FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
Note: This article is a sidebar to “Fear & Favor 2008.” From time to time we get a peek behind the corporate media curtain, thanks to anecdotes shared by those in a position to know how the news business works. Some are remarkably candid, if lacking in specifics—as when former CBS anchor Dan Rather declared […]
The Secret Suspension of the First Amendment “First Amendment speech and press rights may also be subordinated to the overriding need to wage war successfully.” —The official position of the U.S. government, as outlined in a secret memo from the Office of Legal Counsel, from October 23, 2001 until October 6, 2008 A Wide Range […]
Cancer and the Environment I think Extra! is doing great work and am gratified to receive it. In a recent round-up of how the media treats breast cancer (“Overlooking Evidence,” 2/09), there was no mention made of Devra Davis, whose recent book The Secret History of the War on Cancer I have been reading. She […]
Reporter Thomas Ricks’ new book The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008, documents the military changes that took place in Iraq after the controversial troop “surge,” which is commonly credited with having greatly reduced violence in the country (Extra!, 11-12/07, 9-10/08). A Pentagon correspondent for the Washington Post, Ricks […]
The broad downturn in the U.S. economy has hit the media industry especially hard, as corporate owners who gambled on debt-financed expansions have seen their business models head south on the back of shrinking subscription and advertising revenue. In any economic climate, there are pressures on working journalists, but the current problems in the industry […]
Of all the supposed “pork” in the proposed economic stimulus bill, perhaps none got so much media attention as the provision to extend family planning to more low-income women. As the House struggled to pass the legislation, Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) issued a press release (1/23/09) claiming that the plan “includes taxpayer funding for […]
There is money to be made from fear—and business has been good for those hawking the online child predator threat. Exploiters of the scare range from the Internet-policing groups who ferret out suspects and share information with authorities (and sometimes, for a fee, with journalists) to vendors of software intended to help parents monitor and […]
“Afghanistan cannot be saved from the Taliban by military means alone” (Boston Globe, 1/5/09), goes a common corporate media line. “Force alone will not defeat the militants,” editorialized the New York Times (11/21/08). “Troops alone won’t do that job,” wrote Time’s Mark Thompson (3/2/09). With U.S. or allied forces responsible for 39 percent of the […]
