FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
A long New York Times Magazine piece (5/16/10) about start-up online journalism outlets brings us some troubling news about the wall between editorial content and advertising: One thing many of these new strategies have in common is a willingness to transgress time-honored barriers–for instance, by blurring the division between reporting and advertising. True/Slant offers to […]
Do you want to know what environmentalists think of the “compromise” climate bill unveiled by senators John Kerry and Joe Lieberman yesterday? Ifso,don’t read the New York Times today. Times reporter John M. Broder (5/13/10) quotes Kerry, Barack Obama (a supporter of the bill) and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham (formerly a somewhat iffy supporter). He […]
Under the not-too-promising headline “Afghans’ Distrust Threatens U.S. War Strategy” (5/13/10), the New York Times reports that U.S. success in the Afghan war “may well depend on whether Afghans can overcome their corrosive distrust of President Hamid Karzai’s government.” Why that lack of trust would be deemed “corrosive,” or why they should trust someone many […]
There’s a certain the-monster-isn’t-so-bad genre of journalism–profiling some character known for vicious misanthropy, usually a right-wing media personality, only to assure readers that once you get to know them, you realize that they don’t actually mean all the nasty things they say. (The Time cover story on Ann Coulter discussed here is perhaps the classic […]
The formula for “contrarian” journalism was aptly summed up by Wonkette (1/6/09): Take a widely accepted belief (e.g., “Dogs make good pets”) and write a cool 600 words arguing why its opposite is SECRETLY truer (“Why all dogs should die”). Of course, it helps if the upside-down world you’re proposing turns out to be one […]
Ross Douthat has a New York Times column today (5/3/10) criticizing those who are “impugning the motives” of the new Arizona immigration law, which has been denounced as a “Nazi” or “near-fascist” law, a “police state” intervention, an imitation of “apartheid,” a “Juan Crow” regime that only a bigot could possibly support. Really, says Douthat, […]
The New York Times’ May 2 Week in Review section leads with a piece from Jad Mouawad headlined “The Spill vs. a Need to Drill.” You get a sense of the tone of the piece early on: Readers learn that “emotions are running high” as the disaster gets worse. And this has led to predictable […]
The Obama Justice Department—or at least one of its top prosecutors—is cracking down on investigative reporting without regard for the First Amendment. The first disturbing development was the indictment of NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake, whose leaks to the Baltimore Sun helped expose how the NSA’s warrantless spying program deliberately failed to protect the privacy of […]
A New York Times article (4/23/10) by Peter Baker and David Herszenhorn remarks of Barack Obama: With his poll numbers sagging, the choreographed confrontation seemed aimed at tapping the nation’s antiestablishment mood as well as muscling financial regulation legislation through Congress. While Obama’s confrontation with the financial industry was no doubt choreographed, are his poll […]
I find it very peculiar that the New York Times can publish an editorial observer piece about unheeded warnings–“Cassandra, the Ignored Prophet of Doom, Is a Woman for Our Times,” by Adam Cohen (4/19/10)–without once mentioning climate change. The piece cites various foretold disasters–Bernie Madoff, sexual abuse by priests, the financial meltdown, September 11, New […]
The New York Times had an odd correction today (4/16/10): A picture caption on Thursday with the continuation of a news analysis article about a shift in the Obama administratio’s Middle East policy referred incorrectly to Ramat Shlomo, the name of a Jewish housing development that Israel says it is expanding despite objections by the […]
The New York Times’ Jackie Calmes has a report today (4/15/10) about the brewing fight over the Bush tax cuts, which were passed for limited time period and will phase out if Congress does not pass legislation to extend them. The Obama White House will ask lawmakers to renew most of the tax cuts, but […]
Last week the Drudge Report flagged an Associated Press report (4/5/10) by Stephen Ohlemacher with the headline: “Rob Thy Neighbor: Half of American Households Pay No Fed Income Tax.” The piece in questionsaid more or less the same, making it a popular item for right-wing pundits eager to pounce on tax freeloaders. But the AP […]
Front-page headline in the New York Times today (4/13/10): Civilians Killed as U.S. Troops Hit Afghan Bus The paper seems to have a real problem with writing a headline that informs readers in a straightforward way that the United States kills civilians.
While FAIR Blog complained earlier (3/30/10) that coverage of the Catholic priest sexual abuse scandal was overlooking Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s involvement in the story before he became Pope Benedict XVI, yesterday two prominent op-eds focused on this history. Unfortunately, both op-eds present a highly selective version of Ratzinger’s role. New York Times columnist Ross Douthat […]
New York Times media reporter David Carr wrote the other day (4/5/10) about Sarah Palin’s wide-ranging appeal: Ms. Palin still gets a session in the media spanking machine every time she does anything, but the disapproval seems to further cement the support of her loyalists. Ms. Palin may or may not be qualified to represent […]
New York Times reporter Ethan Bronner has a piece today (4/7/10) headlined “Palestinians Try a Less Violent Path to Resistance,” which attempts to show that there is a new move away from armed resistance to Israeli occupation. You get that message pretty clearly from Bronner’s language: He calls it a “new approach” and argues, “Nonviolence […]
FAIR has a new action alert out about the New York Times‘ snubbing the U.S. Senate candidate Jonathan Tasini. While the paper has given intensive coverage to numerous New Yorkers who thought about challenging appointed incumbent Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand–but in the end decided not to run–the Times has ignored Gillibrand’s most prominent actual rival in […]
Over the course of the past year, the New York Times has provided ample coverage to a series of potential U.S. Senate candidates from New York–none of whom are actually running for office. Meanwhile, a candidate who is in fact challenging incumbent Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand in the September 2010 primary has been all but erased […]
A short New York Times piece by Ian Urbina (4/2/10) serves as an update of sorts on the future of community organizing group ACORN, which says it will continue to have a national presence. Urbina includes this description of the now-infamous right-wing video hoax that did much of the damage to the group: ACORN has […]
