FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
Coverage of the “tug of war” between Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo over charter schools tells us more about political alliances than it does about education. And what’s the real story behind the right’s claim that the White House was planning to send government monitors into newsrooms?
Journalists and pundits say Vladimir Putin is off his rocker, and the proof is his invasion of Crimea, and his crazy suggestion that the US has, on several occasions, acted lawlessly. We’ll talk with Robert Parry of Consortium News, about the US, Russia and the power struggle over Ukraine.
Also on the show: Barack Obama announces a new initiative with the goal of improving opportunities for black and Latino boys and men, with a big emphasis on the role of fathers. For many media, the only question seems to be ‘why’d he wait so long?’ But there are deeper questions to consider about the effort called My Brother’s Keeper. We’ll hear from Luke Charles Harris of Vassar College about that.
It tells you a lot about our media and society that no one even expects O’Reilly to apologize for his slur of the left.
A timely documentary about government surveillance of the civil rights movement is airing on PBS stations tonight–but not in Washington DC.
An interesting thing happened the last few days: A football player was attacked by the same, predictable racism that athletes usually have to endure when they speak out…and he won. Well, he won the game. His team, the Seattle Seahawks, are going to the Super Bowl and (despite a $7,875 fine from the National Football […]
Bill O’Reilly’s message on Martin Luther King Jr. Day was that blacks “have a much tougher time succeeding in the marketplace” because they don’t “study and work hard.”
The New York Times offers readers a lengthy obituary for racist New York talk radio icon Bob Grant. But can they call a racist a racist?
It’s important to note what pushed this episode into the spotlight in a culture desensitized to political scandals: A white Canadian mayor smoked crack. And our collective jaws were expected to hit the floor when we saw the “evidence”: video of Ford smoking with a group of black men in a Toronto housing project.
The Washington Post warns Democrats not to veer too far to the left, CBS helps Amazon.com with some drone PR, and we take a look at the media hype about the so-called “knockout game.”
The ease at which violent criminal tendencies can be attached to youth–particularly black youth–is a dangerous habit of media.
From its 1950s founding, when it campaigned for the racist order in the American South and South Africa, to recent years with “scientific racists” who say black people are less intelligent than other groups, the National Review has always been significantly defined by racism.
Hannity also acts as a sort of one-man fire brigade, rushing to extinguish accusations of anti-black racism, and defending, exonerating or rehabilitating the racists behind the words and deeds.
Right-wing media ironically, but unsurprisingly, followed George Zimmerman’s lead by using stereotypes to anticipate violence—in this case, from Trayvon Martin’s supporters, who were expected to engage in violent riots in the verdict’s aftermath.
Media are flooding with coverage commemorating the 1963 March on Washington and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s iconic ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. But corporate media’s King says more about their own self-image and desire for ‘post-racialism’ than about King’s actual ideas or the actual state of U.S. race relations. We’ll separate myth from reality with Gary Younge, author of the new book, The Speech: The Story Behind Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dream.
Also on CounterSpin today, media tell us that the new Common Core educational standards are opposed by a frightening coalition of critics on the left and right. Like many of the debates over public schools, Common Core is made to sound like common sense: Let’s set higher standards and help America’s schoolchildren succeed. But what’s obscured by that picture? We’ll talk to education writer and activist Susan Ohanian.
It’s not everyday that a syndicated columnist endorses racial profiling. But that’s exactly what the Washington Post’s Richard Cohen did in the wake of the George Zimmerman verdict.
With the tagline “The Magazine for Men,” it is almost unsurprising that Port magazine, a British quarterly, celebrated “A New Golden Age: The Increasing Importance of Print Media” by putting six white men on its cover. Not surprising, but also not excusable.
Concealing a Spy Who Hid Torture; Misremembering Thatcher; PBS’s Debate on Social Security
The controversy over Heritage’s dubious immigration report led Bill Keller of the New York Times to write a column about the big lessons of this scandal. And the first lesson? Think tanks on “both sides” are up to no good.
Despite the fact that you can’t turn on the TV without being reminded about the existence of superhero movies, the original medium for superhero stories —comic books—has been in significant decline over the past few years. They’ve tried to bring in new readers by diversifying their line-up: DC Comics rebooted everything with its “New 52!” […]
