FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
NBC‘s Tom Brokaw from the Republican National Convention last night (8/30/12): The best line, I think, in the speech was the one in which he said: “President Obama wants to slow the growth of the oceans, I want to help you and your family.” Yeah, wasn’t that great when Romney pretended we weren’t facing an […]
It appears someone has posted a hilarious send-up of Fox News host Bill O’Reilly. On his site there’s a Talking Points commentary so wrong-headed and contradictory that it has to be a joke–and a pretty convincing one. “As you may know, we cover politics a bit differently here. We are not much on party propaganda […]
In a New York Times story (8/24/12) about Mitt Romney’s energy proposals, reporters Eric Lipton and Clifford Krauss make this observation: With gasoline prices again approaching $4 a gallon, Mr. Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee, is also trying to merge energy and economic policy in a way that will make voters see increased energy production […]
Flipping open the new issue of Time (9/3/12), a piece by Michael Crowley begins: Paul Ryan may be America’s most famous budget wonk. Oh good grief. Crowley’s point is not just to praise Ryan’s devotion to spreadsheets. No, this piece is about the influences that made Paul Ryan the wonk he is today: But he’s […]
“Mitt Romney Sees Path to Energy Independence,” an L.A. Times piece by Seema Mehta (8/22/12), doesn’t mention climate change at all. It also doesn’t mention tar sands, the Canadian oil deposits whose extraction would devastate the environment, even though that’s what Romney’s talking about when he says that approving the Keystone pipeline will be one […]
Time magazine’s Michael Crowley, from the new issue: In naming Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan as his running mate on August 11, Romney chose someone as deep as Palin was shallow, a studious wonk known for his mastery of that most substantive of all issues: the federal budget. For Crowley, this is actually toning down the […]
Niall Ferguson’s Newsweek cover story “Hit the Road, Barack” has attracted lots of the wrong kind of attention. As Dean Baker put it: It’s hard to believe that progressive bloggers didn’t get together to pay Newsweek to run Niall Ferguson’s piece on Obama. The thing is so shot full of easily identifiable errors no serious […]
If you know anything of substance about Paul Ryan, it’s that the Republican vice presidential pick knows his numbers. A Washington Post profile today by Michael Leahy (8/20/12) tells us: He got his start on Capitol Hill as a 19-year-old intern working in the mailroom of Sen. Bob Kasten (R-Wis.). That led in time to […]
The Washington Post has done it again. Reporter Felicia Sonmez (8/17/12) somehow got a Republican campaign adviser to spill the beans on the Ryan/Romney relationship : A senior Republican adviser close to the campaign who spoke on the condition of anonymity said Ryan views Romney’s career as “a case study of some of the ideas […]
Sometimes the facts that need checking are pretty easy to check. That seemed to be the case with some misleading statements Paul Ryan made at a campaign stop yesterday. The New York Times set the record straight. Unfortunately their fact check was pretty much buried. The piece (8/17/12) by Trip Gabriel—headlined “Ryan Pushes Working-Class Message […]
Campaign rhetoric, we’re led to believe, can be hard to sort out. If Paul Ryan says his budget plan protects Medicare and the Democrats say it “ends” it, what should we believe? Those are the kinds of questions journalism is supposed to answer. Which is why ABC World News‘ August 14 “Reality Check” on Medicare […]
Heading over to the ABC News website, I found this on the homepage: Tough call: Do you read the story about Paul Ryan‘s impressive physique first, or his awesome bowhunting skills?
Coverage of national political campaigns is generally pretty bad–a parade of polls, horesrace analysis and fundraising tallies, with pundits doing their best at pretending they’re campaign strategists. Can it actually get worse than that? Maybe. NBC reporter Chuck Todd made that case with a full page article in the Washington Post on August 5 that compared […]
Citizens need thorough coverage from local media outlets of their potential representatives to make an informed decision about who will best serve their interests. It’s unfortunate that quality news on congressional elections is so hard to come by.
It’s been 20 years since a female journalist has been chosen to moderate a presidential debate. Yes, women have held the post for vice presidential debates, but that’s hardly the real deal. ABC News’ Carole Simpson was the last woman to lob questions at presidential candidates, back in 1992. What is going on? Well, I […]
Thomas Byrne Edsall on the New York Times‘ Campaign Stops blog (7/23/12) accuses Barack Obama of “the politics of anything goes.” His evidence: The Obama campaign is running ads attempting to persuade voters not to vote for Mitt Romney. The logic here is sort of hard to follow. First Edsall quotes Obama telling “those who […]
The criticism of Mitt Romney’s time at Bain Capital doesn’t appear to be leaving the headlines. And thus some political reporters are, as Jamison Foser notes, drawing an unusual comparison: Romney is being Swift Boated. The latest example comes from Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen (7/17/12): In a sense, Romney deserves the Swift Boating he’s […]
There are some pretty intense factchecking fights over what is true and not true about the Obama campaign’s claims about Romney’s record at Bain Capital. Media outlets are struggling with how to render a verdict; most seem to think Obama has exaggerated. But one outlet has found a voice willing to deliver a judgment. CNN […]
The New York Times has a long profile (7/13/12) of presumptive Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein. Though I could have done without some of it (“ever polished in bright scarves and slim pantsuits”), reporter Susan Saulny gives readers a good–and rare–look at a third party political candidate. Stein actually debated Mitt Romney in the […]
