FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
(NOTE: Please see the Activism Update regarding this alert.) A front-page New York Times article by Greg Myre (12/5/06) covered a new report from an Israeli research group defending Israel against accusations of war crimes in its recent war with Lebanon. But instead of critically examining the report’s claims in the light of international law […]
On August 14, the New York Times addressed one of the significant worries for U.S. media outlets covering the Israeli bombing and invasion of Lebanon: Civilians in Lebanon were the primary victims, dying in far greater numbers than Israeli military personnel and civilians combined. (Amnesty International estimated that the fighting killed about 1,000 civilians in […]
[Note: This piece is a sidebar to “Lives in the Balance.”] On August 8, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote, “Arabs have often argued that Americans have a double standard in the Middle East: We are more solicitous of casualties in Israel than in Gaza or Lebanon. I think they’re right, for a variety […]
This week on CounterSpin: Despite the recent significant decision by Congress to pass legislation that recognizes some forms of detainee abuse as torture, the media is focused on all the wrong things. Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights joins the show to discuss the situation. Also on the program: Hannah Sassaman of Prometheus Radio Project about the FCC and its habitual suppression of research on media ownership.
It has been one year since Hurricane Katrina. . . What’s happened on the Gulf Coast since all the cameras and TV anchors cleared away? Also this week: Another media anniversary, ten years since the passage of the so-called welfare reform. Heather Boushey of the Center for Economic and Policy Research joins to discuss what’s missing from the media’s glowing assessment of this law’s success.
On July 24, Human Rights Watch reported that Israel was using cluster bombs “in populated areas of Lebanon,” which it said “may violate the prohibition on indiscriminate attacks contained in international humanitarian law.” But despite the extensive media coverage of the current conflict in the Middle East, almost no U.S. outlets are reporting on these […]
In an eight-minute report (6/5/05) in which she rode in a U.N. armored personnel carrier and extolled the bravery of U.N. soldiers, NPR correspondent Lourdes Garcia-Navarro cited “human rights organizations” as saying that “things have improved since the Aristide days.” The NPR report interviewed two members of the U.N. force, one U.S. police trainer, one […]
This week on CounterSpin: Mark Weisbrot of the Center for Economic and Policy Research discusses Mexico’s still-unresolved presidential election and the press’s blatant favoritism towards conservative candidate Felipe Calderón. Also on the show: James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, talks about U.S. coverage of Gaza and how it compares to what’s being said by the Israeli media.
Barbara Olshansky joins to discuss Guantánamo Bay. Also on the show: Journalist and author Trudy Lieberman on what media should be telling us about that new Medicare program.
Immigration policy is big news this week– Andrea Batista Schlesinger of the Drum Major Institute unpacks the major gaps in media coverage of the issue. Also on the show: What did veteran reporter Christopher Graff do that upset his bosses at the Associated Press? We’ll ask columnist Peter Freyne from the paper Seven Days.
Slate.com editor and legal commentator Dahlia Lithwick discusses why damning recent reports on Guantánamo Bay have received minimal attention from news outlets. Also on the show: Sheila Gibbons, editor of the quarterly Media Report to Women, joins to talk about what needs to be done to improve representation of women in media.
This week on CounterSpin: Emily Whitfield of the ACLU discusses Amy Gharib prison and the Pentagon’s cover up. Also on the show: Is the so-called a la carte approach to cable TV a win for the public, or just another way for media giants to control the flow of information? We’ll ask of Kenneth DeGraff of Consumers Union.
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 […]
The White House has continued to engage with domestic spying despite reluctantly agreeing with new so-called anti-torture legislation. Also: Massing joins the show to discuss his recent article for the New York Review of Books, which examines some problems within the media business that translate to inadequate journalism.
On November 2, the Washington Post carried an explosive front-page story about secret overseas prisons set up by the CIA for the interrogation of terrorism suspects. While the Post article, by reporter Dana Priest, gave readers plenty of details, it also withheld the most crucial information—the location of these secret prisons—at the request of government […]
This week Jamie Court of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights joins the show to discuss the market and profiteering post-Katrina. Also on the program: We’ll talk to Knight-Ridder reporter Johnathan Landay about who was really in charge of the federal response to Katrina.
How could some of the devastation from Hurricane Katrina have been prevented? Philadelphia Daily News reporter discusses how many– including some in the media– had warned that federal spending cuts would spell disaster for New Orleans. Also this week: Christopher Martin speaks on the biased coverage of the Northwest Airline strike by corporate media.
Congo is the site of the world’s worst humanitarian emergency, according to U.N. emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland, the organization Doctors Without Borders and most relief professionals. But English-language media have given the crisis minimal attention, according to a study of humanitarian disaster coverage released on March 10. The study was commissioned by web-based Reuters […]
As the Bush administration carries out what the New York Times (4/5/05) describes as a “concerted effort” to block the return of the left-wing Sandinista party to power in Nicaragua, U.S. media are returning to the kind of distorted reporting on Nicaragua that characterized coverage during Washington’s war against that country in the 1980s. The […]
Mark Jones of Reuters Alertnet discusses those “forgotten humanitarian crises” that are neglected by the media. Also this week: author and researcher Jack Shaheen on how American television is now targeting Arab and Muslim Americans with bigoted stereotypes, and what can be done about it.
