FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
The Michele Bachmann presidential campaign–formerly treated as atop-tier juggernaut by Beltway media–has been floundering for weeks. Which makes right now as good a time as any for them to grab some headlines by shouting about liberal media bias. The Bachmann campaign was furious about email correspondence concerning a possible Bachmann appearance on a CBS Web […]
It seems like just yesterday that Michele Bachmann was in the “top tier,” thanks to her narrow victory in the mostly meaningless Iowa straw poll. She had “momentum.” Then came this week’s debate and, well, things are looking different. As the Washington Post described the scene at the debate: Meanwhile, any momentum that Rep. Michele […]
Washington Post ombud Patrick Pexton dedicated his column this weekend (8/29/11) to addressing complaints about the skimpy coverage of Republican presidential contender Ron Paul. It’s hard to argue with the numbers he’s gathered: Still, the Post‘s coverage of Paul looks thin compared with its stories on Bachmann. In the past six months, the Post has […]
There is little reason to care about what the polls say right now about who’s leading in the Republican presidential nomination. But the media obviously think otherwise, hence this headline in the Washington Post yesterday (8/25/11): Romney Loses GOP Front-Runner Status The “news” is that Rick Perry is leading in a new Gallup Poll. But […]
One of the strangest comments post- Iowa straw poll came from reporter Kelly O’Donnell on NBC Nightly News (8/14/11): Both Pawlenty’s exit and Perry’s launch consumed political oxygen that typically would have gone to the straw poll’s actual winner, Congresswoman Bachmann, who appeared on all five Sunday morning talk shows, including Meet the Press. I’m […]
The right is apparently up in arms over this photo of Michele Bachmann that appears on the cover of this week’s Newsweek: If someone wants to say this is an unflattering picture, fine. But Bachmann’s supporters are unlikely to find much in Lois Romano’s article to complain about. On the campaign trail, Bachmann’s “simple, black-and-white […]
Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen wrote a rather apoplectic column about presidential candidate Michele Bachmann this week, lamenting the fact that other GOP candidates aren’t calling her out for being completely ill-prepared for the job: Bachmann does not deserve to be in the presidential race. Legislatively, she has done little, she knows next to nothing […]
The story of Michele Bachmann‘s surging campaign momentum continues, this time courtesy of Beltway reporter Mark Halperin of Time magazine: Why has Michele Bachmann suddenly become the It candidate? With her impressive New Hampshire debate performance, Bachmann has gone from a conservative Sarah Palin-lite curiosity to a potential game changer. For two hours onstage with […]
The emerging storyline after the Republican presidential debate this week was that far-right Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann is for real, mostly because she managed to sound, well, a little less crazy than she’s sounded before. (No, they didn’t quite put it like that.) There are stories about Bachmann’s new Bach-mentum in the New York Times […]
It’s normal for the opposition party to deliver a rebuttal address to the State of the Union. Last night Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin was given that responsibility. But further-to-the-right Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota delivered the “Tea Party” response to the State of the Union, which was initially scheduled to air on the Tea […]
One of USA Today‘s regular op-ed features is a “right-left” conversation between conservative columnist Cal Thomas and “liberal” Democratic strategist Bob Beckel in which they seek “Common Ground”—the name of the op-ed feature—on “issues that lawmakers in Washington cannot.” Last week (3/25/10) Thomas and Beckel tackled the issue of “Bias and Fox News“—and really, what […]
We’ve noted the corporate media’s double standard on Nazi analogies: When conservatives are compared to the Third Reich, however obscurely, it’s an outrageous slur, but when leaders of the right charge progressives with Hitler-like tendencies, it’s unremarkable political rhetoric. Political Animal‘s Steve Benen (12/8/09) rounds up some similar examples of criticisms that are outrageous when […]
The Rasmussen poll has been criticized for putting a right-wing skew on its questions–a strategy that helps Scott Rasmussen garner frequent appearances on Fox News and the like, but severely diminishes its usefulness as a guide to public opinion. The latest example of Rasmussen’s tilt is particularly tendentious: “How important is it to you that […]
