FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
Tells the story of one unemployed lab technician widely cited in media reports as an example of the “angry white male” who ushered in the Republican victory last November. When Hirshman followed up on the story for EXTRA!she discovered that Sidney Tracy voted Democrat not Republican and actually blamed corporate downsizing — not women and […]
It’s become a TV ritual: Every year in mid-January, around the time of Martin Luther King’s birthday, we get perfunctory network news reports about “the slain civil rights leader.” The remarkable thing about this annual review of King’s life is that several years — his last years — are totally missing, as if flushed down a memory hole.
When the New Republic devoted almost an entire issue (10/31/94) to a debate with the authors of The Bell Curve, editor Andrew Sullivan justified the decision by writing, “The notion that there might be resilient ethnic differences in intelligence is not, we believe, an inherently racist belief.” In fact, the idea that some races are […]
The New York Times Book Review (10/16/94) ran a lengthy piece that had a simple message: It’s all right to believe that some races are genetically inferior to others. That was the underlying theme of Malcolm W. Browne’s review of three books: the widely publicized The Bell Curve, by Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray, Philippe […]
Martin Peretz said blacks had “cultural deficiencies” at a March 21 breakfast hosted by the American Jewish Committee. With minimal differences in phrasing, his remarks were subsequently reported in both Newsday (3/22/94) and the Washington Post (3/28/94). It seemed to me a good opportunity to play the “blanket condemnation” game in reverse. We’re all familiar […]
From dioxin to Whitewater, from Rodney King to Reaganomics, Rush Limbaugh has a finely honed ability to twist and distort reality.
How did mass media give people the false impression that crime was climbing drastically? How did they justify portraying steady crime rates as a “scary orgy” that demands immediate action? An examination of U.S. News’ special report on crime is revealing, illustrating the major themes, distortions and self-contradictions of much of mainstream crime coverage in 1993 and 1994.
Rev. Jesse Jackson’s recent comments about how blacks can take action against crime in their communities received an unusually favorable response from mainstream media outlets that are usually cool, if not hostile, toward the civil rights leader. But the selective emphasis of many press accounts distorted the content and context of Jackson’s remarks, revealing more […]
The latest backlash against top-selling but controversial rap music has hit the airwaves. The latest controversy centers on so-called “gangsta rap”—a term used by mainstream media in the late ‘80s to describe rap music, such as that of the group NWA (Niggaz With Attitude), whose lyrics often focus on the subject of urban violence. Teen-oriented […]
Imagine that a small country is invaded in 1975 by a powerful neighbor well over 100 times its size, a major recipient of U.S. military and economic aid. About one-third of the population—over 200,000—people die as a result of the invasion, politically created starvation, and the ongoing occupation. Despite the atrocities and numerous U.N. resolutions […]
The “Rodney King riots” in Los Angeles last year prompted some journalists to think critically about their failure to fully cover the urban problems that lay behind the unrest. At the time, MacNeil/Lehrer’s David Gergen (5/1/92) admitted that there “has really been almost a conspiracy of silence within our political leadership and often with our […]
For most mainstream papers, police reporting means relying mainly on police sources—a practice that contributes to the undercoverage of police brutality. The impact that an independent reporter can have by listening to unofficial sources points out the importance of alternative media —and the influence such outlets can have on the mainstream. On Nov. 15, 1992, […]
The assassination in April of African National Congress leader Chris Hani illustrated this truism yet again. While South African blacks reacted with rage and anguish to the killing of a popular and eloquent leader, U.S. media were more likely to respond: What will this mean for us white folks? For the murder of a major […]
A study of National Public Radio commissioned by FAIR indicates that public radio’s leading news programs fail– in reporting, analysis and commentary– to reflect the diversity of the public. The study, conducted by Charlotte Ryan of the Boston College Media Research and Action Project, examined transcripts of all weekday broadcasts of All Things Considered and […]
Recent media coverage of immigration has been dominated by anti-immigrant voices; immigrant and refugee rights advocates have been slighted. In this often one-sided discussion, no group has enjoyed more exposure than the anti-immigrant Federation for American Immigration Retorm (also abbreviated as “FAIR,” not to be confused with the media watch group FAIR). Media outlets have […]
An op-ed in the Nov. 11, 1992 New York Post worried that 25 percent of African-American New Yorkers rely on black-owned WLIB and “militant black weeklies” for their news—not on “mainstream media whose perspective could counter extremist views.” While FAIR encourages news consumers to get the widest selection of sources possible, we’re also worried about […]
The June 3 Jerusalem Foundation fundraiser featured an all-star media cast. Introductions were made by Martin Peretz, editor-in-chief of the New Republic. Concluding remarks were given by Mort Zuckerman, editor-in-chief of U.S. News & World Report. One keynote speaker was Fouad Ajami, CBS News‘ main analyst on Middle Eastern politics. The other keynoter was former […]
Bill Clinton’s remarks about rapper Sister Souljah were part of a clear, if some what peculiar, political strategy: identify those voting blocs most likely to support you, and alienate them. This strategy was outlined in a David Broder/Thomas Edsall Washington Post piece (6/12/92) just before the Rainbow Coalition conference: “Some top advisers to Clinton argue that…he […]
Question: When does a drought that threatens millions of human lives become news that fits the front page of the New York Times? Answer: When animals die. That’s the rule New York Times editors apparently followed in the week of July 5-12, 1992, when they published five substantial stories in eight days on countries ravaged […]
Portrayed as either billionaires, bombers, or belly dancers, Bedouin bandits or bundles in black—Arabs are hardly ever seen as ordinary people practicing law, driving taxis or healing the sick. Featured since the early 1900s in more than 500 feature films and scores of television programs, Arabs still lack a human face. The typical screen Arab can […]
