FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
FAIR was founded on the belief that journalism matters—that getting out the truth can improve the world, while news that distorts or denies reality can have terrible consequences. To illustrate this conviction, we’ve compiled a list of 20 news stories published since FAIR’s 1986 debut that had a major impact on society—for good or for […]
In a lead article in the New York Times‘ July 5 Science section, headlined, “Straight, Gay or Lying? Bisexuality Revisited,” Times writer Benedict Carey reported that an upcoming study “casts doubt on whether true bisexuality exists, at least in men.” In suggesting that men who claim a bisexual sexual orientation are liars, the Times relies […]
PBS has pulled an episode of the children’s show Postcards From Buster that includes children with lesbian mothers. The episode was yanked the same day that PBS received a letter from new Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings condemning the episode and asking PBS to “strongly consider” returning the federal money that went toward its production. […]
Media have a funny way of rewriting the history of presidential debates. After the first debate in 2000, all five network polls that night showed most viewers agreeing that Vice President Al Gore had beaten George W. Bush (Daily Howler, 8/19/04). But as the debate worked its way through the media echo chamber, the outcome […]
Three broadcast networks have rejected an advertisement from the United Church of Christ, deeming the ad’s message of tolerance to be too controversial. Citing the Bush administration’s proposal of a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, CBS and UPN have refused to run a UCC commercial that advertises the church’s acceptance of all people, including […]
Jim Lobe on Donald Rumsfeld’s recent trip to Latin America. Also this week: the October 1998 murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard provoked a national conversation about hate crimes and homophobia. But a recent 20/20 program reframed the case to argue that Shepard’s sexual orientation was not central to the crime. Chris Graham from the Advocate magazine joins CounterSpin to weigh in.
When the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in November 2003 that the state could no longer deny gays and lesbians the right to marry, it touched off a string of events that have kept gay marriage in the media spotlight for months. With that new-found prominence has come scrutiny from watchers of the media, with […]
Even before George W. Bush endorsed a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages, the amendment’s potential impact was clouded by careless reporting. Some advocates claimed that the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment would permit states to allow civil unions for gays and lesbians — a disputed interpretation that a number of media outlets failed to question. On […]
On February 16, a FAIR action alert called on ABC World News Tonight and the New York Times to offer a more nuanced explanation of the possible effects of a proposed constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. While some proponents of the amendment claim it would allow states to offer same-sex civil union arrangements, some legal […]
(NOTE: Please read the update to this action alert) Backers of a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage have created a misleading impression of their legislative plan– a deception that some media outlets have not properly explained to readers and viewers. The dispute centers on the fact that some advocates claim that the proposed Federal […]
(NOTE: Please read the update to this alert—Savage has been fired by MSNBC.) When radio talkshow host Michael Savage was given his own show by the cable TV channel MSNBC, network executives said that the new show should not be judged by Savage’s previous hate-filled remarks, but by what he said on the TV show […]
The latest hire by the cable news network MSNBC— co-owned by General Electric/NBC and Microsoft— is Michael Savage, a radio talkshow host noted for his unabashed bigotry. Savage is scheduled to have his own weekly one-hour show on MSNBC beginning in March. Savage routinely refers to non-white countries as “turd world nations” and charges that […]
Thousands of scientific studies are conducted every year, but only a fraction of these ever see newsprint. Even fewer dominate the news cycle for weeks, transform researchers into culture war commentators and move the public debate. At the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting on May 9, two unpublished, non-peer-reviewed studies offered opposing reports about the […]
The topic of sexuality received unprecedented news media attention in the 1990s–in part due to the AIDS crisis, in part because of a national fight to bring down centuries of legal, social and cultural bias against people who are bisexual, transgendered and/or lesbian and gay. In many year-end round-ups, the media remembered 1997 as a […]
The “Promise Keepers” rally in Washington, D.C., was, if nothing else, a victory of public relations over professional journalism. Media coverage was decidedly skewed toward the shallow end of the press pool. At best, both print and broadcast journalists glossed over the Keepers’ homophobic agenda. At worst, they supported it. Promise Keepers was founded nearly […]
By the time you read this, the sober cynicism of summer will probably have settled in, but now, it’s spring. I’m as excited about “Ellen” coming out as I am about the budding leaves. By summer, I’ll remember that the obstacles to lesbian equality remain intact long after Ellen DeGeneres and her TV character said […]
Here is a sampling of Buchanan’s views: On African-Americans After Sen. Carol Moseley Braun blocked a federal patent for a Confederate flag insignia, Buchanan wrote that she was “putting on an act” by associating the Confederacy with slavery: “The War Between the States was about independence, about self-determination, about the right of a people to […]
After the Oklahoma City bombing, the New York Times (4/24/95) reported surprise at the existence of right-wing terror-gangs: “New Images of Terror… A suspect, a white drifter, evokes new fear.” But right-wing terror is hardly surprising to those who’ve been on the receiving end of it over the years; nor would the pale image of […]
Just what do lesbians have to do to get a photo on the front page of the Washington Post? When thousands of gay women roared past the White House the day before the big lesbian and gay civil rights march April 25, fire-eaters did their thing in front of the Clinton home. Some were bare-breasted, […]
It was the military and the media that made The Gay Agenda popular, says Bill Horn, once a CBS sportscaster, now video maker for the Springs of Life charismatic Christian church that produced the tape. “Since The Gay Agenda was featured on Larry King Live and ABC World News Tonight, calls have poured in on […]
