FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
NOTE: Please see the update to this alert. Mississippi Republican Senator Trent Lott’s efforts to rehabilitate his public image were given a valuable boost by the Washington Post, which ran an uncritical profile in its April 14 edition. Lott lost his position as Senate Majority Leader after comments he made at a December 2002 party […]
Resurgences of biological determinism correlate with periods of political retrenchment and destruction of social generosity. —Stephen Jay Gould, The Mismeasure of Man. ”If the black man wins,” warned a New York Times editorial on the eve of the historic 1910 fight between Jack Johnson and ”Great White Hope” Jim Jeffries, ”thousands and thousands of his […]
Throughout 2004, the “swing state” of Ohio was in the media spotlight. Prior to the election, it was a site of alleged voter fraud and suppression; as Extra! reported (12/04), the news media tended to portray the charges as partisan ploys rather than significant threats to the electoral process. Then, on November 2, Ohio became […]
In recent weeks, criticism of the shortage of women’s bylines on newspaper op-ed pages has roiled the media waters, prompted by syndicated columnist Susan Estrich’s attack on Los Angeles Times op-ed page editor Michael Kinsley for his failure to bring more women onto the Times‘ op-ed page. This issue certainly deserves discussion, but the problem […]
Mark Jones of Reuters Alertnet discusses those “forgotten humanitarian crises” that are neglected by the media. Also this week: author and researcher Jack Shaheen on how American television is now targeting Arab and Muslim Americans with bigoted stereotypes, and what can be done about it.
Media has helped legitimize US interference in Iraq elections by declaring the elections “largely successful.” Author Frank Brodhead offers a different analysis. Also on the program: popular civil rights film Eyes on the Prize is currently being held hostage by copyright laws that do not allow it to be widely distributed around the country. Tiffiniy Cheng from the non-profit group Downhill Battle discusses the effort to bring back Eyes on the Prize.
In the run-up to the pivotal 2004 presidential election, reports of an unprecedented flood of new voter registrations (especially in electoral vote-rich swing states like Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania) filled papers and newscasts in local media and the national mainstream press. But looming over this exercise in democracy was the shadow of the disputed 2000 […]
On March 16, 1827, the first African-American newspaper, Freedom’s Journal, began publication in New York. During its short but significant two-year run, Freedom’s Journal established the central role of the independent black press in the United States. In particular, the editors pledged to serve their readers in ways that the white press would not, by […]
Stephen F. Cohen, an NYU professor of Russian studies, on the media and its coverage of Putin. And Danielle Worthy of the Pacific News Service on how discussions surrounding voting rights have been largely ignored by the mainstream media.
Black Americans are “insane,” “predators,” “running wild,” “killing each other,” perpetrating “self-destructive sexual behavior and drug use,” and in need of “thundering” condemnations from leaders to halt their culture-driven recklessness. A vicious attack by far-right, race-baiting commentators like Michael Savage or Ann Coulter? No, these are routine disparagements by the New York Times‘ well-respected, progressive […]
To mark that momentous day in April when invading U.S. forces captured the Iraqi capital, my boss, second-in-command at a major cable news network, decided to buy his staff lunch. “Pizza and Salad,” he announced in an email to the newsroom, while on our air jubilant Iraqis hacked away at a statue of Saddam Hussein. […]
Media coverage of the nine Democratic candidates for their party’s nomination presents some as valid contenders, others as ineffective has-beens or laughable distractions.
When New York Times reporters such as Lloyd Garrison in the 1960s and Joseph Lelyveld in the 1980s filed news stories from Africa, editors at the Times routinely fabricated scenes and manufactured quotes for their articles. In some instances, the foreign editor colluded with the reporter to manufacture scenes that they believed would conform to […]
In April 2003, Fox News Channel‘s Bill O’Reilly hosted a fundraiser for Best Friends, a charity benefiting inner-city schoolchildren. As reported in the Washington Post (4/15/03), O’Reilly was trying to fill the time before a singing group connected with the charity, called the Best Men, was set to perform, and quipped: “Does anyone know where […]
It is appropriate for reporters and pundits to challenge, criticize and disagree with public figures of all races; indeed, it is a central part of their jobs. At the same time, media commentators should avoid name-calling, stereotypes and other distractions from substantive discussion about ideas or proposals; represent people’s ideas and statements fairly; and portray […]
The latest hire by the cable news network MSNBC— co-owned by General Electric/NBC and Microsoft— is Michael Savage, a radio talkshow host noted for his unabashed bigotry. Savage is scheduled to have his own weekly one-hour show on MSNBC beginning in March. Savage routinely refers to non-white countries as “turd world nations” and charges that […]
Six days after Trent Lott’s latest endorsement of racism, media have taken notice. But the story of Lott’s long-term involvement with racist and neo-Confederate causes is still largely untold. At a 100th birthday party for retiring Sen. Strom Thurmond on December 5, the incoming senate majority leader had this to say about Thurmond’s racist 1948 […]
“[Public broadcasting] should provide a voice for groups in the community that may otherwise be unheard…[and] help us see America whole in all its diversity.”– 1967 Carnegie Commission Report, which served as the basis for the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 An Extra! survey finds that the dominant voices on the leading public radio stations […]
If it’s “spin” to back up your arguments with bogus facts and statistics, and to dismiss numbers that don’t fit in with your preconceptions, then Bill O’Reilly‘s Fox News Channel show isn’t, as he repeatedly claims, a “no-spin zone”—it’s Spin City. During an interview with National Organization for Women president Kim Gandy (O’Reilly Factor, 2/5/02), […]
On an average weeknight, ABC World News Tonight, CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News are tuned in by approximately one-quarter of television-viewing homes in the U.S. (Nielsen Media Research, 2001)—about two-thirds of the U.S. public that claims to follow current events regularly (Pew Research Center, 2000). In 22 minutes the newscasts deliver snapshots of […]
