FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
The usual criticisms of the Iowa caucuses–that the votes of a small, demographically unrepresentative slice of America gobble up too much airtime–are basically correct. As David Sirota noted in Salon (1/3/12): The same journalism industry that pleads poverty to justify cutting big city newspapers’ editorial staffs, gutting coverage of state legislatures and city councils, and […]
Washington Post reporter Nia-Malika Henderson reports today (1/3/12) that Republican candidate Ron Paul really says some weird things out on the campaign trail. His appearances start out normal… And then, for the next 45 minutes or so, he outlines a view of the world so bleak it would make Chicken Little sound like an optimist. […]
“Ron Paul Ignored by the Media? Not So Much” was the headline on a National Journal post yesterday (12/21/11). “The Texan’s campaign has raised millions of dollars to combat the alleged media conspiracy that, they claim, is out to destroy the candidate the media fears most,” the Journal‘s Sarah Mimms reported. “There is just one […]
The Monday broadcast of CBS Evening News (12/19/11) began with big news, with anchor Scott Pelley announcing: The secretary of Defense says tonight that the United States will not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon. In an interview with CBS News, Leon Panetta says that despite efforts to disrupt their nuclear program, the Iranians […]
The Washington Post‘s series of candidate profiles continues. Today it’s Ron Paul’s turn. In Joel Achenbach’s main piece (12/15/11), readers learn, in the lead paragraph, that Paul is not the standard presidential candidate–he lacks the factory-built appearance of Mitt Romney or Rick Perry. He’s thin, bony, a bantam rooster. Thankfully, the rest of the piece […]
Washington Post ombud Patrick Pexton dedicated his column this weekend (8/29/11) to addressing complaints about the skimpy coverage of Republican presidential contender Ron Paul. It’s hard to argue with the numbers he’s gathered: Still, the Post‘s coverage of Paul looks thin compared with its stories on Bachmann. In the past six months, the Post has […]
There is little reason to care about what the polls say right now about who’s leading in the Republican presidential nomination. But the media obviously think otherwise, hence this headline in the Washington Post yesterday (8/25/11): Romney Loses GOP Front-Runner Status The “news” is that Rick Perry is leading in a new Gallup Poll. But […]
One of the strangest comments post- Iowa straw poll came from reporter Kelly O’Donnell on NBC Nightly News (8/14/11): Both Pawlenty’s exit and Perry’s launch consumed political oxygen that typically would have gone to the straw poll’s actual winner, Congresswoman Bachmann, who appeared on all five Sunday morning talk shows, including Meet the Press. I’m […]
As we’ve said plenty of times before, one of the main jobs of campaign journalists is winnowing the field of candidates– which must come as a relief to voters who don’t want to have more of a say in the process. Before the results of the Iowa straw poll rolled in this weekend, there were […]
In the New York Times corrections box (6/7/11): An article on Monday about Rick Santorum, a former senator from Pennsylvania who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, omitted the name of one of the other declared candidates, who number six, not five. Ron Paul, a Republican congressman from Texas, is also running. One of the […]
The New York Times‘s Michael Shear (4/27/11) has this odd reference to Ron Paul‘s presidential campaign: Surveys suggest that Mr. Paul’s support remains low. In most recent polls, Mr. Paul receives just over 5 percent of the support from potential Republican voters. That is similar to the level of support he received in contests four […]
The first role of the corporate press in an election cycle is to weed out candidates who they deem nonviable. This usually means choosing not to cover candidates whose ideas that fall outside the Beltway conventional wisdom (e.g., Dennis Kucinich), or those who reporters decide have no real chance of winning the nomination. The speculation […]
