FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
Bob Herbert, today in the New York Times (1/25/11): There has always been feverish opposition on the right to Social Security. What is happening now, in a period of deficit hysteria, is that this crucial retirement program is being dishonestly lumped together with Medicare as an entitlement program that is driving federal deficits. He’s right. […]
Today the New York Times reports on the debate over spending, deficits and the State of the Union (1/24/11): The public itself seems split, or perhaps confused. Americans overwhelmingly say that in general, they prefer cutting government spending to paying higher taxes, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll published last week. Yet their […]
Big news in the New York Times today (1/21/11): According to their new poll, Americans overwhelmingly support slashing military spending. Wait–that’s not the news. According to the story by Jackie Calmes and Dalia Sussman (headlined “Poll Finds Willingness to Cut Spending, Just Not Medicare or Social Security”), the real story is that people don’t like […]
As Sam Husseini noted, one of the things we’ll miss about print newspapers is ironic juxtaposition of stories. The front page of yesterday’s New York Times (1/20/11) provided a classic example: There was a story about Chinese President Hu Jintao visiting the White House, headlined (in the late print edition) “Obama Raises Human Rights, Pressing […]
When I saw the headline (1/19/11), “Vocal Physicians Group Renews Health Law Fight,” I thought maybe–just maybe–the New York Times might be talking about Physicians for a National Health Program, the group comprised of “18,000 physicians, medical students and health professionals who support single-payer national health insurance.” But no. The Times story is about the […]
Under the headline “Lawmakers Aiming to Increase Civility,” the New York Times (1/17/11) reports from the front lines of the improved, post-Tucson political climate: And the House speaker, John A. Boehner, used the phrase ”job-destroying” instead of “job-killing” in reference to the Democrats’ healthcare overhaul in a speech to colleagues on Saturday–a subtle but pointed […]
Right-wing pundits have come out vociferously against the idea that they, their colleagues and the political movement they identify with have anything to answer for in the wake of the Tucson massacre. David Brooks (New York Times, 1/11/11) asserted that “the evidence before us suggests that [shooting suspect Jared] Loughner was locked in a world […]
A New York Times profile (1/8/11) of author/economist Robert Reich was headlined “Obama the Centrist Irks a Liberal Lion.” It’s hard not to see where reporter Michael Powell comes down in the debate over Democrats moving to the right: Mr. Reich sees a parallel with his former boss, Mr. Clinton, and draws no comfort from […]
Last night (O’Reilly Factor, 1/10/11), Bill O’Reilly talking to Brit Hume: O’REILLY: We have a network, an entire network that’s built around attacking Fox News and right-wing people. That’s all they do at MSNBC. They have nothing else. HUME: How’s that working out for them? O’REILLY: It’s not working out for them. But it does […]
Today in the New York Times Paul Krugman (1/10/11) suggests that we not pretend that “both sides” are responsible for toxic political rhetoric: Where’s that toxic rhetoric coming from? Let’s not make a false pretense of balance: It’s coming, overwhelmingly, from the right. It’s hard to imagine a Democratic member of Congress urging constituents to […]
There’s been a spate of reporting and commentary attacking public workers for having lavish pensions that are bankrupting various states. CBS‘s 60 Minutes got into the act in December with a report (12/19/10) that was criticized for lionizing Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (obviously this came before his snow troubles) for his attacks on […]
New York Times reporter Matt Bai has tried to argue that the public is really worried about the budget deficit. He’s tried to find polling evidence to show the public favors some form of budget-cutting austerity,which usually leads him to focus on numbers that support his argument while ignoring those that run counter to his […]
Remember the toppling of that Saddam Hussein statue in Baghdad (4/9/03) that signified the “end” of the Iraq War? At the time, there were critics who pointed out that the extensively televised images of a jubilant crowd of Iraqis were misleading.The sense of media excitement was unmistakable; as FAIR pointed out, the Los Angeles Times […]
Chris Hedges has a new column about the state of the progressive movement, and in it Ralph Nader goes on a tear about the corporate media that can’t really be summarized–so here’s the whole thing: The banishment from the corporate media, Nader argues, has been one of the major contributors to the demoralization and weakening […]
Sheryl Gay Stolberg has an article in the New York Times (12/26/10) about what President Obama’s trips to Hawaii say about him: “Mr. Obama’s disappearance behind the palm trees reveals much about his presidential style, and also his thinking about how to balance work and play.” She contrasts these trips to his birth state […]
Today’s Washington Post (12/21/10) brings a story by Janine Zacharia headlined, “Aid groups decry Israel’s Gaza constraints.” The lead: Despite recent moves by Israel to ease construction in the Gaza Strip, restrictions on building materials are hampering international humanitarian efforts while doing little to impede the Hamas-led government they are designed to weaken, aid and […]
Today’s New York Times (12/20/10) brings the latest from the WikiLeaks cables, an interesting piece about how Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) went to Honduras after the coup to praise the new government and hopefully arrange business deals for his friends. Unfortunately the Times bungles the story of the coup itself: Honduras had grabbed international headlines […]
In the proud tradition of objective journalism, the New York Times included both positive and negative views of Afghan envoy Richard Holbrooke in its December 14 obituary: Some called him a bully, and he looked the part: the big chin thrust out, the broad shoulders, the tight smile that might mean anything. To admirers, however, […]
New York Times columnist Tom Friedman attempts to offer up some measure of support for WikiLeaks today (12/15/10): I read many WikiLeaks and learned some useful things. But their release also raises some troubling questions. I don’t want to live in a country where they throw whistleblowers in jail. That’s China. But I also don’t […]
One of the more annoying corporate media storylines since the midterms dwells on whether or not Barack Obama will move to the “center” in order to have better luck in the 2012 elections. The conventional wisdom is that Bill Clinton did this after terrible losses in the 1994 midterms, and his “triangulation” proved once […]
