FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
As the debate over Social Security privatization continues, so do the mainstream media distortions of the debate. On January 11, ABC News muddied the waters further with two one-sided and inaccurate reports. On World News Tonight, anchor Peter Jennings started off the distortions in the show’s “A Closer Look” segment. Having allowed that there is […]
A license permits broadcasting, but the licensee has no constitutional right to be the one who holds the license or to monopolize a…frequency to the exclusion of his fellow citizens. There is nothing in the First Amendment which prevents the Government from requiring a licensee to share his frequency with others…. It is the right […]
Recent news reports (USA Today, 12/20/04; Daily Variety, 12/21/04) suggest that conservative pundit Tucker Carlson, seen currently on CNN and PBS, might find a new home: a prime-time show on MSNBC. With the departure of host Deborah Norville, MSNBC is reportedly considering Carlson to fill the 9 p.m. timeslot. His show would lead into Scarborough […]
From the Iraq War to the 2004 presidential race, reporters shirked their journalistic duty to take a critical approach to official and partisan claims —to document them when they are true, and debunk them when they are false.
After standing virtually alone among mainstream media outlets in declaring Dick Cheney the clear victor in his October 5 debate with Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards, MSNBC made an odd decision about its coverage of the subsequent Bush-Kerry debate: It added more conservative voices to its panel discussion. MSNBC‘s panel for the October 9 […]
A new public television program called the Journal Editorial Report, featuring writers and editors from the arch-conservative Wall Street Journal editorial page, will debut tonight on public television stations around the country. The show joins Tucker Carlson: Unfiltered, hosted by conservative CNN pundit Tucker Carlson, and a planned program featuring conservative commentator Michael Medved as […]
In a July appearance on CNN ‘s Paula Zahn Now, conservative pundit John Fund inadvertently captured the absurd state of American television debate as he faced off with centrist columnist Matthew Miller: Matt and I both agree that gay marriage is a mistake for slightly different reasons. Such debates, spanning the spectrum from A to […]
For decades, journalists and pundits have invoked the New Republic magazine to prove that a conservative idea has support across the spectrum. Drawing on the magazine’s historical association with the American left, the phrase “even the New Republic,” as in “even the New Republic supports the Contras,” has become journalistic shorthand for “even liberal opinion […]
FAIR’s latest study of Fox ’s Special Report With Brit Hume finds the network’s flagship news show still listing right—heavily favoring conservative and Republican guests in its one-on-one interviews. And, according to the study, Special Report rarely features women or non-white guests in these prominent newsmaker inter-view spots. In previous studies FAIR has found that […]
June 1, 2004 On May 26, NPR Ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin responded to FAIR’s recent study, “How Public Is Public Radio?” What follows is Dvorkin’s column, followed by a response from FAIR’s Steve Rendall. (NPR Ombudsman Jeffrey A. Dvorkin ) Is FAIR Being Fair about NPR? By Jeffrey A. Dvorkin Web Extra May 26, 2004 — […]
Discussion with writer Jen Banbury on her reports of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Also with week: Professor Stephen Doig on newsroom diversity.
When National Public Radio was launched in 1971, it promised to be an alternative to commercial media that would “promote personal growth rather than corporate gain” and “speak with many voices, many dialects.” In 1993, when FAIR published a study of NPR’s guestlist that challenged the network’s alternative credentials (Extra!, 4-5/93), incoming NPR president Delano […]
Even as media reliance on think tanks increased in 2003, the slant in coverage toward conservative groups and away from progressives held steady. While mainstream media citations of the top 25 think tanks increased 13 percent from 2002 to 2003, right-leaning institutions received 47 percent of last year’s citations, with centrists getting 39 percent and […]
When journalist Christian Parenti was invited to talk about Iraq on the March 2 broadcast of PBS‘s NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Parenti’s criticism of the reconstruction contracts granted to corporations like Halliburton and Bechtel seemed to cross a line for the program’s host. According to a report by Cynthia Cotts in the Village Voice newspaper […]
The Sunday morning interview shows on March 14 all devoted significant time to the one-year anniversary of the start of the invasion of Iraq. But viewers of these programs would have had a hard time finding a debate about the controversial decision to go to war. ABC‘s This Week with George Stephanopoulos featured an interview […]
If you accept the “horserace” metaphor beloved by campaign pundits, it seems like media looked to disqualify former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean even before he left the starting gate. Once thought to be a long-shot contender for the Democratic nomination, Dean found himself anointed as the media front-runner weeks before any voters had their say. […]
NOTE: Please see the update to this action alert: “ABC Responds to Critics of Campaign Coverage” (12/12/03) A day after ABC‘s Ted Koppel moderated a debate between the Democratic presidential contenders, the network decided to withdraw three off-air producers from the campaigns of Dennis Kucinich, Carol Moseley Braun and Rev. Al Sharpton. ABC‘s decision […]
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 […]
In the wars of the 1980s and ’90s, military planners placed considerable emphasis on controlling the information that reached the American public. Journalists were excluded from the wars in Grenada and Panama until the fighting was already concluded. This in turn led to complaints from journalists, and in the 1990 war in Iraq, code-named Operation […]
The superstar columnist George Will has an impressive vocabulary. Too bad it doesn’t include the words “I’m sorry.” Last year, Will led the media charge when a member of Congress dared to say that George W. Bush would try to deceive the public about Iraq. By now, of course, strong evidence has piled up that […]
