FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
When Chinese swimmer Ye Shiwen won gold medals in the 200- and 400-meter individual medleys in London, she knocked a second off the world record, and five seconds off her personal best. But rather than applaud and admire her accomplishments, the media threw doubt and suspicion on Shiwen’s wins, leveling evidence-free accusations of drug use […]
It’s been 20 years since a female journalist has been chosen to moderate a presidential debate. Yes, women have held the post for vice presidential debates, but that’s hardly the real deal. ABC News’ Carole Simpson was the last woman to lob questions at presidential candidates, back in 1992. What is going on? Well, I […]
When the Paycheck Fairness Act failed in the Senate on June 5, journalists reported the story. But instead of focusing on the consequences of the act’s defeat, and how this could impact women’s lives, most major news outlets treated that as secondary to the political question of why it failed—even if those reasons had nothing […]
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin060812 Fatima Goss Graves and Alexis Baden Mayer @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin060812.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: The Paycheck Fairness Act, aimed at making it easier to fight gender-based wage discrimination, failed to muster the votes to break Republicans’ filibuster in the Senate. Sadly, the measure also failed to muster journalists to address the underlying problem, […]
Recent years have seen much rallying around “traditional” journalism in the face of its supposedly imminent demise, including the mythologizing of pre-Internet news media as a force of social cohesion. Lamenting the “culture of observing events from ‘inside’ a community,” Washington Post columnist and associate editor David Ignatius (5/2/10) contended: When the information landscape was […]
Give the corporate media cookies for finally getting pronouns right when reporting on transgender people. That only took dozens of years. Now if we could curb the media fixation on genitalia, we might be really getting somewhere. Because when it comes to covering transgender issues, media are still asking all the wrong questions, and framing […]
In mid-February, Congress convened an all-male panel to discuss “religious freedom” (read: birth control), and rejected a woman who attempted to testify. The next day, a gaggle of only men appeared on the MSNBC talkshow Morning Joe (2/17/12) to consider the atrocity of an all-male panel weighing women’s reproductive rights. The irony was lost on […]
More than 140 U.S. military women have died in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the military has officially placed nearly 50 of these deaths in the ambiguous “non-combat” category (Democracy Now!, 7/23/08). Some women’s veterans and advocacy groups, such as VETWOW (Veteran Women Organizing Women), say at least 20 of these non-combat deaths are suspicious, and […]
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin111811 Julie Berebitsky and Jim Horn @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin111811.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: Sexual harassment has been in the news recently because of allegations that GOP presidential hopeful Herman Cain sexually harassed women in the 1990s. But what does the way media discuss sexual harassment tell us about how we view women, especially working […]
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin072911 Devin Burghart and Julianna Escobedo Shepherd @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin072911.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: The US media narrative equating terrorism with Islam was on embarrassing display last week following the Norwegian terror attacks, a story which raised issues about right-wing extremism, and the links between violent speech and violent actions. We’ll speak with Devin […]
MSNBC host Ed Schultz has been suspended without pay for a week for calling right-wing pundit Laura Ingraham a “right-wing slut” on his radio show. Schultz apologized on MSNBC last night, calling his words “terribly vile.” This is not a new thing at MSNBC. In 2006, Keith Olbermann did a bit about Paris Hilton being […]
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin010711 Bob Parry and Nancy Lockhart @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin010711.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: the Tea Party takes power in Washington. The new Republican majority in the House of Representatives brought a certain type of political theater—giant gavels, the reading of the Constitution, and John Boehner’s tears. But there is another kind of theater to […]
When it comes to political books, the New York Times Book Review and the C-SPAN book show After Words share an exceedingly narrow view of whose books deserve review—and who is fit to discuss them. A FAIR study found that these important media venues for discussion of newly published books were overwhelmingly dominated by white […]
The Insight Center for Community Economic Development (3/8/10) released a stunning report about the wealth gap for women of color: Single black women have a median wealth of $100 and Hispanic women of $120—dramatically lower than white men ($43,800), white women ($41,500) or black men ($7,900). The median wealth for single white women in their […]
Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: A new law in Utah says women who miscarry, in some cases, should go to jail. You may have seen some coverage, but are journalists asking the right questions about the law’s implications, and is there a bigger story here that’s being missed? We’ll hear from executive director of […]
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin091109 Mark Cook and Diana Duarte @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin091109.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: The media lie that will not die about the Honduras coup is that ousted president Manuel Zelaya was attempting to change the Honduran constitution in order to extend his time in office. But there is nothing new about this current set […]
Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: Some prominent feminist and liberal voices have recently lent their endorsement to the ongoing U.S. war in Afghanistan, based on the idea that the war is an effort to improve the lives of Afghan women and girls. That was a major argument at the war’s onset, but how does […]
Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: Barack Obama’s recent trip to Africa gave the press corps a chance to opine predictably on Obama’s “unique role” as a “son of Africa” who was specially suited to “tell African leaders hard truths”. It should’ve also been a chance for a serious look at the substance of U.S. […]
Of all the supposed “pork” in the proposed economic stimulus bill, perhaps none got so much media attention as the provision to extend family planning to more low-income women. As the House struggled to pass the legislation, Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) issued a press release (1/23/09) claiming that the plan “includes taxpayer funding for […]
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin020609 Ken Silverstein and Miranda Spencer @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin020609.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: “If it weren’t for those darn tax problems, Tom Daschle was the perfect choice as Obama’s Secretary of Health & Human Services,” seems to be the establishment refrain over the rise and fall of the Daschle nomination. “No one knows the […]
