FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
It sounded like it, but it was just Bill O’Reilly channeling Beck’s Soros/MoveOn/Big Labor paranoia, minus the chalkboard: On Wednesday in New York City, there was another far-left demonstration as a bunch of people marched on Wall Street. Why? We aren’t exactly sure. What we do know is that these folks are zealots who are […]
A full-page ad in USA Today reminded me that today is the debut of Erin Burnett’s CNN show OutFront. Burnett gained a following at CNBC, and came to the attention of many conservatives with a report on the Today show (7/17/07) that managed to touch on almost every conservative myth about the economy, earning praise […]
At the top of Meet the Press yesterday (9/25/11), NBC anchor David Gregory announced one of the topics to come: Is the president’s plan basic fairness or class warfare? As with too many other media debates, an absurd proposition—that returning tax rates for certain wealthy people to levels seen in the 1980s and 1990s is […]
Charles Krauthammer‘s column today in the Washington Post (“Return of the Real Obama,” 9/23/11) reveals the Barack Obama, who’s apparently been hidden away for the past few years: In a 2008 debate, Charlie Gibson asked Barack Obama about his support for raising capital-gains taxes, given the historical record of government losing net revenue as a […]
Yesterday’s AP “factcheck” (9/20/11) of Barack Obama’s speech about raising taxes on the super-wealthy cleverly debunked an argument that Obama didn’t make. No one is saying that all millionaires pay a lower rate than their secretaries–Warren Buffett drew attention because he said he did, and there are undoubtedly other multi-millionaires in the same boat. As […]
Yesterday, Barack Obama made a speech outlining his deficit reduction plan—focusing attention on a variety of spending cuts and tax increases. The Associated Press, as is their habit, issued a “factcheck” piece by Stephen Ohlemacher that managed to bungle the issues involved, making it sound as if Obama was wrong about the taxes that wealthy […]
There’s a category of media criticism we’ve often called “Seen and Not Heard.” It’s usually a protest that’s covered via a photo and caption, with no accompanying story to inform readers about what seems like an important issue. I came across this today in the Washington Post (9/16/11)–the caption headline (not pictured here) is “Nurses […]
When a super-wealthy guy like Warren Buffett talks about taxing the rich– in the pages of the New York Times, no less– it gets the rest of the media talking. But that doesn’t mean that talk will get things right. Here’s one example from ABC World News (8/15/11): BIANNA GOLODRYGA (ABC NEWS): Much of Buffett’s […]
There was one moment in last Thursday’s GOP presidential debate that seemed to sum things up. The candidates were asked if they would agree to a long-term budget/deficit reduction deal that was tilted 10 to 1 in favor of spending cuts over tax increases. This would be an unbelievably favorable outcome for anti-tax Republicans. Every […]
Fox host Bill O’Reilly laughs off any calls for increasing government spending to help create jobs. Last week he derided Paul Krugman for demanding more stimulus spending. And this guy teaches economics at Princeton University? Unbelievable. People like Bill O’Reilly don’t pay any mind to the fancy pants Nobel Prize committee that gave Krugman one […]
“2 Republicans Open Door to Increases in Revenue” reads a headline in Monday‘s New York Times. The suggestion is that a few Republicans are walking away from the the party’s no-tax-hike orthodoxy. That much is clear from John Broder’s lead: Two senior Republicans said Sunday that they might be open to raising new government revenue […]
“Connecticut is closing out its most activist, liberal legislative session in memory,” Peter Applebome reports in the New York Times (6/8/11), with “the largest tax increase in Connecticut history” as the centerpiece of his case. “They decided to tear up the antitax, budget-slashing, confront-the-unions script that has characterized state legislative sessions elsewhere,” Applebome writes, noting […]
Corporate media coverage of tax/budget issues often seems to be an argument between right-leaning Democrats and conservative Republicans. In the midst of a national discussion of budget deficits, raising taxes on the wealthy is considered a non-starter–even though most Americans would support it. The front page of the Washington Post on Saturday (5/14/11) offered a […]
New York Times business reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin wrote a piece on Sunday (5/15/11) that tried to advance the argument that $250,000 actually isn’t that much money to make in a year. The complaint is that politicians who advocate raising tax rates on income above $250,000 have chosen an arbitrary dividing line–above it you’re rich, […]
Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan (R.-Wisc.) is used to being celebrated by pundits for his “courageous,” “bold,” “serious” budget proposals (even though his numbers don’t add up). Indeed, Ryan has become a genuine media darling. So it must have been a little surprising to find himself being booed earlier this week, at a town hall meeting […]
Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank seems to like to mock progressives almost as much as he likes to go after Glenn Beck. So it’s no surprise that he turned out to “cover” the unveiling of a budget plan by the Congressional Progressive Caucus (4/13/11). Milbank seems to think that little explanation is needed—these crazy ideas […]
There’s been plenty of talk about NBC‘s decision to skip the news about General Electric‘s ability to make huge profits and pay zero taxes. Now, it’s possible that everyoneat NBC misplaced theircopies of the March 25 New York Times, but the GE story finally made it to the NBC Nightly News yesterday–in a report that […]
In a mostly informative “news analysis” (“Ohio’s Anti-Union Law Is Tougher Than Wisconsin’s,” New York Times, 4/1/11) comparing new anti-union laws that restrict collective bargaining rights in Ohio and Wisconsin, New York Times labor and workplace correspondent Steven Greenhouse seems at one point to adopt the framing and language of anti-labor politicians and pundits: Moreover, […]
The Washington Post‘s Paul Farhi has a piece today (3/30/11) about NBC‘s non-coverage of the revelation that part-owner General Electric is making piles of money–and paying no federal taxes.I’m quoted in it. Farhi breaks it down, and gets an NBC response: It’s the kind of accountability journalism that makes readers raise an eyebrow, if it […]
You may have heard about the New York Times report (3/25/11) explaining that General Electric made $14 billion in worldwide profits in 2010–and paid the federal government exactly nothing in taxes. The Times explained this is”based on an aggressive strategy that mixes fierce lobbying for tax breaks and innovative accounting that enables it to concentrate […]
