FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
When the results of the June 13 Iranian elections were decried as fraudulent (charges that were later backed up by a detailed study by Chatham House—6/21/09), U.S. media instantly became the champions of the oppressed Iranians who took to the streets in protest. Cries of righteous solidarity echoed from virtually all mainstream outlets, and the […]
The handclasp between U.S. President Barack Obama and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez at the Summit of the Americas grabbed U.S. media attention in April. But at the summit itself, there was a more pressing issue: the U.S.’s nearly 50-year-old embargo against Cuba. Before the meeting, Obama had made some moves to ease its impact, including […]
Immune-From-Criticismism at the Washington Post Writing about the firing of Dan Froomkin, author of the “White House Watch” column on Washington Post.com, Post ombud Andy Alexander (6/26/09) confidently asserted that “first, it’s not about ideology”—before acknowledging that Froomkin “was urged not to do media criticism.” Clearly, though, the notion that the Post should not be […]
9/11 Conspiracy Let me start by saying thanks for what you guys do. Of all the alt-media/info groups, FAIR is my favorite. To get quickly to the point, I’ve been introduced very recently to 9/11 conspiracy information. Let me say that I’ve never “believed” in any conspiracy whatsoever. I’ve intentionally steered clear of such things, […]
There was something particularly Timesian about the New York Times’ response to an important new study on charter schools—public schools that operate under special rules, seen by some as the main engine of reform for a fundamentally dysfunctional educational system and by others as a thinly veiled effort to drain resources from existing public schools […]
Journalists reporting on the healthcare reform debate are often work for media corporations whose boards include representatives of the insurance industry.
During an ABC Nightline interview on May 21, 2003, host Ted Koppel suggested that his guest was engaging in “class warfare” by arguing that the wealthy should pay increased taxes. While the exchange was not unusual—Koppel’s use of the term “class war” to characterize bottom-up or populist economic rhetoric is the norm—what was unusual was […]
[See also the sidebar to this piece, Sotomayor vs. Bork: NYT by the Numbers] Writing about Barack Obama’s nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, Politico’s Mike Allen (5/27/09) declared: The media’s left-of-center bias is rarely more apparent than during court fights. The coverage running up to the pick was slanted heavily […]
[Note: This piece is a sidebar to Misjudging Sotomayor Coverage] Following President Barack Obama’s announcement of Judge Sonia Sotomayor as his nominee for the Supreme Court, Extra! compared the New York Times National Desk’s coverage of the two weeks following Sotomayor’s nomination (5/27/09-6/10/09) to the first two weeks of coverage of Ronald Reagan Supreme Court […]
