Dean Baker on Bush budget, Eric Boehlert on Bush/National Guard
Is media coverage clarifying the potential impact of the $2.4 trillion package, or just making a confusing issue more confusing?
AP Clarifies Report on Florida Ballots
The Associated Press has issued a clarification to a story highlighted in a recent FAIR action alert. On September 3, FAIR alerted readers to an August 25 story about Florida secretary of state Katherine Harris. In the piece, the AP recalled the ballot recounts in Florida this way: “Some unofficial ballot inspections paid for by […]
AP Rewrites History of Florida Recount
In a reference to the disputed presidential election of 2000, the Associated Press rewrote history– history that AP itself helped make in the first place. In an August 25 report on a new book by Katherine Harris, who as Florida’s secretary of state played a major role in the election controversy, AP included this attempt […]
Who Won the Election? Who Cares?
On November 7, 2001, a reader of the political website MakeThemAccountable.com made a series of predictions about how the news media would cover a long anticipated review of uncounted Florida ballots from the 2000 presidential election: The data will show that Gore won, but the article will be written to obscure that fact…. The headline […]
USA Today Conceals Key Information in Recount Story
On April 4, USA Today announced the results of its long-anticipated re-examination of Florida ballots (done in conjunction with the Miami Herald) with the headline: “Newspapers’ Recount Shows Bush Prevailed in Fla. Vote.” The headline touting a Bush win referred to the paper’s estimate of what would have happened if the U.S. Supreme Court had […]
Cosmetic Coverage
Journalists are obsessed with cutting political women down to size, whether elected to office or propelled by marriage into the peculiar role of first lady.
Populist Rhetoric Unpopular with the Pundits
This year, the normal rhythms of post-election punditry were disrupted by all the talk of dimpled chads and canvassing boards. But echoing the pre-election refrain, one message did emerge from the muffled Monday-morning quarterbacking: Al Gore’s campaign ran too far to the left. It’s a familiar charge, one that’s repeated every time a Democrat loses […]
Serial Exaggerators
Throughout the presidential elections, mainstream media outlets were quick to charge Democratic candidate Al Gore with exaggerations: Whether he was talking about inventing the Internet, inspiring Love Story or discovering Love Canal, you just couldn’t trust what Gore was saying. If you looked into these incidents, you found that in each case the media’s exaggerations […]
Media Passed by Jesse Jackson
The media’s denial about potential disenfranchisement in Florida is cloaked in the denigration of Jesse Jackson. In lockstep media commentary, Jackson was depicted as a crazed black man on the corner, so nuts that cab drivers, the editors steering the news, had every justification to pass him up. On CNN (11/9/00), Jackson was “fomenting turbulence” […]
Nader the Nightmare
The pain establishment media felt over Ralph Nader’s challenge to the two-party system was evident in CBS‘s election night coverage. When reporter Ed Bradley commented that Ralph Nader might approach the 5 percent threshold for receiving federal matching funds, Dan Rather interrupted: “About $12 million, $13 million of your money and mine.” As Bradley pointed […]
Media Lovefest for Gore, Bush and Centrism
The end of the presidential race has produced one thing media can virtually all agree on: The time for fighting is over. Reporters like Tim Russert had predicted a potential “political civil war;” when it didn’t happen, that seemed reason enough for celebration. Unfortunately, for many reporters the “ceasefire” in the ballot battle signaled an […]
Fox Reporter on Florida Ballots: Burn Them or Shred Them?
Several news organizations have begun the process of evaluating the disputed ballots in the state of Florida. Reporters intend to use a variety of methods to help answer lingering questions about who might have actually won the vote in the state if a hand recount had not been halted by the U.S. Supreme Court. One […]
Allegations of Voting Rights Violations Need Investigation
Since November 7, major media outlets have devoted enormous attention to the aftermath of the presidential election in Florida. But one critical aspect of this story has received relatively little attention: the allegations of a pattern of voting irregularities and discrimination against African-Americans and other minority groups that may violate the 15th Amendment and the […]
Crucial Media Role in Recount Debate
Rarely have the U.S. media had a more important role to play in the nation’s democratic process. The election of the nation’s next president appears to hang on the outcome in the single state of Florida. The Florida vote, in turn, may well hinge on whether or not hand recounts are conducted in some or […]
CAMPAIGN COVERAGE: How Did the Media Do?
Presidential Debates— Dems & GOP Win, Voters Lose When the Commission on Presidential Debates excluded third parties from the presidential debates, the media generally accepted the terms without questioning the CPD’s corporate funding or the fact that it’s controlled by the Democratic and Republican parties. Because the press failed to act as a watchdog, what […]
Are All Candidates’ Exaggerations Considered Equal?
While mainstream media outlets have been quick to charge Vice President Al Gore with exaggerations after the presidential debates and throughout the campaign, a series of comparable exaggerations and distortions made by Republican candidate George W. Bush have received far less coverage. Media were fervently interested in Gore’s claim in the first debate (10/3/00) that […]
Populist Rhetoric Unpopular with the Pundits
This year, the normal rhythms of post-election punditry were disrupted by all the talk of dimpled chads and canvassing boards. But echoing the pre-election refrain, one message did emerge from the muffled Monday-morning quarterbacking: Al Gore’s campaign ran too far to the left. It’s a familiar charge, one that’s repeated every time a Democrat loses […]
Free Air Time on PBS: Not for All Candidates
PBS has announced its plan to offer free air time to presidential candidates beginning tonight, October 25, and concluding on Friday, November 3. The candidates will get 2 and a half minutes at the end of the “NewsHour withJim Lehrer” to address viewers directly, but the offer is not open to allthe candidates: The PBS […]
Novak on ‘Color-Blindness’
Commentator Robert Novak wasn’t happy with the ethnicity of the speakers at the Republican convention. He complained to Bush adviser Ralph Reed (Crossfire, 7/31/00): You know, Mr. Reed, I used to think that one of the values of the Republican Party is they were color-blind while the Democrats had a quota system. I was looking […]
Allow Nader, Buchanan into Debates
By getting Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Gore to agree to a schedule of debates to be broadcast by major TV networks, the Commission on Presidential Debates has saved the day. At least, that’s what we were told. But who will save us from the commission? And can we trust the CPD to […]
