FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin032511 Asli Bali and Alia Malek @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin032511.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: The U.S.’s sudden military involvement in Libya raises many questions that have not been answered by officials who’ve plunged the country into a war they say is to protect civilians, or even asked by many journalists who have been too busy […]
A recent Wall Street Journal editorial (3/11/11) defended the Peter King hearings on Islamist terrorism against “our friends on the left [who] are busy portraying them as the McCarthy hearings and Palmer Raids rolled into one.” The editors argued that in fact, the focus on Muslims is justified based on the facts: Since 9/11, there […]
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin031111 Phyllis Bennis and Graham Rayman @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin031111.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: Soldiers loyal to Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi continue their assault on rebels, nearly a month into the democratic uprising there. Media are debating how and when and even whether the US should intervene, but how much of their reasoning has anything to […]
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin020411 Adil Shamoo and Fawaz Gerges @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin020411.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: The massive uprising in Egypt has been covered as a story of violent clashes and an awakening on the so-called ‘Arab Street.’ As we record this program, some pro-Mubarak forces are attacking journalists. Plenty of U.S. coverage focuses on the U.S. […]
Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: The firing of Juan Williams from NPR might seem like an inside media story; it’s become more as Williams, who was let go after saying people in “Muslim garb” on planes make him nervous, has become something of a cause celebre for the right. We’ll talk about what it […]
It seems to me that debating Juan Williams’ firing from NPR in terms of the role of “opinion” and “objectivity” in journalism is missing the point. Williams has expressed his opinions on Fox News countless times. Other NPR employees frequently express opinions, too, as when Scott Simon wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal […]
How did a local story about a proposal to build an Islamic cultural center in Lower Manhattan turn into a national controversy about whether a “Ground Zero Mosque” would be a slap in the face to 9/11 victims? It started with a small group of anti-Muslim activists who suggested the proposal was a scheme by […]
Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: Turkey voted on a package of constitutional reforms this month. The message you heard in much of the media coverage is that the victory for the ruling Islamic party, Justice and Development, is more evidence that Turkey is drifting in the wrong direction, shunning the West and playing to […]
If you own a television or read a newspaper,you may have heard by now that a pastor in Florida plans to burn copies of the Quran on Saturday. The only reason you know anything about this is because the national media have decided, for reasons that are entirely unclear, to give this guy a platform. […]
Fox News Channel continues to mislead viewers aboutthe “Ground Zero Mosque.”On the August 18 broadcast of the O’Reilly Factor, host Bill O’Reilly countered the argument that there would be no controversy over a Jewish or Christian house of worship by saying this: Nobody would be complaining because Christians and Jews weren’t involved in the 9/11 […]
Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: Paid-for pundits. If you’ve ever wondered who the so-called experts pontificating on cable news channels really are, a new investigation published in the Nation magazine gives you some answers. Reporter Sebastian Jones will join us to talk about the secret corporate PR spinners and lobbyists who pose as pundits—without […]
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman referred disparagingly this week to the praise that terrorism allegedly receives in “mainstream Arab media, like Al Jazeera.” In his February 18 column, Friedman wrote: To be sure, Mumbai’s Muslims are a vulnerable minority in a predominantly Hindu country. Nevertheless, their in-your-face defiance of the Islamist terrorists stands out. […]
This article is the overview of FAIR’s study, “Smearcasting, How Islamophobes Spread Bigotry, Fear and Misinformation.” A remarkable thing happened at the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) nominations in February 2007: The normally highbrow and tolerant group nominated for best book in the field of criticism a work widely viewed as denigrating an entire religion. […]
As the editor of a magazine of media criticism, I make it a rule never to edit the words of someone we’re criticizing in such a way that our readers would understand the quote differently if they saw the original context. We don’t want people looking up what we’re criticizing and saying, “Oh—so that’s what […]
Over the past several weeks, 28 million copies of an anti-Muslim propaganda film, Obsession, have been delivered to the doorsteps of newspaper subscribers in swing states. Unfortunately, as a new report by FAIR documents, the media’s complicity in smearing an entire religious group goes far beyond the role of the 70 newspapers that participated […]
A remarkable thing happened at the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) nominations in February 2007: The normally highbrow and tolerant group nominated for best book in the field of criticism a book widely viewed as denigrating an entire religious group.
This article is part of FAIR’s study, “Smearcasting, How Islamophobes Spread Bigotry, Fear and Misinformation.” Visit the report’s special micro-site at www.smearcasting.com or click here to download the full report. The term “Islamofascism” came into common use after the September 2001 attacks as a favorite way for neoconservatives to describe the ideology of extremist and […]
This article is part of FAIR’s study, “Smearcasting, How Islamophobes Spread Bigotry, Fear and Misinformation.” Visit the report’s special micro-site at www.smearcasting.com or click here to download the full report. Even the world of celebrity fashion is not spared by the Islamophobic smear machine. In May 2008, right-wing blogger Michelle Malkin accused celebrity chef Rachael […]
The New York Times (12/4/06), profiling new CNN Headline News host Glenn Beck, called him “brash” and “opinionated,” with an “unfiltered approach.” The conservative talk-radio host-turned-cable news announcer, the paper reported, “take[s] credit for saying what others are feeling but are afraid to say.” The Times mentioned one of the things Beck has said recently, […]
The Liberation of Iraq “I want to be certain that nothing is shown that would incite violence in a city that was extremely tense when we took over two-and-one-half weeks ago, and which still has folks who are totally opposed to what we’re doing and are willing to do something about it. . . . […]
