FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
This conservative media machine now rivals—and may well surpass—the power and the influence of the old-line press. It holds sway over much of the national agenda, deciding which ideas and individuals are accepted and which are marginalized.
Listening to the likes of new House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Sen. Larry Pressler, who have threatened to “zero out” funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), you would think that U.S. public television is promoting a “liberal agenda.” On the other hand, bureaucrats from CPB and from PBS, which gets its federal funding […]
By Daniel Junas Sun Myung Moon, the charismatic leader of the Unification Church, founded the Washington Times on May 18, 1982, the day after he was convicted of tax fraud and related charges. That conviction, for which Moon served 14 months in federal prison, contributed to a widespread perception that Moon was a discredited and […]
Tired of easy listening? If you’re in Colorado Springs, you can tune into KVOR, where talkshow host Chuck Baker mimics the sound of a firing pin—”kching-kching”—as he raves against the government and talks to listeners about shooting members of Congress and forming guerilla cells. Baker’s three-hour talk show piggy-backs Rush Limbaugh, forming a solid bloc […]
Al Gore may get credit for coining the term “information superhighway,” but it’s Newt Gingrich and company who are burning rubber on it. House Speaker Gingrich and his fellow Republicans have clearly stolen the thunder of their Democratic counterparts in applying state-of-the-art information technology to further their political agenda. Since seizing power in November, the […]
In 1992, the American Spectator‘s circulation stood at 38,000; today, the right-wing magazine boasts 335,000 subscriptions. Two factors account for most of this growth: One is the continuous boosting by talkshow host Rush Limbaugh (the magazine is a sponsor of his show); the other is the sensationalistic reporting of David Brock. Brock is responsible for […]
Why have progressives virtually lost their voices in serious public policy debates? Is it the superior effectiveness (or entertainment value) of the Newt/Rush appeals to reason? Or is it just some inevitable historical cycle, which progressives should endure quietly, assuming that their turn will come? These would be logical questions if the contest for public […]
One breezy October evening three weeks before last fall’s election, Ellen Messer-Davidow, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota, advised New York feminists to start reading the writings of the right. Because most progressives don’t spend their time perusing conservative publications, she said, they usually don’t notice right-wing arguments until they spread to the […]
In May 1992, television preacher Pat Robertson announced that he was interested in buying United Press International, the financially struggling news service. Reflecting on the proposed deal, Robertson told reporters the purchase “may be a little opportunity” for God to touch society. Two months later, the deal was off. Robertson explained that his auditors had […]
