FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
Some good–and not so good–media reactions to the police killing of Michael Brown. Plus pundits wonder what took Obama so long to bomb Iraq, and two papers try to raise doubts about the death toll in Gaza.
This week on CounterSpin: With the Islamic State, or IS, occupying large swathes of Iraq and Syria, a common refrain from politicians and pundits is to suggest that the group would not be a menace had the US intervened earlier and more deeply in the Syrian civil war. Author and professor Vijay Prashad will join us to address that canard and other misconceptions about Iraq, the US and the Islamic State.
Also on the show: The recent summit of African leaders in Washington DC was criticized by some for soft-pedaling human rights issues, but that only meant in African nations; media seemed to have no question at all about the beneficent goals of the policy of increased ‘investment’ on the continent by US corporations. We have some questions; we’ll ask them of Emira Woods of ThoughtWorks and the Institute for Policy Studies.
More US bombing is a message corporate media are eager to amplify.
The Nation’s Katrina vanden Heuvel confronted Bill Kristol on ABC about his disastrous Iraq War advocacy. One has to wonder why Kristol was there in the first place.
On the show this week: The idea that the surge of US troops is what ‘won’ the Iraq War shouldn’t be treated as if it’s a fact. Plus we look at who NBC tapped for his Iraq/Iran expertise, and media tried to tell us what we need to know about a powerful Republican lawmaker. They failed.
NBC Meet the Press taps Bill Clinton to talk Iraq. But will viewers know that Clinton was also a crucial supporter of the invasion?
You’re not supposed to talk about oil and Iraq–but corporate media can’t stop talking about oil and Iraq.
Many corporate news accounts treat the chaos in Iraq as proof that the good intentions of a US superpower cannot overcome tribal grievances. Michael Crowley’s cover story for Time, “The End of Iraq,” might be the quintessential example.
NBC’s David Gregory says that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “well-briefed” on the US position on Iran’s nuclear program. But that shouldn’t be confused with being knowledgeable.
It’s 2003 all over again, as Iraq “experts” who promoted the 2003 invasion are back on TV screens offering expert analysis about what to do next. And we take a look at some of the revealing language US reporters are employing to frame Iraq as a place that keeps forcing the US to attack it. […]
When it comes to US foreign policy and warmaking in the Middle East, you’re not supposed to talk about oil. But the network newscasts went out of their way to let you know that Iraq was making your next trip to the gas station more expensive.
Treating “the US troop surge worked” argument as a fact, as Engel is doing, is very dangerous–since it logically suggests that it is only the presence of US troops that can keep Iraq safe.
TV coverage of the current Iraq crisis looks a lot like 2003, when pro-war pundits, former generals and hawkish politicians dominated the debate. CNN’s Situation Room, hosted by Wolf Blitzer, illustrates how TV has returned to that narrow, pro-government discussion of Iraq.
It’s revealing to see how reporters talk about the prospect of the United States military going back to war in Iraq. Indeed, many reporters made it sound like something that was being done *to* the United States:
Whistleblower Chelsea Manning speaks in the pages of the Sunday New York Times. But was anyone else in the media listening?
Perhaps one of the millions of people who anticipated that the Iraq War would be costly and deadly would have been “the best person to ask” about the current crisis in Iraq.
The crisis in Iraq has brought war back to the US airwaves. But if you were expecting a more robust discussion about US military action this time around, think again. The rule seems to be that if you were wrong in 2003, you’re still an expert in 2014.
In the wake of Sunni militants overtaking Mosul, US media still tell the story of the Iraq War as if US suffering is what really matters.
New York Times columnist Tim Egan rages against college students who dare to have moral objections to the speakers their administrations chose to garnish their graduations with.
Bill O’Reilly uses the horrible Boko Haram kidnappings to launch into yet another tirade against Muslims.
