Seizing the Airwaves
Today, after years of activism, a new law on low-power FM (LPFM) radio is paving the way for the greatest expansion of FM radio in decades. This is a huge victory for media justice.
New Media; but Familiar Lack of Diversity
Recent years have seen much rallying around “traditional” journalism in the face of its supposedly imminent demise, including the mythologizing of pre-Internet news media as a force of social cohesion. Lamenting the “culture of observing events from ‘inside’ a community,” Washington Post columnist and associate editor David Ignatius (5/2/10) contended: When the information landscape was […]
With Fox News Liberals, Who Needs Conservatives?
Fox News co-host and contributor Bob Beckel has called for the assassination of WikiLeaks spokesperson Julian Assange (“A dead man can’t leak stuff”—Follow the Money, 12/6/10), for furnishing guns to school children (“If you give your kid a gun, no bullying”—Five, 1/5/12) and for militant opposition to the “War on Christmas,” which is “completely out […]
Letters to the Editor
In Defense of Exposing Lies The complaint (printed in the February 2012 issue) against FAIR for using “the demonizing technique to whip up support for its cause” sounds like yet another disguised way of saying—if you don’t have anything nice to say then don’t say anything at all. A worthless policy for exposing lies. That […]
Guest Perspective: Journalists Rock! Journalism Sucks!
At an antiwar conference with predominantly left/progressive activists, I began a talk on the failures of contemporary news media by asking how the group felt about teachers. There was a resounding cheer and calls to support teachers. Then I asked how they felt about journalists— and the reaction was mixed. Some people booed, others laughed, […]
Israel Takes Back Gaza Charge—After Attack
When armed militants crossed the Egyptian border last August and launched a multi-pronged attack on Israeli civilians and soldiers in Eilat that killed eight people, U.S. media repeated the Israeli government line, blaming the attack on Palestinians from Gaza. Three months later, Israel itself has concluded that the attackers were Egyptian—but U.S. media have failed […]
Occupy the P.U.-litzers!
This year has given us simply too many worthy contenders for FAIR’s annual P.U.-litzers—recognizing the stinkiest journalism of the year. A big part of the problem was that so many outlets were striving to distinguish themselves with especially awful coverage of the Occupy Wall Street movement. So to note those lowlights, we bring you a […]
2011 P.U.-litzers: Journalism That Doesn’t Pass the Smell Test
It’s that time of year again–when FAIR goes through the year’s archives to collect a sampling of the worst moments of corporate media spin and malfeasance. The competition was, as always, fierce. And in special recognition of the media’s befuddled approach to the Occupy Wall Street movement, next week will see the release of a […]
Media Justice and the 99 Percent Movement
The democratization of media-making tools, particularly an open and unfettered Internet, made the Occupy movemnet possible. Right now, though, this open access is under threat.
Missing Al Jazeera’s ‘Moment’
The Qatar-based TV news network Al Jazeera is quickly becoming one of the world’s most important international news outlets. Since launching its English-language affiliate, Al Jazeera English (AJE), in 2006, the network has extended its reach into 250 million homes in more than 100 countries (Arab Media and Society, Spring/11). In the United States, though, […]
Some Breaks in the Blackout of Wall Street Protests
After a FAIR Action Alert (9/23/11) criticized the virtual media blackout of the Occupy Wall Street protests, corporate news coverage has increased–sparked largely by the escalating police brutality at the ongoing demonstration. (See FAIR Blog, 9/23/11, for a sample of the messages sent by FAIR activists to the network nightly news shows.) On ABC World […]
Mary Bottari on ALEC Exposed, Marjorie Cohn on prison hunger strike
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin072211 Mary Bottari and Marjorie Cohn @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin072211.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: You’ve probably never heard of the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC. So why do they have so much sway over the laws affecting your life? We may get some sunlight on the actions of this influential “public/private membership organization” with […]
Celebrating 25 Years of FAIR
On April 28, at New York City’s Symphony Space, FAIR celebrated our 25th anniversary with a remarkable line-up: political columnist Glenn Greenwald, Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman, MIT professor Noam Chomsky and filmmaker Michael Moore. It was a night we’ll never forget—from Greenwald’s stirring opening address to Michael Moore closing the evening by leading a […]
Ali Abunimah on Palestinian protests, Glenn Greenwald from FAIR’s 25th Anniversary
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin052011 Ali Abunimah and Glenn Greenwald @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin052011.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: The Israeli defense minister says that major protests like those on Israel’s borders May 15th require new responses; but what if anything is new about US journalists’ approach to Palestinian protests and rights? Journalist Ali Abunimah of Electronic Intifada will join […]
Opening Up NewsHour’s Libya Discussion
FAIR’s March 29 Action Alert documented the PBS NewsHour‘s remarkably narrow range of debate on the Libya War, which featured an array of current and former military and government officials. On March 30, the NewsHour‘s debate on arming the Libyan rebels included Emira Woods from the progressive Institute for Policy Studies. Roughly a million Americans […]
Smell Something Rotten?
At the end of every year FAIR rounds up some of the stinkiest examples of corporate media malfeasance. This year brought no shortage of contenders; indeed, the hardest part of the P.U.-litzers is narrowing down the list. Readers who think we missed one can share their nominations at the FAIR Blog (fair.org/blog). And without further […]
Don’t Defund Public Broadcasting—Improve It
Here we go again. Conservative activists and Republican politicians are calling—one more time—to defund public broadcasting. The supposed offense this time around is NPR‘s decision to fire analyst Juan Williams over comments he made on Fox News Channel about his fear of people in “Muslim garb.” The episode is proof, in the eyes of right-wing […]
PBS Responds to FAIR Studies
The PBS ombud and representatives of the public television programs studied in FAIR’s new report, “Taking the Public Out of Public TV,” have responded (
Taking the Public Out of Public TV
UPDATE: Sign FAIR’s petition to bring back Now to Friday nights. A multi-part FAIR exposé of PBS‘s most prominent news and public affairs programs demonstrates that public television is failing to live up to its mission to provide an alternative to commercial television, to give voice to those “who would otherwise go unheard” and help […]
PBS’s Shultz Doc Has Content to Match Its Conflicts
After FAIR criticized PBS for airing Turmoil and Triumph, a documentary about Reagan-era Secretary of State George Shultz that was funded almost entirely by his friends and associates (Action Alert, 7/12/10; Activism Update, 7/20/10), the program’s producer/writer/director David deVries (PBS.org, 7/16/10) complained that FAIR (and Nation critic Greg Mitchell—7/12/10) hadn’t “[paid] much attention to the […]
