FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
New York Times media reporter David Carr (11/12/12) had some kind words for Fox News Channel‘s Election Night coverage: On Tuesday night, the people in charge of Fox News were confronted with a stark choice after it became clear that Mr. Romney had fallen short: was Fox, first and foremost, a place for advocacy or […]
When a Republican presidential candidate goes around talking about Barack Obama as the “food stamp president,” eventually reporters are going to have to write about racism. But how they talk about the issue in instructive. In today’s New York Times (1/18/12), Jim Rutenberg has a piece headlined “Risks for GOP in Attacks With Racial Themes,” […]
David Margolick has an interesting piece about NPR in the new issue of Vanity Fair. He spends much of his time on Juan Williams, but this observation about NPR‘s right-wing critics is an important observation: Apart from the occasional stories about gays or Palestinians (and maybe even gay Palestinians), there’s precious little on NPR these […]
–On Democracy Now! (11/8/10): While Keith Olbermann’s donations became front-page news, little attention has been paid to the massive amount of political spending by MSNBC‘s parent company General Electric, one of the nation’s largest military contractors. Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting reports GE made over $2 million in political contributions in the 2010 election cycle. […]
A guest post by Frances Cerra Whittelsey, Extra! contributor and journalism scholar: Whether or not Juan Williams is truly a liberal or just playing the role to give Fox an appearance of balance begs the question of whether his comment about fearing Muslims on airplanes justified his firing by NPR. Williams is waving the free […]
After being fired by NPR, Juan Williams made an appearance with Fox host Bill O’Reilly (10/21/10) where he explained that he wasn’t likely to get support from prominent African-American leaders like Al Sharpton because “I’m not a predictable black liberal.” It’s not totally clear what he means by that, but Williams does a pretty good […]
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 […]
There are plenty of opinions flying around about NPR‘s decision to fireJuan Williams. The Washington Post editorialized against NPR‘s decision, arguing in part that Williams “undoubtedly spoke for many Americans who are wrestling with similar feelings” about seeing Muslims in airports. (Williams was worried primarily about those in “Muslim garb.”) Former Washington Post media critic […]
Progressive critic Dr. Roberto Rodriguez has a new commentary (New America Media, 6/2/09) demonstrating how the miserable press reaction to Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s U.S. Supreme Court “nomination clearly shows us is that what this nation needs is more incisive journalism, not less.” But, Rodriguez laments, “to be sure, the rise of right-wing media, which include […]
Noting that “news organizations often encourage their journalists to appear on other platforms for promotional purposes,” former TVNewser Brian Stelter reports (New York Times, 2/15/09) that, “when the National Public Radio analyst Juan Williams speaks on the Fox News Channel‘s highest-rated program, the radio network doesn’t want any attention”: Mr. Williams, a longtime political analyst […]
