FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
Reporting that “reactionary radio host and white supremacist Hal Turner was taken into custody Wednesday after remarks urging Catholics to ‘take up arms’ against two Connecticut lawmakers and a state ethics official over legislation… regarding the church,” independent news outlet Raw Story‘s John Byrne (6/4/09) deepens the story by recalling that “Turner used to be […]
Imagine that the executive director of Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network punched a woman in the head while uttering a racial epithet. Imagine further that two years after this hate crime took place, the executive director still had his job, and when Sharpton was asked about this, he speculated about why this story was […]
“Amid all the recent negatives in the worlds of intelligence and journalism,” Consortium News‘ Robert Parry (6/2/09) has spotted “one encouraging development”: “the recognition of common ground between two beleaguered groups, honest U.S. intelligence analysts and honest American journalists, two groups that previously had been on opposite sides of the secrecy divide.” The strangeness of […]
Writing on Salon (5/31/09, ad-viewing required) of the “controversy surrounding Jeffrey Rosen’s New Republic anonymity-driven smear attack on Sonia Sotomayor’s intellect and character,” Glenn Greenwald sees more evidence that the one trait that defines establishment pundits more than any other is a pathological inability ever to accept blame or admit error. That’s because they work […]
This Associated Press story (“Debate Over Who Sotomayor Is a Sensitive One,” 5/29/09) sure is confused. Luckilyreporter Sharon Thiemermakes at least that much clear from the very start: There are two sides to Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor: a Latina from a blue-collar family and a wealthy member of America’s power elite. The White House […]
Charlie Savage did some good reporting on the Bush signing statements, but his front-page story in today’s New York Times on reproductive rights groups’ reaction to Sotomayor is way off course. His lead explains that abortion rights advocates are worried about Sotomayor, because “when she has written opinions that touched tangentially on abortion disputes, she […]
Recapping at TPM Café (5/27/09) how the U.S. “press bent over backward to paint both Bushes as moderate, sensible, nice guy Republicans,” Editor & Publisher‘s Greg Mitchell writes that “a hard-right [George W.] Bush, whether real or media-created, would have never beaten Gore–not that this one did either.” Reminding us that “the New York Times, […]
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 […]
When influential institutions treat those responsible for torture as worthy experts, society risks losing things even more valuable than “thoughtful conversation.”
Salon‘s Glenn Greenwald (5/19/09, ad-viewing required) “gives the lie to the collective national claim that we learned our lesson and are now regretful about the Bush/Cheney approach to terrorism”: Republicans are right about the fact that while it was Bush officials who led the way in implementing these radical and lawless policies, most of the […]
Giving us a glimpse at “a large part of what was left on the editor’s floor” from his On the Media NPR interview, Harpers.org‘s Scott Horton (5/12/09) writes of “the New York Times and its history of dealing with the word ‘torture’”: I noted that in the pre-Bush era, the Times had absolutely no compunction […]
While Glenn Greenwald and Camille Paglia catch us up on the increasingly hateful and dangerous language emanating from conservative talk radio–including Mark Levin show substitute host Andrew Wilkow repeatedly calling a gay man a “vile sodomite” and Limbaugh sub Mark Davis joking about the murder of top Democratic officials–there are other signs the genre is […]
Political Animal‘s Steve Benen (5/12/09) notes a recent Rush Limbaugh broadcast (5/11/09) that makes the racist subtext of the right’s critique of Barack Obama virtually explicit: The [economic] deterioration reflects lower tax revenues and higher costs for bank failures, unemployment benefits and food stamps. But in the Oval Office of the White House none of […]
Eugene Hernandez of indieWIRE.com reports (5/11/09) that NPR censored its own review of the Outrage documentary for “nam[ing] politicians believed to be closeted homosexuals in the film, specifically those whose public voting record counters the civil rights of gay and lesbian Americans.” NPR cited its privacy policy as reason, but to Hernandez “it seems to […]
The North American Congress on Latin America has published (NACLA Magazine, 5-6/09) Dan Beeton’s account of how, following Evo Morales’ huge win in the Bolivian presidential referendum of last August, his opponents instigated “riots, economic sabotage and the massacre of more than 20 indigenous”–during which Bolivia threw out the U.S. ambassador for attempted spying and […]
Reliable Sources host Howard Kurtz (5/3/09) seemed startled when the New Yorker‘s Ryan Lizza argued that “just because Bush or some previous president didn’t garner as much coverage as Michelle and Barack Obama did doesn’t tell you anything about press bias one way or another.” “Are you kidding?” Kurtz exclaimed. He didn’t express any similar […]
Two newspapers have flagged some concerns about Barack Obama’s popularity, citing a new poll to raise questions about the public’s enthusiasm for White House policies so far. Both accounts, though, seem to try to hard to stretch the rather awkward poll results to match their arguments. In the Los Angeles Times (5/3/09), Peter Nicholas noted […]
USA Today had a remarkable headline (4/29/09) on a story about Pennsylvania’s Sen. Arlen Specter switching from the Republican to the Democratic Party: Leaving GOP, Specter Gives Dems a Boost in Stifling Dissent The headline writer does not seem to understand the meaning of the word “dissent,” which is the expression of opposition to reigning […]
David Swanson has noted (Consortium News, 4/23/09) that, as “much of elite U.S. punditry is backing away from torture,” the Boston Globe‘s Jeff Jacoby is bucking that trend with an April 22 column in which “he both opposes torture under all circumstances and excuses it given the current circumstances.” Jacoby’s main justification for U.S. torture […]
Demonstrating his trademark ability to move effortlessly from belligerent grandstanding to completely fictive political commentary, Fox star Bill O’Reilly claimed on April 22 that current and former attorney generals “Eric Holder and Janet Reno put the wall up between the FBI and the CIA, which led to the 9/11 attacks.” But Media Matters points out […]
