FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
Salon‘s Glenn Greenwald “marvels” (12/8/08, ad-viewing required) at “how easily [John Brennan-for-CIA-head proponents] can implant their message into establishment media outlets far and wide, which uncritically publish what they’re told from their cherished ‘intelligence sources’ and without even the pretense of verifying whether any of it is true and/or hearing any divergent views”: All of […]
Tom Engelhardt’s nearly interminable list of media blogs and features about Barack Obama’s presidential transition has him urging us (TomDispatch, 12/7/08) to “think of all this as Entertainment Weekly married to People magazine for post-election political junkies”: Obama–thank goodness–isn’t George Bush. He doesn’t arrive in office with a crew wedded to a “unitary executive theory” […]
This week FAIR’s CounterSpin radio show (12/5/08) takes on an important issue from the last U.S. invasion of Iraq: For years, veterans claiming to suffer from Gulf War Syndrome were derided as cranky and hysterical by the Department of Defense and even by some journalists. Will that change now that a definitive report says the […]
Feeling “especially exasperated by the readiness of TV pundits and op-ed writers to make sweeping statements about the state of the electorate without ever talking to an actual voter,” veteran media critic Michael Massing took an October trip to Ohio (New York Review of Books, 12/18/08) in search of “the concerns and attitudes of ordinary […]
Noam Chomsky points out that a Boston Globe analysis (11/9/08) of the Obama victory claims that the president-elect owes nothing to “traditional Democratic constituencies” like labor, women, ethnic minorities and the peace movement, because a “grassroots army of millions”—seemingly unconnected to such constituencies—”propelled” Obama’s win. It’s worth noting, however, that this idea of a Democratic […]
ZNet has Noam Chomsky‘s in-depth analysis (11/25/08) of the recent U.S. presidential election–its likely ramifications, and its overall democratic qualities as compared to other countries. Chomsky here addresses the corporate media aspect: In the liberal Boston Globe, the headline of the lead story observed that Obama’s “grassroots strategy leaves few debts to interest groups”: labor […]
The folks at Free Press recount (11/25/08) how, “when St. Paul police launched a violent crackdown on journalists covering the Republican National Convention,” the media reform group “needed an on-the-ground organizer to pressure city officials to drop the charges against the journalists”–luckily they “knew just the person to call: Nancy Doyle Brown of the Twin […]
Eric Hananoki and Lauren Auerbach have a new Media Matters exposé (11/24/08) of how, since the beginning of October, Dick Morris has repeatedly used his columns and Fox News appearances to promote and raise money for the National Republican Trust PAC without disclosing that the organization has paid $24,000 to a company apparently connected to […]
Hullabaloo blogger digby deflates (11/21/08) what she says “has actually been an article of faith among the gasbags for a very long time”: Until recently, what they proclaimed (without qualification) was that this was a “conservative country.” The election of a Democrat with a popular mandate required them to change their rhetoric. But it hasn’t […]
Under the headline “Pollsters Debate America’s Political Realignment,” the Washington Post‘s Robert Kaiser tries to weigh the arguments about the political makeup of the United States in light of the 2008 election. But Kaiser’s rendition of this debate only serves to confuse matters. There are basically two sides to this clash: those who say the […]
Responding (11/13/08) to those “who would argue that the election of the first African-American president signaled the country has moved past the need to be concerned about racial equity,” PBS.org‘s Dori J. Maynard writes that it is true that some television networks put on air more African-American commentators during the campaign. Those additional voices, however, […]
From his perch over at Salon, Glenn Greenwald (11/18/08, ad-viewing required) sees “nothing new” in the current media craze for “bipartisanship“: “To the contrary, the last eight years have been defined, more than anything else, by overarching bipartisan cooperation and consensus.” Where is the evidence of the supposed partisan wrangling that we hear so much […]
Rolling Stone reporter Matt Taibbi‘s look back (11/13/08) at his experience covering the ’08 presidential campaign features this response to Hillary Clinton adviser Mark Penn calling her “a workhorse”: “‘Are you implying,’ snaps one reporter, ‘that Barack Obama is not a workhorse?’” This is what qualifies as a tough question on the campaign trail. The […]
The New York Times‘ Jonathan Hicks (11/17/08), writing about newly elected Staten Island Rep. Michael McMahon: Mr. McMahon…stresses his working-class roots, telling voters of his Irish fatherâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s lifelong job as an insurance underwriter. That must be the same working class that Bill O’Reilly comes from.
The Huffington Post publishes male critic Jeff Cohen’s challenge (11/13/08) to “independent media outlets that contributed so mightily to the stunning election result”: With Democrats in control, will these outlets be guided by principle or just partisanship? Will they speak truth to power and expose corruption and injustice over the long haul–no matter who’s in […]
Media reformer Josh Silver‘s “Look at Media in 2009” (Huffington Post, 11/13/08) necessarily surveys the dire record of corporate news in ’08: The real problem is not the media favoring one candidate over another, but rather its utter failure to practice critical journalism. Turn on your television or radio, and it’s 24/7 horserace political coverage, […]
Speaking out again now that the U.S. presidential election has been decided, Bill Ayers tells Juan Gonzalez and Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!, 11/14/08) exactly why his family “actually didn’t pay a lot of attention to” the ongoing media controversy over him: We recognized that there was this cartoon character kind of thrust up on the […]
Observing (Creator’s Syndicate, 11/14/08) that “overall, the news media like winners, and an incoming president is the biggest winner of all,” Norman Solomon knows “the period between his opponent’s concession speech and the swearing-in has traditionally been a time of many media upsides without the burdens of actual incumbency.” As a result, despite the vast […]
One interesting post-election story has been the treatment of Rahm Emanuel, a center-right Clinton Democrat who will serve as Obama’s chief of staff. While some Republicans claim Emanuel is too “partisan,” some media defenders argue that he’s not, since his politics are not all that liberal. Time magazine’s Karen Tumulty explains: The strongest signal of […]
In his Unclaimed Territory feature at Salon (11/13/08, ad-viewing required), Glenn Greenwald has more on mainstream journalists’ affinity for those “urging the new Obama administration to avoid any investigations or prosecutions of Bush lawbreaking”: This is what has been advocated by everyone from David Broder to top Obama adviser Cass Sunstein. There are few things […]
