FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
“I want it implemented…. God damn it, get in and get those files. Blow the safe and get it.” So railed President Richard Nixon (Abuse of Power, Stanley Kutler) to his aides about papers regarding the Vietnam War that he thought were at the Brookings Institution. The documents the White House apparently wanted to get […]
Clinton Worse Than Reagan “Clinton used his office to thwart an investigation sanctioned by his own attorney general…. Ronald Reagan waived all executive privilege…[and] turned over his documents and diaries…because he said he wanted the facts to come out.” —Time news article (8/24/98), conveniently forgetting the cover stories and document-shredding of Iran-Contra. Clinton Worse Than […]
This fall, thousands of campaigns have been waged across the country to elect everything from sewer officials to members of Congress. Despite the stakes involved, the country’s news media have appeared only briefly on the sidelines of a few races and ignored most of the rest. As curious as this behavior might seem, it has […]
The mainstream media’s campaign to discredit feminist leaders has been a dominant and consistent element of 1998’s ongoing sex spectacle. Feminist politicians and organizational leaders have arguably been opinion leaders for many women voters who elected Clinton in 1992 and 1996 and who support social issues such as abortion rights and affirmative action. These leaders […]
Prior to the June 2, 1998 vote on bilingual education in California, mainstream news polls–local and national–predicted that not only would the anti-bilingual education Proposition 227 pass, but that it would do so with the overwhelming support of Latinos, blacks and other ethnic and racial groups. Time (5/18/98), citing pre-election polls, reported that “a majority […]
“Now that she is no longer doing Murphy Brown, it dawned on me that she may want to do a story or two for us,” 60 Minutes executive producer Don Hewitt told New York magazine (8/17/98). Once they spot a story “worth her doing,” they’ll give actress Candice Bergen “a chance to do it.” Will […]
In an article this summer celebrating good economic news (7/31/98), the New York Times’ Sylvia Nasar paused to caution readers that even amid what she has called “the best economy since the 1960s” (8/2/98), a specter lurked: “Ever since the unemployment rate first slipped below the level that most economists regard as consistent with steady […]
In mainstream media accounts, the relationship between higher wages for workers (“wage pressure” or “labor costs”) and inflation is simple and certain—as when the New York Times flatly reports (6/5/98) the “concern among investors” that “inflation could increase this year because of rising wage pressures.” A typical story (Boston Globe, 4/5/98) explains that “businesses react […]
