FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
Reporting on the proposal from debt commission chairs Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, a New York Times article (11/11/10) by Jackie Calmes framed the discussion this way: Mr. Obama created the commission last February in the hope it would provide political cover for bold action against deficits in 2011. His stance now, in the wake […]
Matt Bai (New York Times, 11/9/10), as a standard-issue corporate media political analyst, sees the Democrats being moved to the right as an upside to their disastrous showing in the ’10 midterms. But he’s worried that the party isn’t learning the obvious lesson. If there was any sliver of hope for moderate Democrats on a […]
Whatever lesson you want to draw the midterms, the nation’s top editorial pages want to make one thing perfectly clear: Now is the time to move on bipartisan, corporate-friendly “free trade” agreements. “A time for free trade,” was the Washington Post‘s November 7 headline. “The Democratic majority in the House was heavily influenced by organized […]
Thereare almost always stories in the Monday papers about what politicians said on the Sunday morning chat shows. Today’s New York Times is no different, and given the election outcome the quotes are primarily from Republicans taking their victory laps. None of that is surprising, but it would make sense for journalists to fact check […]
Back in June, a study by Harvard students (echoing earlier work in Extra!—5-6/08) found that media outlets like the New York Times consistently called things like waterboarding torture when they reported on them–that is, until the Bush administration’s torture came to light. The study sparkeda lot of discussion, with the Times responding that it didn’t […]
Here’s the sentence that sums up what was wrong with election coverage ’10, courtesy of the New York Times‘ Peter Baker (11/3/10): Was this the natural and unavoidable backlash in a time of historic economic distress, or was it a repudiation of a big-spending activist government? Clearly, the economy was the main thing on the […]
It’s probably better for American political leaders that we forget the U.S. bombing of Cambodia. “A massive bombing campaign in Cambodia. Anything that flies on anything that moves,” was how Secretary of State Henry Kissinger put it in 1970 (NY Times, 5/27/04), reflecting Richard Nixon’s concern that the large-scale aerial bombing wasn’t doing enough damage. […]
New York Times reporter Matt Bai had a long piece Sunday (10/31/10)that argued that Tea Partiers are really the right-wing version of Bush-era MoveOn activists and bloggers (the “netroots”). Bai writes of “the larger forces that unify many self-styled activists on both the left and right,” and suggests that “the recent uprisings on both ends […]
New York Times reporter Adam Nagourney has a long piece (10/29/10) about California Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina, the Republican candidate for Senate. Both are expected to lose on Tuesday, which leaves Nagourney wondering why women aren’t more eager to support female politicians. The piece poses a lot of big questions–the fact […]
On today’s front page, under the headline “Deficit Divisions Likely to Grow After Election,” New York Times reporter Jackie Calmes writes this lead: WASHINGTON — A midterm campaign that has turned heavily on the issue of the mounting federal debt is likely to yield a government even more split over what to do about it, […]
I was struck by this New York Times headline on Saturday (10/23/10):”Effort to Rehabilitate Suharto’s Reputation Grows in Indonesia.” (The headline seems to have been changed somewhere along the way.) The piece led with this: JAKARTA, Indonesia— To millions, Suharto, the military strongman who ruled Indonesia for 32 years, was a tyrant, a thief and […]
One strand of conventional wisdom among elite D.C. reporters is that losing the midterm elections would be a good thing for the White House. Hence New York Times reporter Peter Baker (10/24/10): WASHINGTON — Let there be no mistake: President Obama wants the Democrats to win next week’s midterm elections. His voice has gone hoarse […]
Brian Stelter has a piece today in the New York Times (10/20/10) explaining the latest in the fight between Cablevision and NewsCorp. NewsCorp wants the cable company to pay them more money—a lot more—for airing Fox‘s broadcast signal (and a few, smaller cable channels). The two sides couldn’t reach a deal, and as of Saturday, […]
Monday’s front-page New York Times piece, “‘Culture of Poverty,’ Long an Academic Slur, Makes a Comeback,” is about how it’s okay again for scholars to talk about the “culture of poverty” and to study “cultural” aspects of the subject. It’s a trend reporter Patricia Cohen suggests vindicates Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who popularized the term in […]
Readers of Saturday’s New York Times may have noticed thisthis piece (10/16/10): Despite Image, Union Leader Backs School Change By TRIP GABRIEL In “Waiting for Superman,” the new education documentary, the union leader Randi Weingarten is portrayed, in the words of Variety, as “a foaming satanic beast.” At a two-day education summit hosted by NBC […]
Jodi Jacobson from RH Reality Check joins CounterSpin this week to talk about the media’s decision to let Tea Party activists define their movement as one that doesn’t focus on red meat “social issues.” As Jacobson argues, that distinction doesn’t really square with the far-right views espoused by leading Tea Party Republican candidates. The New […]
You may have heard that Barack Obama shared some thoughts about Fox News Channel in a recent interview with Rolling Stone. When asked about the channel, Obama pointed out that media outlets with a political perspective have been relatively common throughout U.S. history, but that he believed Fox‘s perspective is “ultimately destructive for the long-term […]
An important story is happening right now that’s not getting a whole lot of media attention. A military court is investigating claims that members of a U.S. Army Stryker unit randomly killed Afghan civilians. Some of the soldiers say they were pressured by a commanding officer into participating in the crimes. There are also reports […]
There’s a push for the Senate to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act before Congress adjourns for the season, which has sparked some pushback from right-wingers given prominent platforms in the corporate media. The Act, which already passed the House, would help enforce and close loopholes in the Equal Pay Act of 1963; under the law, […]
The New York Times‘ Sheryl Gay Stolberg (9/22/10), writing about “brusque and brilliant economist” Lawrence Summers stepping down as President Obama’s chief economic adviser, cited House minority leader John Boehner’s charge that “Mr. Obama’s team lacked ‘real-world, hands on experience,’ a direct shot at Mr. Summers’ career as an academic.” She followed this by writing, […]
