FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
The United States has reportedly carried out nine drone attacks in the last few weeks in Yemen, generating headlines about the targeting and killing of suspected Al-Qaeda militants in the impoverished country. But how can media know for sure who is being killed? The uptick in attacks is apparently related to the alleged terrorist chatter […]
The Boston bombings came to be understood as a return of 9/11—not in the scope of the attacks or the cost in innocent lives, but as a reminder of a certain type of danger.
Did Barack Obama’s National Defense University speech signal a sea change in White House terrorism policy? That depended on who was doing the listening. We’ll talk with Pardiss Kebriaei of the Center for Constitutional Rights.
And Bob McChesney talks about his new book Digital Disconnect, and why understanding capitalism is essential to understanding the development of the internet.
Early this spring—in a five-page spread headlined “So, Who Can We Kill?”—Time (4/1/13) reported on pressures putting “Obama and his drone war on the defensive.” Notably, much of the article focused on the Authorization for Use of Military Force that zipped through Congress three days after 9/11. During more than a decade of Washington’s wars, […]
This week on CounterSpin: The Boston bombings were labeled as terrorist attacks almost from the start. But what does that label mean, and how is it used? We’ll talk to Cal State University of Chico professor Beau Grosscup about how the term is used—and perhaps misused.
Also on CounterSpin today, much of the town of West, Texas was destroyed in an explosion at the West Fertilizer plant on April 18.Famed EPA whistleblower Hugh Kaufman joins us to critique media portrayals of the disaster as merely a matter of regulatory oversights.
Why was the “Saudi national,” a young man who was injured at the Boston Marathon bombing, considered a suspect? Enter “terrorism expert” Steve Emerson, who continues to make the media rounds despite a checkered history.
“TERROR RETURNS” ran across USA Today‘s front page (4/16/13) in inch-high letters. Below, the story it referred to had a smaller headline: “That Post-9/11 Quiet? It’s Over.” Rick Hampson and Chuck Raasch’s story began: The blasts on Boylston Street were felt across the nation, shaking and sometimes shattering a fragile hope—formed slowly in the years […]
The French military commenced Operation Serval against separatist rebels in Northern Mali on January 11, 2013. The air and ground intervention was undertaken with the cooperation and support of the United States, as well as several European and African states. U.S. press reporting has provided a simplistic account of the intervention as a heroic effort […]
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin051112 Gareth Porter and Pamela Brown @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin051112.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: The one year anniversary of the NAVY Seal raid that killed Osama bin Laden brought us a prime time behind the scenes at the White House account on NBC, leaks from bin Laden intelligence files about his new terror schemes and […]
ABC World News was responsible for a flagrantly propagandistic report about Iran on January 31. They’re still at it. At the top of the March 5 report, anchor Diane Sawyer announced that Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were talking about “the growing nuclear threat from Iran.” Sawyer warned that it might be […]
I think most sensible people understand that the current uproar in Afghanistan over the desecration of the Quran isn’t really just about the defiling of a holy book. But if there’s sense in the world, there’s also nonsense. Enter Tom Friedman’s New York Times column today (2/29/12): U.S. troops accidentally burned some Qurans, and President […]
(UPDATE: The Times public editor has notified FAIR about his email response to readers critical of the February 6 story. You can read it at the FAIR Blog). In two stories this month, New York Times journalists allowed anonymous government officials to smear critics as terrorists and terrorist sympathizers–a shocking violation of the paper’s explicit […]
The release of a United Nations report on Iran’s nuclear program in early November was, according to much of the corporate media, the long-awaited confirmation of something many outlets had already treated as established fact: Iran is working on a nuclear weapon. You would have a hard time figuring out that the report from the […]
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin102811 John Feffer and Heidi Garrett Peltier @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin102811.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: When Barack Obama ordered armed military advisors to central Africa to help regional officials fight the brutal Lord’s Resistance Army and its leader Joseph Kony, few journalists asked why or why now. The fact that the LRA is bad seemed […]
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin101411 Arun Gupta and Jasmin Ramsey @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin101411.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: Did the corporate media turn on the Occupy Wall Street protests? When the protests started, the media story was a familiar one—the press ignored them, then derided activists for being leaderless, bongo pounding know-nothings. But then something happened, and suddenly anti-Wall […]
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin090911 Katie Galloway and Yousef Munayyer @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin090911.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: Two men were arrested at the 2008 Republican National Convention and charged with a firebombing plot. For the FBI and headline writers, violent domestic terrorists had been thwarted before the act. The new film Better This World takes another look at […]
When someone acts out in reality the violent fantasies that are far-right bloggers’ stock in trade, they pretend to have nothing to do with it.
“Not Enough Evidence to Link 9/11 and Cancer, a Federal Report Says.” The New York Times headline (7/27/11) delivered a devastating blow to many Ground Zero first responders, as well as to New Yorkers who lived and worked near the long-smoldering wreckage. After years of fighting for federal compensation to cover illnesses resulting from exposure […]
Under the headline “Nations Hope Veil Lifts From Libya’s History of Terrorism,” John Burns writes in today’s New York Times (8/30/11): Television footage of the only man convicted in the Lockerbie bombing lying in bed, purportedly comatose with advanced prostate cancer at his Tripoli home, has provided a focal point for a question asked with […]
[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 […]
