Hawkish Pundits Downplay Threat of War, Ukraine’s Nazi Ties
US corporate media outlets demand that Washington escalate the risk of a broader war while downplaying important aspects of the conflict.
‘This Violent Piece of Insurrection Was Planned Openly on Unencrypted Channels’
“It’s not that they failed at overturning the election; it’s that they succeeded in mainstreaming fascism and fascist tactics.”
Chilean Election Is a Feast of False Equivalency
For a lot of the Western corporate press, the Chilean candidates are equally bad for a country lauded for its moderation.
Dorothee Benz on January 6 Insurrection, Vera Eidelman on Anti-Protest Laws
As the year nears its end, it’s hard not to think back to how it started—with the violent assault on the Capitol.
Cable News’ No. 1 Host Flirts With Fascism
Tucker Carlson, as a top media personality, is steering the right into a loose global confederation of illiberal political movements.
Why Carlson’s Alliance With Hungarian Fascism Matters
Tucker Carlson’s endorsement of Viktor Orbán is a signal of what kind of society Carlson would like to see in the United States.
Keri Leigh Merritt on the New Lost Cause, Elisabeth Rosenthal on Troubled Vaccine Rollout
Historians are shaking their heads as media talk about January 6 as “unprecedented”; while shocking and dispiriting, it has layers and layers of precedent that need to be learned and engaged, if we are ever to actually have the racial reckoning that corporate media are forever insisting we’ve already had.
Dorothee Benz on January 6 Insurrection, Mara Verheyden-Hilliard on Police Responsibility
Media who egged on Trump’s candidacy, trivialized his venality and normalized as extreme-but-within-range his and his party’s every anti-democratic outrage, are poorly placed to take principled umbrage when that juggernaut takes the course that everyone and their mother said it would.
As Far Right Storms Capitol, Media Need to Look at Their Own Role in How We Got Here
After both sides–ing the political situation for four years of Donald Trump, the storming of the Capitol by an armed rebellion incited by Trump himself has brought out swift and strong words from some in corporate media.
‘All 50 States Bar Private, Unauthorized Paramilitary Activity’
“It’s not to anyone’s benefit to intimidate voters. It’s not to anyone’s benefit to have armed, non-publicly accountable individuals, private armies, on the streets.”
Mary McCord on Unlawful Militias, Chip Gibbons on Assange Extradition
Unlawful militias manage to be part of the political landscape while somehow escaping rigorous media scrutiny.
As US Teeters on Authoritarianism, WaPo Pushes ‘Both Sides’ Fantasies
In the extensive genre of corporate media obfuscation about right-wing paramilitary violence, a WaPo piece stands out even amidst some tough competition.
‘When You Talk About White Supremacy, You’ve Got to Take a Hard Look at Our Culture’
“I don’t think anybody nowadays thinks that you can simply bash a population like Mexicans, as Trump did, or Muslims, and not get a result that ends up in violence in some cases.”
Democracy Dies in Obfuscation
In the extensive genre of corporate media obfuscation about right-wing paramilitary violence, a WaPo piece stands out even amidst some tough competition.
Washington Post Shows How Not to Talk About Free Speech
The Washington Post’s pieces suffer from dubious, superficial understandings of free speech, and function as attacks on the left that whitewash the far right.
In Norway, Footnotes to Mass Murder:
Terror suspect cited Islamophobic blog as inspiration
When someone acts out in reality the violent fantasies that are far-right bloggers’ stock in trade, they pretend to have nothing to do with it.
More Terror, Less Coverage
On the morning of January 17 in Spokane, Washington, city workers found a backpack with a bomb that was set to go off along the route of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade. An FBI official (Spokane Spokesman Review, 1/19/11) called the bomb “a viable device that was very lethal and had the potential […]
James O’Keefe, Now Even Creepier
You may remember James O’Keefe as the video hoaxter who fooled media into thinking ACORN gave tax advice to a man wearing a pimp costume (FAIR Action Alert, 3/11/10). Or as the miscreant whose attempts to interfere with Sen. Mary Landrieu’s office phones got him arrested (Extra!, 4/10). Now O’Keefe has a new claim […]
AM Armies
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 […]
Klaus Barbie the Businessman
An otherwise excellent New York Times Magazine article on Nazi fugitive Klaus Barbie failed to mention Barbie’s continuing role as a CIA asset.
