FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
In his September 27 online column, NPR Ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin responded to FAIR’s September 21 Action Alert regarding a Morning Edition report on terrorism that implied that only “extremist groups” perceived a connection between the recent London subway bombings and Britain’s involvement in Iraq. Below is Dvorkin’s response. A ‘FAIR’ Question One more issue from […]
In an August 10 action alert, FAIR wondered if ABC‘s reporting on corporate giant Wal-Mart was improperly influenced by Wal-Mart’s status as a major advertiser on the network’s news programming. While ABC failed to answer FAIR’s charges, a September 20 World News Tonight report on Wal-Mart’s business practices in China once again suggests favoritism toward […]
NOTE: Please see the update to this alert. In a story about a U.N. Security Council resolution on terrorism and incitement (Morning Edition, 9/15/05), NPR reporter Corey Flintoff attributed to “extremist groups” the view that there was a link between the July 7 subway bombings in London and Britain’s participation in the Iraq War. In […]
After eight years in the White House, Dwight Eisenhower delivered his farewell address on January 17, 1961. The former general warned of “an immense military establishment and a large arms industry.” He added that “we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.” One way or another, […]
When Susan Estrich launched a public attack in February on Los Angeles Times op-ed page editor Michael Kinsley for not including enough women on his pages, it made a brief stir in certain (mostly female) circles of the media. But the problem runs deeper than the op-ed pages of prominent newspapers; female opinions are muted […]
[Note: this piece is a sidebar to Opinion Omission] When Harvard president Laurence Summers suggested that “intrinsic aptitude” might be holding women back in math and the sciences, the opinions sparked at major media outlets demonstrated the predictability of a punditocracy that itself lacks gender balance and diversity. In the initial stir toward the end […]
After George W. Bush‘s June 28 speech about Iraq, MSNBC‘s Hardball presented viewers with a decidedly skewed “town meeting” featuring a panel dominated by Iraq war boosters. The two-hour coverage, hosted by Chris Matthews, was anchored by a panel discussion that featured MSNBC reporter Norah O’Donnell, Islam scholar Reza Aslan, and four conservative Bush supporters: […]
It’s a fact that labor unions are seldom heard from in the mainstream media. But when MSNBC host Chris Matthews brought up the issue on June 10, he blamed the problem on the labor movement. “I watch Sunday television,” Matthews explained during an interview with Bill Moyers. “I never see a really good articulate labor […]
A study of media citations of think tanks in 2004—the 10th year of collecting such data—finds that think tanks of the right and center still predominate, despite a slight increase in citations of left-leaning think tanks. The study counts citations of the 25 most prominent think tanks of right, center and left, using the Nexis […]
Failing to find weapons of mass destruction or an Al-Qaeda/Saddam Hussein connection almost two years after it invaded Iraq, the Bush White House fell back on its second-tier justification for the invasion: that occupying the country would start a domino-chain of democratization throughout the Middle East. In the wake of the January 30 Iraq elections, […]
New CNN president Jonathan Klein offered a novel theory about why there aren’t more progressives on television (Charlie Rose Show, 3/25/05): They aren’t angry enough. When asked if there could ever be a successful progressive version of Fox News Channel, Klein explained that while Fox was tapping into a brand of “mostly angry white men” […]
A front-page New York Times story (5/2/05) added to mounting evidence that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), under new chair Kenneth Tomlinson, is pressuring public television officials to produce more conservative programming and to rein in shows it perceives as liberal. “The Republican chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is aggressively pressing public […]
White House officials were reportedly telling staffers that there was a “don’t gloat” policy when it came to talking about the stirrings in the Middle East (NBC Nightly News, 3/8/05; Time, 3/14/05). No such limits were placed on pundits, some of whom saw the events as proof that they were right all along to support […]
When Dan Rather stepped down from the CBS Evening News this week, right-wing media critics ought to have been among those most sorry to see him go. Rather has long served as their “liberal media” bogeyman, personifying the nightly news’ supposed tendency to skewer Republicans and coddle Democrats. But given the central role Rather plays […]
Over the years, media owners and editors have come up with different explanations for the lack of left or progressive voices across the media landscape. We’re told those ideas are unpopular with the public, for example, or that leftists aren’t as engaging or likeable as, say, Sean Hannity. The new CNN President Jonathan Klein offered […]
I was glad to open the New York Times last Monday and see the headline: “In Steinbeck’s Birthplace, a Fight to Keep the Libraries Open.” After visiting Salinas, Calif., over the weekend, I was eager to find out whether the disturbing and uplifting events there would gain any significant national coverage. It was a close […]
In recent weeks, criticism of the shortage of women’s bylines on newspaper op-ed pages has roiled the media waters, prompted by syndicated columnist Susan Estrich’s attack on Los Angeles Times op-ed page editor Michael Kinsley for his failure to bring more women onto the Times‘ op-ed page. This issue certainly deserves discussion, but the problem […]
“We can get five reporters a month to do news stories about your product. If you want to be interviewed by 10 to 20 reporters per month, we can arrange that, too. . . . Media Relations, Inc. has placed tens of thousands of news stories on behalf of more than 1,000 clients.—Media Relations, Inc. […]
His CNN show Crossfire was canceled, but conservative pundit Tucker Carlson already appears to have a new cable news home lined up: a primetime show on MSNBC (USA Today, 12/20/04; Daily Variety, 12/21/04). With the departure of host Deborah Norville, MSNBC is reportedly considering Carlson to fill the 9 p.m. timeslot. His show would lead […]
Judging by the amount of coverage it has received, you’d think that the CBS‘s investigation into its flawed report on George W. Bush’s National Guard service was the most important media issue facing the country. Shortly after the report about Bush’s Guard service aired on 60 Minutes last September (9/8/04), right-wing commentators and internet bloggers […]
