to Reuters (1/28/13) about Iran allegedly sending arms to Yemen, where the U.S. is conducting a secret drone war Extreme Weather, Unexplained NBC Nightly News (1/13/13) asked a serious question, […]
TV news is often not all that informative. Sometimes that’s because the reports are so short–a few hundred words. But then there are TV reports that manage to use their short space to garble the details of a story completely. ABC correspondent Jonathan Karl’s piece about the Senate confirmation hearing for Obama’s CIA pick John Brennan fit into the latter category.
This week on FAIR TV we take a look at the the “informal arrangement” between several media outlets–including the New York Times and the Washington Post– to not report news about a CIA drone base.
We also talk about the curious standard for “confirming” news from Israeli government officials, and we take a look at the 60 Minutes softball interview with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
On last night’s O’Reilly Factor, the Fox News host wondered why NBC has failed to cover the new revelations about the White House drone program. The real question here is why Fox doesn’t let O’Reilly have access to the Internet.
The Washington Post reported some news that it’s known for years, but had decided not tell us until now: The CIA has a drone base in Saudi Arabia. Their rationale for withholding this information was simple: The government didn’t want them to. And from what the Post is telling us today, they weren’t the only ones.
Last night, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews hosted a discussion on the Obama administration’s recently disclosed “white paper” justifying its policy of using drones to strike at U.S. citizens. Matthews ultimately deciding that the policy was defensible–on the grounds that the CIA director Leon Panetta goes to church.
PBS ombud Michael Getler agrees with FAIR that the recent Nova special on drones that was underwritten by Lockheed Martin–a major military contractor and drone manufacturer–violates PBS funding guidelines.
The PBS Nova broadcast “Rise of the Drones” was sponsored by drone manufacturer Lockheed Martin–a clear violation of PBS’s underwriting guidelines.
In the latest edition of FAIR TV: Did Barack Obama’s inaugural address really signify a shift to the left? Plus the Washington Post gives the government a chance to make anonymous claims about how much Iranians are suffering due to their sanctions policy. And PBS takes a look at drones,with special funding from… drone manufacturer […]
The new episode of FAIR TV is here! CBS tells us what CEOs think about the “fiscal cliff” and the New York Times counts drone victims– but not very many of them. And did the Associated Press fall for a hoax with their latest “exclusive” on Iran and nuclear weapons? Check it out– and share […]
The New York Times editorial page (11/30/12) weighs in on the Obama administration’s drone policies. What the paper wants is more accountability: The government “must stay within formal guidelines based on the rule of law.” That’s all well and good—but the paper should do a better job of counting the innocents killed by drone attacks. […]
On the new episode of FAIR TV: Is a new Obama ad…racist? We’ll take a look at how PBS is misreporting Iran, and also take a look at Joe Klein’s remarkable defense of killing four-year-old girls in other countries. Take a look–and please spread the word.
MSNBC‘s Morning Joe had a remarkable discussion of U.S. drone attacks today (10/23/12). Here’s a clip of the most intense moments of the exchange between the conservative-leaning Joe Scarborough and Time columnist Joe Klein, who is occasionally mistaken for a liberal: Scarborough offered up a more passionate critique of drone attacks than you’re likely to […]
There are plenty of worthwhile things media could try to tell us about U.S. drone wars. But does the world need another uncritical piece about the difficult life of a drone pilot? Apparently someone at the New York Times thought so, and so readers get a story (7/30/12) headlined “A Day Job Waiting for a […]
In today’s New York Times article (6/6/12) about the apparent drone killing of Al-Qaeda “deputy leader” Abu Yahya al-Libi, Declan Walsh and Eric Schmitt write: If his death is borne out this time, it would be a milestone in a covert eight-year airstrike campaign that has infuriated Pakistani officials but that has remained one of […]
Yesterday (4/12/12) Pakistan’s parliament unanimously voted in favor of a resolution that, among other things, calls for an immediate end to CIA drone strikes in their country. The Washington Post‘s account of this news included this curious observation: From Washington’s perspective, the debate in Parliament was a healthy exercise in democracy but one that is […]
There is a big piece in the New York Times today (3/19/12) on the U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan. And, as has been the case before, the U.S. perspective comes via anonymous government officials: A senior American official in Washington said that the CIA had consistently taken precautions to reduce the risk to civilians, and […]
After our new alert (2/24/12), the New York Times public editor’s office contacted FAIR to let us know that Arthur Brisbane responded to readers who complained about one of the articles discussed in the alert. Below is that response, which was emailed to readers. It was not published on the Times‘ site. Thanks for your […]
A Los Angeles Times editorial (2/7/12) begins: When the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism released a report Sunday claiming that U.S. drone strikes have killed dozens of civilian rescuers and mourners in Pakistan, the American media scarcely noticed. It’s a good point.The Bureau‘s report got remarkably little media attention. A New York Times story (which […]
