FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
The budget proposal released on April 5 by Rep. Paul Ryan (R.-Wisc.) includes tax cuts for the wealthy, tax hikes for the middle class, drastic cuts in social spending and a radical restructuring of Medicare that would shift most of the cost of healthcare to seniors. Its dubious claims of deficit reduction rely on fatally […]
NPR McNews NPR’s Morning Edition (4/5/11) reported on the efforts of a major company to burnish its image—a company whose major owner happened to have left NPR $225 million in her will. “Yesterday, McDonald’s launched a McJobs campaign, with the goal of recruiting 50,000 workers,” anchor Renee Montagne reported. “It’s aiming to recast its jobs […]
The Federation for American Immigration Reform (not to be confused with the media watch group FAIR), recently held its fourth “Hold Their Feet to the Fire” event in Washington, D.C. The April 5-7 gathering saw the cozy confluence of freshman lawmakers, veteran creatures of the Hill such as journalist/speechwriter Patrick Buchanan and Sen. Olympia Snowe […]
When protests against attempts to roll back state workers’ benefits swept across the nation in February and March, local and national media coverage largely portrayed it as the inevitable collision of generous worker benefits and tight economic times. The Columbus Dispatch (2/20/11), for example, reported that “the protests at the Ohio and Wisconsin capitols portend […]
When it was released in September 2009, the United Nations Human Rights Council investigative document known as the Goldstone Report offered a detailed, shocking accounting of Israel’s 2008-09 invasion of the Gaza Strip. Hundreds of civilians were killed, scores of buildings were leveled, and water and sanitation infrastructure was attacked. The meticulous cataloguing received modest […]
To hear some tell it, the intelligence clues that ultimately led to Osama bin Laden’s hideout in Pakistan were generated by the use of torture. But the evidence available so far does not bear this out. Torture advocates on the right are claiming vindication. On Fox News Channel’s O’Reilly Factor (5/2/11), Rep. Peter King (R.-N.Y.) […]
The April 17 New York Times ran a long front-page piece on the racism of John Tanton, founder of the anti-immigration organizations Federation for American Immigration Reform and Center for Immigration Studies (CIS). Reporter Jason DeParle included a good deal of damning information about Tanton (long documented here at FAIR—1/1/93—and by groups like the Southern […]
Good Question for Teenage Moms Thanks for the article on ABC’s “Made in America” (“ABC’s ‘Made in America’ a Shoddy Product,” 4/11). I stopped watching any so-called “news” on ABC years ago but no doubt I learned more from Extra! than if I had seen the program. I do take issue with one point Janine […]
Knight-Ridder’s Washington bureau distinguished itself in the run-up to the Iraq War by challenging Bush administration claims with fact-driven reporting (Extra!, 3-4/06). Now known as McClatchy, the bureau is still challenging dominant storylines. The idea that tax cuts spur economic growth goes unquestioned in much budget reporting. But McClatchy’s Tony Pugh (3/28/11) documented how questionable […]
