FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
The New York Times (11/21/09) describes Japan’s elite “press clubs” as a century-old, cartel-like arrangement in which reporters from major news media outlets are stationed inside government offices and enjoy close, constant access to officials. The system has long been criticized as antidemocratic by both foreign and Japanese analysts, who charge that it has produced […]
The remarkable ability to engage in in-depth discussion of lawmakers’ opposition to healthcare reform efforts without ever mentioning the massive contributions such lawmakers tend to receive from the healthcare industry is not confined to the Washington Post—as Dan Ward noted in his Extra! piece (11/09). Another recent example of the phenomenon was provided by the […]
New York Times on the pending trial of Khalid Sheik Mohammed ( 11/15/09–emphasis added): Mr. Mohammed’s initial defiance toward his captors set off an interrogation plan that would turn him into the central figure in the roiling debate over the C.I.A’s interrogation methods. He was subjected 183 times to the near-drowning technique called waterboarding, treatment […]
The headline and lead of a New York Times piece today: Trick for Democrats Is Juggling Ideology and Pragmatism By ADAM NAGOURNEY and DAVID M. HERSZENHORN WASHINGTON — Democrats have displayed a striking degree of pragmatism in seeking to push the health care bill through Congress, embracing or rejecting ideological considerations as needed to keep […]
In his New York Times column, David Brooks cheers the rise of suburban independent voters in this week’s midterms elections, crediting them with Republican victories in New Jersey and Virginia. Brooks has made a career out of singing the praises of suburban Americans, all the while suggesting that they are somewhat ignored. While liberals and […]
On November 1, New York Times reporter Alissa Rubin has a look back at her experience as a war correspondent in Iraq. It’s mostly interesting, though when she gets to the part where she draws the big lessons, things turn for the worse: In my five years in Iraq, all that I wanted to believe […]
Once you’ve given up trying to defend the idea that Fox News‘ “Fair and Balanced” slogan can be understood as anything other than irony, the fallback position is generally that everyone else is just as biased. Or as the headline over John Harwood’s piece in the New York Times (11/2/09) puts it, “If Fox Is […]
The White House’s beef with Fox News Channel continues, as do the right-wing cable channel’s bizarre attempts to defend their journalistic integrity. Take this example from today’s New York Times (10/22/09). Obviously the White House is most offended by the likes of Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck; this is unfair, according to Fox: But Michael […]
In today’s New York Times article, “Experts Worry as Population and Hunger Grow,” there’s some Green Revolution mythology propagated about how the policies “staved off famines affecting millions.” As has been pointed out, though food production did increase, hunger actually increased as well just about everywhere affected by the Green Revolution; the reason the overall […]
Isabel Kershner writes a piece in the New York Times (10/9/09) that starts out as a profile of an Israeli artist who makes flowers out of Qassam rocket pieces. The main point, though, is to discuss thechanged reality in southern Israel, thanks to the invasion of the Gaza Strip late last year that killed over […]
Kudos to the New York Times for publishing a front-page article (10/8/09) about the U.S. advisers and lobbyists who have been working (in one form or another) on behalf of the coup government in Honduras. But the piece glosses over the U.S. history in the region. Reporters Ginger Thompson and Ron Nixon write that the […]
If you want a lesson in how right-wing pressure on corporate media works, look no further than the ACORN story. Right-wing talkshow hosts have targeted the community organizing group for years, primarily on charges of vote fraud. Then two conservative activists produced some embarrassing videos of ACORN workers at some local offices giving tax advice […]
The New York Times reported (10/6/09) that the Federal Trade Commission was planning to establish new rules for bloggers: The FTC said that beginning on December 1, bloggers who review products must disclose any connection with advertisers, including, in most cases, the receipt of free products and whether or not they were paid in any […]
In a story about the Senate Finance Committee voting down two amendments that would have added a public option to the committee’s healthcare bill, New York Times reporters Robert Pear and Jackie Calmes (9/29/09) write, “The votes vindicated the middle-of-the-road approach taken by the committee chairman, Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana.” The Times just […]
Ousted President Manuel Zelaya has returned to Honduras, though not to office.Unfortunately, press accounts still manage to mangle the story behind his ouster, relying on those who supported the coup to explain what happened. In today’s New York Times (9/22/09): At the time of his removal, Mr. Zelaya was planning a nonbinding referendum that his […]
The New York Times (9/13/09) attempted to fact check a Barack Obama speech on healthcare. By all appearances, this is in the regular, non-satirical edition of the paper: Mr. Obama opened his 40-minute speech with what he called “disturbing news”: a report from the Treasury Department that, he said, “found that nearly half of all […]
“It is difficult to overstate President Obama’s unpopularity in most of Louisiana,” writes Campbell Robertson in a front-page New York Times article (9/11/09). Yet Robertson managed to pull it off. Robertson continues: “He lost handily to Senator John McCain here, picking up only 14 percent of the white vote. (The state is roughly two-thirds white.)” […]
Intern Katy Kelleher at the Jezebel.com blog (9/9/09) has made a worthy attempt at “unpacking all the different levels of sexism and racism that are operating subtly behind the scenes” in recent coverage of professional women’s tennis. On the new stardom of relatively diminutive and white Melanie Oudin, Kelleher remarks that “her accomplishments are definitely […]
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin091109 Mark Cook and Diana Duarte @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin091109.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: The media lie that will not die about the Honduras coup is that ousted president Manuel Zelaya was attempting to change the Honduran constitution in order to extend his time in office. But there is nothing new about this current set […]
Printing a letter to the editor from Leila McDowell (8/26/09), the New York Times has “Another Look at Obama’s Speech to the NAACP”–from the group’s on vice president of communications. McDowell starts with the fact that the “Times distinguished itself from most major media by virtually ignoring the 100th anniversary of the NAACP, which was […]
