FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
The “Rodney King riots” in Los Angeles last year prompted some journalists to think critically about their failure to fully cover the urban problems that lay behind the unrest. At the time, MacNeil/Lehrer’s David Gergen (5/1/92) admitted that there “has really been almost a conspiracy of silence within our political leadership and often with our […]
The use of prime-time TV to sell the public a bill of goods hit a new low a little over a year ago, when, on May 15, 1992, CBS aired a two-hour primetime special called Ancient Secrets of the Bible. Produced by David W. Balsiger, the program claimed to present “startling and surprising evidence” to […]
Between April 1 and May 29, 1993, at least 40 op-ed pieces in the New York Times dealt with Bosnia and the possibility of U.S. military intervention. Most of the regular columnists were in favor: Anthony Lewis, William Safire, Leslie Geib, Anna Quindlen. A.M. Rosenthal dissented, and guest columnists were split: Sen. Dennis DeConcini (D-Ariz.), […]
From the outset, press coverage of New York City’s efforts to provide self-cleaning toilets on the streets has had a single spin: Disabled ideologues are ruining this good project for the rest of us. “The issue most likely to doom the plan is access for the handicapped,” wrote New York Times Metro reporter Celia W. […]
For most mainstream papers, police reporting means relying mainly on police sources—a practice that contributes to the undercoverage of police brutality. The impact that an independent reporter can have by listening to unofficial sources points out the importance of alternative media —and the influence such outlets can have on the mainstream. On Nov. 15, 1992, […]
The assassination in April of African National Congress leader Chris Hani illustrated this truism yet again. While South African blacks reacted with rage and anguish to the killing of a popular and eloquent leader, U.S. media were more likely to respond: What will this mean for us white folks? For the murder of a major […]
There’s good news and bad news, America. The good news is that toxics in the environment are much less dangerous than once thought; the bad news is the government’s exorbitant over-regulation of chemicals. The solution? Wait patiently for more definitive data and then apply strict cost/benefit analysis. That’s the growing consensus among a new “third […]
In an October 1992 editorial, the New York Times proclaimed that “the debate over healthcare reform is over. Managed competition has won.” This outcome, the Times announced (10/10/92), was “delicious” and “wondrous.” In fact, the debate over healthcare reform still goes on, but you might not know it from establishment media. While the New York […]
Back in 1990, the grassroots group Neighbor to Neighbor called for a boycott of Folgers coffee to protest human rights abuses in El Salvador, a country Folgers bought coffee beans from. When Neighbor to Neighbor tried to run ads publicizing this boycott, however, nearly every TV station turned the group down. The reason stations were […]
According to the TV program What Happened?, broadcast on NBC earlier this year (3/16/93), “the system worked” during the 1979 nuclear accident at Three Mile Island (TMI). Although there were problems with “communication,” the show reported, with the undamaged unit of TMI back in operation, most people in the area now live happily with the […]
