‘It Was a Remarkably Successful Grassroots Campaign to Target Amazon’s Credibility’
“Somehow, when it’s giving money to a large corporation, that’s suddenly, ‘Well, this isn’t really an expense or a giveaway. This is an investment.’”
Neil deMause on Amazon’s Retreat, Nina Besser Doorley on Women’s Healthcare Restrictions
Surprisingly, some media followed the lead of community organizers and questioned the Amazon deal—questions Amazon pulled out over rather than engage.
Police Drones Expand as Media Shrink
Media’s propensity to serve as stenographers and lapdogs for law enforcement is nothing new. But the coverage of the NYPD’s drone roll-out is particularly egregious, because of how the move in the Big Apple could significantly impact surveillance and civil liberties nationwide.
Tronc to Daily News: Drop Dead
On July 23, it was announced Tronc was laying off half of the editorial workforce, including its two top editors. The enormity of this carnage isn’t just industry news. For New York City, it feels like an offense to the entire city.
Chuck Schumer’s Actions on the National Stage Get Little Scrutiny From His Local Press
For such a powerful figure, Schumer gets relatively scant scrutiny from New York City’s press corps, long considered the toughest in the United States.
Less Crimefighting, Less Crime? WSJ Avoids the Evidence
A Wall Street Journal article left out arguably the most interesting part of the story: The NYPD’s backing away from stop-and-frisk and reduced interest in small-time busts was accompanied by a 5 percent reduction in major crimes.
NY Post’s Stop-and-Frisk Scare
The New York Post is suggesting New York City is seeing the beginning of a scary crime wave. Turns out (surprise!) the Post is mostly full of it.
New York Times to New Yorkers: You’re Supporting the Wrong Mayoral Candidate!
A New York Times story headlined “Poll Finds Support for de Blasio, if Not All His Ideas” could have more accurately been called “Poll Finds Support for de Blasio, Along With Most of His Ideas”
USA Today Covers NYC Elections—Unfortunately
USA Today tries to explain what the Democratic primary elections in New York City, using some of corporate media’s favorite electoral tropes: mandating a move to the right, misleading on stop-and-frisk, and finding “ambivalence” when voters line up on the wrong side.
FAIR TV: Snowden the ‘Spy,’ Stop-and-Frisk Factcheck, Student Loan Rates
On FAIR TV this week: CBS tries to call Edward Snowden a “spy,” and Bill Kristol makes his ABC comeback with a bogus defense of New York’s stop-and-frisk police searches. Plus: Student loan rates are slashed, say the TV reports. But are they actually…going up? Watch it all this on this week’s episode:
Bait-and-Switch on Stop-and-Frisk
There’s a powerful urge to believe, it seems, that abusing the Fourth Amendment rights of young men of color somehow makes the rest of us safer.
Frisking Bill Kristol
Neocon pundit Bill Kristol was wrong every which way about the Iraq War. So why’s he on ABC talking about stop and frisk?
Newsweek: In Praise of Ray Kelly, Crime-Fighting Superhero
Last night’s on CBS‘ 60 Minutes, viewers got to see an encore broadcast of an embarrassingly sycophantic tribute to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. Glenn Greenwald takes it apart at Salon.com, explaining how CBS regaled viewers with “news” about “the heart of the man with a world of worry,” and documented—through dogged investigative work—how Panetta “stays […]
NYT Quake Reporter: Don’t Worry, Be Happy
The New York Times‘ Katharine Seelye begins her report (8/24/11) on yesterday’s Virginia-centered earthquake with a dangerous inaccuracy: Of all the things there are to worry about, earthquakes are fairly low on the list for those on the East Coast. Actually, people on the East Coast should probably worry about earthquakes a lot more than […]
When ‘Thriving’ Capitalism Is Really ‘Organized Crime’
Current Anti-Advertising Agency CEO Steve Lambert and founder Jordan Selier have posted (AntiAdvertisingAgency.com, 5/12/09) their letter to the New York Times responding to a May 11 piece that cites one NYC advertising executive asking, “All you have to do is walk out the door for lunch and notice the number of vacant storefronts… so why […]
Goliath vs. Goliath
When two of the world’s most powerful media outlets fight, who do you root for? Are you cheering for Time Warner, the $7 billion-a-year conglomerate, which provides monopoly cable service to 40 percent of the U.S.—and which has used this position to block competitors to CNN, which Time Warner long had a large investment in, […]
Separate but Equal for the Disabled
From the outset, press coverage of New York City’s efforts to provide self-cleaning toilets on the streets has had a single spin: Disabled ideologues are ruining this good project for the rest of us. “The issue most likely to doom the plan is access for the handicapped,” wrote New York Times Metro reporter Celia W. […]
