FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
“You can’t talk about media without talking about power, because you know and I know that much media is about sucking up to power.”
“The culture of imprisonment tells a deeper story about America. We’re not going to get it if we don’t go to the prisons and get those voices out.”
Overt, proud-of-it bias has shaped coverage of Mumia Abu-Jamal’s case from the outset, and current mentions suggest little has changed.
If elite media were actually engaged in a serious reckoning with the racism of the US criminal justice system, they would cover the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal.
On this week’s episode: Pundits say now would be a great time to have a surgeon general–but that hasn’t happened, thanks to “Washington dysfunction.” Is that really what’s happening here? Plus Time magazine promotes Rand Paul, and says his critics–like MSNBC‘s Rachel Maddow–are unfairly tarnishing his record. And we’ll take a look at the new […]
The state of Pennsylvania wants to silence Mumia Abu-Jamal–and just past a blatantly unconstitutional new law that is an attack on press freedom. Where’s the media outrage?
Security was tight at the Philadelphia Federal Courthouse for a November 9 hearing by the Third Circuit Appeals Court to consider the death sentence of local journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal, whose 1982 conviction for the murder of a Philadelphia police officer has been widely questioned (Extra!, 11-12/95; Extra! Update, 2/99). Some 500 demonstrators calling for Abu-Jamal’s […]
Late in the day on Monday, December 5, 2005, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia issued a surprise ruling in the appeal of Pennsylvania’s most famous prisoner: Philadelphia journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal, who has been on the state’s death row for 24 years, following his conviction for the murder of white Philadelphia police officer […]
Antioch College’s commencement for the class of 2000 featured a taped speech by death-row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal, convicted in a highly questionable 1981 trial of murdering a Philadelphia police officer. (See Extra!, 11-12/95.) The Ohio college’s graduation events also included a teach-in by supporters of Abu-Jamal and an organized police protest. Although the selection of […]
Two mainstream news outlets reported on the case of Pennsylvania death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal, claiming to present new evidence pointing to Abu-Jamal’s guilt. But the evidence that both outlets rely on—testimony of a supposed confession made eight years ago—is questionable on its face, and an old letter that has subsequently surfaced suggests that this […]
In a statement published the day that ABC‘s 20/20 aired his report on the case, Sam Donaldson called for the death of death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal. “Everything that we looked at compellingly points to the fact that Mumia shot [Philadelphia police officer Daniel] Faulkner in cold blood . . . and was convicted properly, […]
On August 14, FAIR asked media activists to write to ABC News producer Harry Phillips concerning a special segment Phillips was preparing about death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal. Noting FAIR’s criticism of biased coverage of Abu-Jamal’s case over the years, media activists wrote to Phillips to express their hopes for a fair, balanced account of […]
Pennsylvania has abused the First Amendment in its efforts to keep journalists, particularly electronic journalists, away from Mumia Abu-Jamal.
After attacks from police groups, National Public Radio quickly backed away from its plan to air commentaries by Pennsylvania death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal. Abu-Jamal, an African-American journalist, received a death sentence after being convicted in the December 1981 shooting death of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner—in a trial marred by gross procedural errors. NPR […]
The strategy of Pennsylvania is designed to keep Mumia Abu-Jamal silent until he can be silenced permanently.
