FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
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 […]
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.
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 […]
With the presidential debates now behind us, the struggle for the White House will tilt even more toward decentralized media battles for electoral votes. Between now and Election Day, vast resources will go toward spinning local news coverage in swing states while launching carefully targeted commercials on radio and television. For the Bush campaign and […]
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 […]
With two words, the governor of California has managed to highlight the confluence of anti-gay bias and misogyny. Open contempt for “girlie men” would have raised fewer eyebrows in the past. Reactions to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s put-down of Democrats in the state legislature — “if they don’t have the guts, I call them girlie men” — […]
If journalism is history’s first draft, the death of Ronald Reagan has caused a step-up in the mass production of falsified history. It’s mourning in America. The main technique is omission. People who suffered from the Reagan presidency have no media standing today. It’s not cool to mention victims of his policies in, for example, […]
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 […]
Hannity & Colmes, Fox News Channel‘s primetime debate show, figures prominently in the cable network’s campaign to market its right leaning programming as “fair & balanced,” the network’s ever-present slogan. Fox News executives argue that the show, pitting conservative Sean Hannity against liberal Alan Colmes with guests from both right and left, presents a spirited […]
(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 […]
Michael Savage’s MSNBC show, The Savage Nation, was cancelled today because of homophobic remarks made by the host on the July 5 edition of the show, according to an Associated Press (AP) report. Those comments—labeling a caller “a sodomite” and telling him to “get AIDS and die”—were the subject of a FAIR action alert earlier […]
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 […]
The P.U.-litzer Prizes were established a decade ago to give recognition to the stinkiest media performances of the year. As each winter arrives, I confer with Jeff Cohen of the media watch group FAIR to sift through the large volume of entries. This year, the competition was especially fierce. We regret that only a few […]
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 […]
After many months of controversy over her anti-gay statements to millions of radio listeners, Dr. Laura is now ascending the airwaves to an even higher and mightier pulpit. Her crusade has reached televisionland. During the summer, Schlessinger held onto the misconceptions that led her to describe homosexuality as “a biological error” manifested by “deviants.” Meanwhile, […]
Feminists have been talking about the electoral gender gap since the early 1980s, but DC’s power-brokers have finally caught on: in contemporary American politics, a candidate who does not appeal to women voters has about as much chance of winning elective office as Dr. Laura has of receiving “Radio Host of the Year” honors from […]
If you’re concerned about bigotry on the syndicated radio show Imus in the Morning, the host thinks you should just “get over it.”
Twenty million listeners are accustomed to hearing the refrain on the radio: “I’m Dr. Laura Schlesinger.” While many assume that she’s a licensed physician or psychologist, her doctorate is actually in physiology. What’s most unfortunate is that Schlesinger uses her enormous media power to violate a key precept of health care: First, do no harm. […]
