FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
Analyzing “The Art of Framing at NPR” on his NPR Check blog, Mytwords (8/29/09) thinks that “there are many ways you could frame the role of Sen. Kent Conrad, one of the gang of six senators who are working very hard to preserve the profitable dominance of private health insurance in the U.S.–such as “marvel[ing] […]
National Public Radio monitor mytwords (NPR Check, 8/9/09) has observed what he dubs a “Blackwater Blackout” on the publicly funded “alternative” to corporate radio: On Tuesday, August 4 Jeremy Scahill broke the story about two sworn statements implicating Blackwater (now Xe) founder Erik Prince in the murder of employees or former employees who were cooperating […]
NPR Check blogger mytwords has taken the time (8/4/09) to closely “consider [Scott] Horsley’s verbal sleight of hand” on National Public Radio‘s August 4 Morning Edition: He equates a completely false distortion–characterizing the tepid Democratic health reform proposals as “government-run healthcare” in opposition to “the free market”–with a completely fact-based statement–“we have a system today […]
Salon‘s Glenn Greenwald has an update (7/2/09, ad-viewing required) on “several noteworthy developments since I wrote on Tuesday about the refusal of NPR‘s ombudsman, Alicia Shepard, to be interviewed by me about NPR‘s ban on using the word ‘torture’ to describe the Bush administration’s interrogation tactics”: Given the utter vapidity of her rationale (“there are […]
Critiquing some more of National Public Radio‘s healthcare reportage, blogger Mytwords (NPR Check, 6/29/09) highlights Julie Rovner of Morning Edition “reporting this morning for the private health insurance lobby”: “The healthcare cost debate pretty much comes down to this: ‘You can’t cut costs without hurting someone.’” Rovner then backs up her “analysis” with “a little […]
Linking to a Felice Pace piece of June 14 that connects the near-absence of single-payer-focused NPR reportage to millions of dollars in underwriting the broadcaster has received from insurance industry heavies, NPR Check‘s Mytwords (6/17/09) includes his own comment left under Weekend Edition Saturday‘s “Health Care Reform From The Insurer’s Perspective” segment: Congratulations NPR—as a […]
NPR Check blogger Mytwords has some advice (6/14/09) “in these times of austerity and job ‘shedding‘ at NPR“: “Instead of spending all the money it must take to embed a reporter like Tom Bowman with the U.S. military in Afghanistan, why not cut him out of the picture and just hand a microphone to one […]
Discussing (5/31/09) the “story on the two U.S. journalists detained in North Korea,” NPR Check‘s Mytwords states clearly that it “deserves coverage, as did some coverage of [Roxana] Saberi’s arrest in Iran (though not the wall to wall attention given by NPR).” But a reader‘s link to the L.A. Times‘ May 24 “article on another […]
Dubbing National Public Radio “The Counterinsurgency Channel,” blogger Mytwords (NPR Check, 5/28/09) takes issue with a May 27 All Things Considered report “meant to promote an aspect of U.S. counterinsurgency in Afghanistan–the training of Afghan police as part of Task Force Phoenix (what dumb ass names these operations anyway?)”: The report opens with some great […]
Wondering “why NPR decided it was appropriate to present Cheney’s blatantly self-serving propaganda as anything remotely relevant to current policy,” NPR Check contributor Brian (5/23/09) blogs about current president Barack Obama and former vice president Dick Cheney recently “attacking the policies of the other administration and defending their own positions in speeches.” Even though each […]
Blogging on how May 4 and 5 broadcasts “feature NPR continuing its function of justifying and sanitizing the U.S. torture regime,” dedicated public radio critic Mytwords (NPR Check, 5/5/09) plumbs the depths of NPR‘s aversion to “human rights or international law advocates or experts”–instead preferring “members or former members of various U.S. government agencies,” even […]
Critiquing the April 24 edition of NPR‘s “increasingly vacuous and self-indulgent” Planet Money show, blogger Brian (NPR Check, 4/24/09) notices that the “five long minutes” spent discussing “how long it would take to count to 165 million (the AIG executive bonuses), 45 billion (Bank of America’s bailout so far), and 1.2 trillion (total estimated federal […]
Proving that the Washington Post is not the only purportedly “liberal” outlet interested in whitewashing the dark history of U.S. involvement in Latin America, Mytwords (NPR Check, 3/23/09) has blogged NPR‘s March 21 episode of Weekend Edition Saturday, in which the show returned to the scene of the crimes of El Salvador’s 1980s bloodbath–a U.S.-nurtured […]
National Public Radio watchdog Mytwords (NPR Check, 3/3/09) is moved to declare the network’s Palestine/Israel coverage “worse than worthless” after “yesterday morning first featured Michele Kelemen redelivering Secretary of State Clinton’s talking points (Hamas is a terrorist organization, blah, blah, blah, Hamas has to renounce violence, blah, blah, blah, U.S. is giving tons of money […]
“A rather major problem with nearly all of NPR‘s reporting” has been identified by NPR Check blogger Mytwords (2/18/09) and named the “history scrub.” The definition: “If the essential background history to a story reflects poorly on the actions of the U.S. government–that history will be deleted, scrubbed, sanitized–sent down the memory hole.” The key […]
