20 Years Later, NYT Still Can’t Face Its Iraq War Shame
On the 20th anniversary of the Iraq invasion, the New York Times says “it’s complicated” to a disaster it can’t admit it helped create.
September 11’s Never-Ending Story
A retrospective look at FAIR’s coverage of two decades of media self-censorship, scapegoating and stenography.
‘They Had Already Decided They Wanted to Invade Iraq’
Corporate media’s role in the run-up to—and the ongoing aftermath of—the war on Iraq.
What’s Wrong With This Picture? Fawning Praise of Bush’s Veteran Art Ignores Iraqi Victims
In all of the fawning press coverage of George W. Bush’s paintings of US veterans, one thing has been notably absent: Bush’s Iraqi victims.
George W. Bush Now on Right Side of Press Corps’s Nostalgia Machine
Post-presidency image rehabilitation is nothing new in American politics; US news media have been massaging the images of Oval Office alumni for decades.
NYT Ignored Reality at 2001 Bush Inauguration; Now Ignorance Is History
Given the paper of record’s strenuous downplaying of the 2001 inaugural protests in the name of “Tradition and Legitimacy,” it’s not surprising that 16 years later, the paper’s reporters remember those protests as being “modest.”
Bush, Blair and the Lies That Justified the Illegal Iraq War
Parroting a president known to be inventing justifications for war does not fulfill the mandate of the First Amendment, the Fourth Estate, or even journalists’ own professional canons that emphasize the obligation to the public, not to the president or the executive branch.
Bombs Speak Louder Than Words: The Liberal Reinvention of George W. Bush
As the demonization of Muslims once again gains currency in American electoral politics, liberal personalities are joining the call to return to the good old days when Republicans fielded candidates who talked sweetly to the community of over 1.5 billion Muslims around the world while at the same time ordering warplanes to bomb an ever larger number of them.
Fareed Zakaria Wants a Better Public
Zakaria has a different standard for ignorant citizens and ignorant politicians–not to mention ignorant media pundits.
Never Too Late to Tell Old Iraq Lies
Perhaps it is fitting that George W. Bush would say, “When you say something as president, you better mean it”–and then say something so demonstrably false.
The White House and the Awesome Power of Several Bloggers
National Journal reporter James Oliphant has discovered that the Obama White House has a very powerful weapon it can deploy against its critics: bloggers.
Jon Meacham, Bush Family Publicist
Time’s Jon Meacham is, once again, telling readers to think differently about the Bush family.
The Question of US ‘Democracy Promotion’ in the Newspaper of Record
Today’s New York Times has a piece about whether the Obama administration is as committed to a policy of “democracy promotion” as the Bush administration had been. To anyone familiar with US history of inhibiting and undermining democracies, the whole concept must seem rather absurd.
Obama’s Deadly Website Compared to Katrina
To some people, a new law that is running into technical problems with a poorly designed website is not really the same as a massive disaster in one of America’s iconic cities that killed almost 2,000 people.
SoundBites August 2013
Defining George W. as a Non-Bush Jon Meacham in Time (7/1/13) tried to refurbish the Bush “brand name” in preparation for a possible presidential run by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush: Jeb long ago internalized and then lived out his family’s guiding precepts. Bushes move to new parts of the country; they work hard; they […]
FAIR TV: What David Gregory Doesn’t Know, NBC’s News-Ads, Karl Plays Bush Softball
This week on FAIR TV: David Gregory knows one thing about Obamacare–and it’s not true. We take a look at some NBC “reporting” that looks a lot like advertising. Plus ABC‘s Jonathan Karl gets an interview with George W. Bush, and pitches all softballs.
Rehabilitating Bush at ABC News
George W. Bush doesn’t speak to the press much, but based on the fawning treatment he got from ABC News’ Jonathan Karl, he might want to re-consider.
FAIR TV: Gregory vs. Greenwald, Snowden Anonymity, Time’s Bush Nostalgia
What are David Gregory and Andrew Ross Sorkin really trying to say about Glenn Greenwald? Unnamed government officials are telling media outlets that Edward Snowden’s NSA whistleblowing is helping terrorists. Plus, Time’s Jon Meacham has some odd nostalgia for the Bush years.
Does Jon Meacham Remember the 2000 Election?
Time has a column this week (7/1/13) from Jon Meacham looking at (gulp) possible 2016 election scenarios. The column entertains the possibility that former Florida governor Jeb Bush might run–which Meacham seems pretty excited about. As he explains, the Bush family is something to behold: Jeb long ago internalized and then lived out his family’s […]
O’Reilly Discovers the Dangers of the Surveillance State
Republicans who were less concerned about government overreach in 2006 have changed their minds in 2013, and some Democrats have gone the other direction. This switch can be seen in the views of some pundits–including Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly.
