FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
Iraq War’s DU Tonnage Overstated I’m grateful to Extra! and Dahr Jamail for reviewing the health impact of depleted uranium (DU) weapons used in Iraq (“The New ‘Forgotten’ War,” 3/10). But while it may seem many times worse to say that they “used more than 1,700 tons of depleted uranium in Iraq in the 2003 […]
After months of pressure from activists to make good on his campaign promise, Barack Obama called for a repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in his January 27 State of the Union address. Less than a week later, Adm. Mike Mullen, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Senate committee hearing on February […]
By now, the structural deficiencies in a corporate media system heavily dependent on commercial advertising and controlled by sprawling conglomerates should be obvious. Dramatic reductions in advertising and subscription revenue in recent years mean news outlets are even less likely to push back against commercial intrusions in the functioning of the newsroom. Journalists trying to […]
In the first year of the Obama administration, the corporate media suddenly overcame their general aversion to citizen movements that criticize government policies, granting the staunchly conservative Tea Party activists enormous coverage—a decision that seems likely to impact politics for the foreseeable future. Citizen movements are hardly ever front-page news, even when they have clearly […]
For many people, the Olympics rank high on the Happy Meter, right up there with cuddly kittens and free beer. But those who take a closer look at the Olympics’ political-economic underbelly often end up seeing less feline and more freight train, a corporate juggernaut whizzing through town at taxpayer expense and leaving public debt […]
As the functions of media, commerce and communication rapidly shift into the digital world, more and more cities are viewing broadband Internet access as a necessary resource to stay economically viable in the 21st century. While these communities have been working to expand access, another group, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), has been […]
CNN Scrapes the Bottom of the Barrel John King promised that his new CNN show, replacing the failed Lou Dobbs program, would focus on news, not opinion; he told Politico (11/12/09) that he was averse to guests “on news shows who start the conversation with a bias.” So who does CNN hire to do regular […]
