Rallying Around Their Racist Friend
How did prestigious journalists defend their cozy relationship with a well-known bigot?
Racism Is to Be Expected From Don Imus
Why do CBS, NBC and top media pundits seem to feel no embarrassment over associating with Don Imus’s racism?
Mahmood Mamdani on Darfur, Karen Greenberg on Guantánamo
Columbia professor Mahmood Mamdani joins CounterSpin to discuss how the U.S. press oversimplifies the story of Darfur. Also this week: Karen Greenberg describes a recent trip to Guantánamo and shares about her recent essay on the experience.
Obamamania
The day after he formally announced he was a candidate for the 2008 presidential race, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) took a shot at the media. Alluding to the perception that he avoids taking strong positions on important political issues, Obama told reporters (Washington Post, 2/12/07): “The problem is that that’s not what you guys have […]
Elizabeth de la Vega on domestic spying, Kristal Brent Zook on Duke rape investigation
How are journalists handling the confusion coming out of the White House regarding the warrantless wiretapping program that spied on US citizens, with former federal prosecutor and author Elizabeth de la Vega. Also on the show: Writer and journalism professor Kristal Brent Zook discusses how the media bungled coverage of the high-profile sexual assault investigation involving three Duke University lacrosse players.
Rick Perlstein on Conservatives & Martin Luther King, Sarah Olson on Watada Subpoena
This week on CounterSpin we’ll talk to writer Rick Perlstein about why “Conservatives Still Don’t Get Martin Luther King.” Also on the program: Can journalists be forced to help the military make its case just for doing their job, with independent reporter Sarah Olson.
Sarah Anderson on Augusto Pinochet, Rafael Olmeda on NBC-Telemundo
Sarah Anderson of the Institute for Policy Studies joins CounterSpin to discuss how U.S. press has remembered Augusto Pinochet and his legacy. Also on the show: While the U.S. Latino population continues to grow, the number of local Spanish language television newscasts will soon be shrinking, per a recent announcement by NBC Universal. We’ll talk about what it means to lose local news with Rafael Olmeda, the president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.
Glen Ford on Barack Obama, Chris Slevin on trade & the elections
Glen Ford of the Black Agenda Report joins to discuss media coverage of Obama and what is missing. Also on the show: Elite media, the midterm elections, and “free trade” agreements, with Chris Slevin of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch.
Trent Lott’s Redemption Song
Sen. Trent Lott’s return to the ranks of the Senate Republican leadership has been broadly covered as a story of political redemption. In this scenario, the once-fallen Senate majority leader, having apologized and atoned for his sins—in this case, praising the racist 1948 presidential candidacy of the late Strom Thurmond—is restored to the body’s top […]
John Nichols on midterm elections, Clarissa Martinez on Latino voters
What is really behind the Democratic victories this midterm election, with the Nation’s John Nichols. Also on the show: Clarissa Martinez of the National Council of La Raza joins to discuss the impact of Latino voters and why we aren’t hearing more about it from the media.
Study Finds Lack of Balance, Diversity, Public at PBS NewsHour
A new FAIR study finds that the NewsHour fails to provide either balance or diversity of perspectives—or a true public-minded alternative to its corporate competition.
Are You on the NewsHour’s Guestlist?
In 2005, Kenneth Tomlinson, chair of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting—and thus the person in charge of disbursing federal public broadcasting funds—sparked controversy with his aggressive push to move PBS and NPR to the right. In a series of public statements, Tomlinson, armed with a dubious study of PBS shows he commissioned from a right-wing […]
FAIR’s Original 1990 NewsHour Study
[Note: This piece is a sidebar to “Are You on the NewsHour’s Guestlist?“] Following FAIR’s landmark 1989 study of ABC’s Nightline, “Are You on the Nightline Guestlist?” (Extra!, 1-2/89), FAIR was urged to compare Nightline’s narrow, elite roster of guests with those of other news programs. In 1990, FAIR published a new study, “All the […]
Never Apologize
[Note: this piece is a sidebar to Star Power Trumps History in AIDS Coverage] A study published in August in the Journal of the American Medical Association (8/9/06) found that sub-Saharan Africans are better at following drug regimens than North Americans. The authors hoped the findings would lay to rest the myth that Africans are […]
Live vs. Taped Sources
[Note: This piece is a sidebar to “Are You on the NewsHour’s Guestlist?”] When FAIR published its 1990 study, the NewsHour criticized it for not including taped sources; then-executive producer Lester Crystal argued (Broadcasting, 5/28/90) that taped segments “are a significant part of the program and have included much of the diversity [FAIR] refers to”—suggesting […]
Sidebar: ‘Can’t We Give This a Rest?’
[Note: this piece is a sidebar to Katrina’s Vanishing Victims] Of the broadcast network news anchors, NBC’s Brian Williams distinguished himself for taking the plight of New Orleans’ poor residents to heart. Shortly after NBC’s Bob Faw (9/1/05) declared that “disasters do not treat everyone alike” and called Katrina “a catastrophe shedding light on class, […]
The False Debate Over ‘Broken Borders’
Since 2005, much of the mainstream media has been rife with coverage of what has been called “immigration reform”—a policy debate over what kind of immigration legislation would be passed among a narrow range of options. One pole of the legislative debate was the McCain-Kennedy proposal, which would have created a temporary or “guest” worker […]
CNN’s Immigration Problem
CNN anchor Lou Dobbs has been a high-profile voice in the immigration debate, using his show to rail against the country’s “broken borders” virtually every evening on Lou Dobbs Tonight. His openly crusading advocacy journalism has raised eyebrows and put CNN president Jonathan Klein on the defensive; as Klein told the New York Times (3/29/06), […]
‘Our Media Refuse to Name This Reality’
COUNTERSPIN INTERVIEW Jonathan Kozol is the author of many books about education, among them Amazing Grace and Savage Inequalities. In his new book, The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America, Kozol draws a grim picture of U.S. public schools, particularly those in poor urban neighborhoods. He graphically reports on the […]
Philly Papers Defend Non-Coverage of Mumia Victory
Late in the day on Monday, December 5, 2005, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia issued a surprise ruling in the appeal of Pennsylvania’s most famous prisoner: Philadelphia journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal, who has been on the state’s death row for 24 years, following his conviction for the murder of white Philadelphia police officer […]
