FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
The New York Times yesterday (12/3/08) described problems that President-elect Barack Obama faces in managing the transition at the Central Intelligence Agency. CJR‘s website has an item today (12/4/08) critical of the piece as a “dramatic example” of the Times‘ slanting its intelligence reporting toward sources who “don’t think that anyone who formulated or acquiesced […]
The striking new midtown Manhattan tower of the New York Times seats all of the writers and editors together in one giant dual-story open plan. But this, it seems, is not enough to forge story conversations between neighboring desks when it comes to the central issues of Americans’ civil liberties and the presidential campaign. In […]
On May 13, 2004, a novel euphemism was delivered into the public lexicon by anonymous “counterintelligence official” sources cited in a New York Times article. The piece reported the CIA had been using “a technique known as ‘water boarding,’ in which a prisoner is strapped down, forcibly pushed under water and made to believe he […]
“Guantánamo, a prison in no way ready to close, is at the heart of a conversation that almost no one seems willing to open.” Since September 27, 2007, when Karen Greenberg closed an article on TomDispatch.com with that observation, a media conversation about torture has unexpectedly taken off. The New York Times (10/4/07) published a […]
This week Josh Silver from Free Press joins CounterSpin to break down the recent FCC decision to eliminate a ban that aimed to prevent the creation of cross-industry media monopolies. Also on the program: We’ll talk to journalist John Conroy, who has covered the Chicago police department for decades and, recently, found himself out of a job, thanks to the cost-cutting of his paper’s corporate parent.
Noting that an October 26 report based on torture-based confessions “generated a lot of response,” on November 1 NPR‘s Morning Edition attempted to address the concerns voiced by FAIR activists and others. The explanation offered by reporter Anne Garrels and anchor Steve Inskeep dodged the main issues raised in FAIR’s October 30 Action Alert. But […]
Good journalists don’t base their stories on highly dubious “facts.” And they try to avoid reports that will encourage violence. Unfortunately, a recent segment on NPR’s Morning Edition (10/26/07) violated both rules. NPR Iraq correspondent Anne Garrels’ report was based around the accounts of three men who were being held prisoner by Shiite cleric Moqtada […]
This week on CounterSpin: Georgetown law professor and author David Cole about Bush’s supposed torture ban and the press reaction to it. Also on the program: Corporate media’s stock market party, with Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
This week on CounterSpin: University of Wisconsin history Professor Alfred McCoy joins to talk about the shifting narratives surrounding torture, which have emerged in tandem with recent media portrayals of torture as effective and regrettably necessary. Also on the show: Was Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s recent trip to the Middle East really as big of a success as the media is making it out to be, with author Ali Abunimah.
Writer Naomi Klein joins CounterSpin to talk about what’s missing from the current mainstream discussion of torture– namely, the history of US support for the practice around the world. Also this week: Rolling Stone contributing editor Eric Boehlert on the media and the Sami Al Arian saga.
This week on CounterSpin: We’ll talk with author and media critic Norman Solomon about getting out of Iraq. Also: Alternet contributor Onnesha Roychoudhuri discusses the Wall Street Journal’s tortured position on detainee abuse.
Several decades ago, “controversial” subjects in news media included many issues that are now well beyond controversy. During the first half of the 1960s, fierce arguments raged in print and on the airwaves about questions like: Does a black person (a “Negro,” in the language of the day) have the right to sit at a […]
In the past year and a half, the Bush administration has engaged in elaborate rhetorical gymnastics when addressing the use and authorization of torture by American forces and leaders. Under increasing fire for its conduct of the war in Iraq, the scandal of Abu Ghraib and the alarming implications of defenses such as the August […]
New memos about the Bush administration’s torture and interrogation policies in Iraq have come to light. . . Why has the media been so indifferent to this story? Also this week: the presidential commission assigned to look into intelligence failures in Iraq and elsewhere recently delivered a report that largely absolves senior Bush administration officials. John Prados of the National Security Archives discusses the commission and its report.
Mark Danner joins CounterSpin to discuss his recent New York Times article entitled “We Are All Torturers Now.”
Attempts by the Bush administration to deflect criticism over its leniency toward the harsh treatment of Iraqi and Afghan prisoners have failed to gain traction in the mainstream media.
New York Times public editor Daniel Okrent posted a response to FAIR’s May 14 Action Alert that criticized the paper’s May 14 report about CIA and Justice Department interrogation methods of Al Qaeda suspects. Though the techniques described in the article clearly seem to meet the legal definition of torture, the Times presented administration denials […]
(NOTE: Please read the update to this alert.) The New York Times, revealing the interrogation techniques the CIA is using against Al-Qaeda suspects, seemed unable to find a source who would call torture by its proper name. The May 13 article, headlined “Harsh CIA Methods Cited in Top Qaeda Interrogation,” described “coercive interrogation methods” endorsed […]
Discussion with writer Jen Banbury on her reports of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Also with week: Professor Stephen Doig on newsroom diversity.
The White House is pushing a sanitized version of what happened to Iraqi prisoners while in US custody, and journalists are following suit. Also: discussion on John Kerry and the charges against him.
