FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
On May 31, the Israeli military attacked a flotilla of boats full of civilians attempting to deliver humanitarian supplies to the Gaza Strip. Nine of the activists on board were killed, though some details remain sketchy due to Israel’s confiscation of all photo and video records of the assault. Much of the U.S. media coverage […]
It’s not that surprising that some in the corporate media, driven either by admiration for ousted Gen. Stanley McChrystal or disdain for Rolling Stone‘s scoop, have rushed in to defend or explain away his behavior. In Saturday’s Washington Post (6/26/10), anonymous military sources tell the newspaper that the comments from McChrystal and his staff were […]
Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin, Gen. Stanley McChrystal is out as commander of troops in Afghanistan after derisive remarks he and aides made about the White House and the war to Rolling Stone magazine. But in all the folderol about insubordination and civilian command, are reporters missing the real story? We’ll talk to Joshua […]
The media firestorm over the Rolling Stone profile (6/22/10) of General Stanley McChrystal mostly missed the real point of the article, which was a damning portrait of the U.S. war in Afghanistan. Much of the media coverage stressed the criticism and insults hurled by McChrystal and his staff at various administration figures. Some of these […]
The Washington Post (6/23/10) allows an anonymous voice inside the White House to spill the beans on the decision to replace Gen. Stanley McChrystal with Gen. David Petraeus: Said a senior administration official, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal White House deliberations: “It’s as seamless as it could be, […]
There’s been a discussion (some of it neatly summarized on the Daily Show) of elite journalists’ reaction to the explosive comments made by Gen. Stanley McChrystal and his staffers to Rolling Stone freelancer Michael Hastings. One admission came via a Politico story, captured by NYU’s Jay Rosen (6/24/10): And as a freelance reporter, Hastings would […]
Today’s Los Angeles Times (6/16/10) has this headline: Debate Grows Over Afghanistan Withdrawal Plan The lead: Recent setbacks in Afghanistan have intensified debate over the wisdom of the Obama administration’s plan to begin withdrawing U.S. military forces next summer and highlighted reservations among military commanders over a rigid timeline. Debating the war—let’s have at it. […]
This USA Today headline (6/16/10) seemed like the kind of thing one might stop to read: Top Officer Sees Military Caution as Backfiring The lead: Commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan have been reluctant to launch more secret operations because of an excess of caution about violating military rules and international law, a top Army officer […]
Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: Months after winning an election that ended five decades of one-party rule, Japanese prime minister Yukio Hatoyama resigned, citing his failure to close a U.S. military base on the island of Okinawa. U.S. media told us quite a bit about why the U.S. wants the base to remain on […]
The media template for writing about Afghan civilian casualties requires that articles include some reference to the extreme care taken by U.S/NATO forces to avoid killing non-combatants. The practice reached a new low in this New York Times story (5/29/10) about a U.S. drone attack that killed 23 civilians: The attack, in which three vehicles […]
A real headline today (4/26/10) in the Washington Post: Amid Outrage Over Civilian Deaths in Pakistan, CIA Turns to Smaller Missiles The piece–by Joby Warrick and Peter Finn–has government officials (anonymously, of course) providing new assurances: The technological improvements have resulted in more accurate operations that have provoked relatively little public outrage, the officials said…. […]
Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: A dramatic videotape of a 2007 U.S. helicopter attack was published by the website Wikileaks on April 5—prompting waves of coverage across the world, though only sporadic attention from the US corporate press. The attacks killed 12 Iraqis, including 2 journalists working for Reuters. Independent journalist Jeremy Scahill will […]
A leaked videotape of a 2007 U.S. helicopter attack in Baghdad that killed a dozen Iraqis was unveiled on April 5 by the website WikiLeaks. To much of the corporate media, though, it was either not worth reporting at all, or an unfortunate incident to be defended.
Yesterday (3/10/10) there was a House floor debate on Rep. Dennis Kucinich‘s push to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. Kucinich’s bill–which is based on the War Powers Act–was defeated, but it sparked hours of rare discussion of the White House’s war policy (in spite of the Washington Post‘s efforts to minimize the discussion as left-wing “venting”). […]
The New York Times has a piece today (3/9/10) with the headline “Experts Urge Keeping Two Options for Terror Trials”–meaning both regular trials under the criminal justice system as well as newly established military tribunals. But who are these “experts,” exactly? Well, they’re “national security officials who served in the Bush administration”–though later on, “national […]
Sometimes the words journalists choose are revealing. Take the lead of a story in the Washington Post today (3/9/10) about congressional debate on the Afghanistan War: Liberals in the House, who have spent much of the past year complaining that other congressional Democrats and the White House are insufficiently progressive, will get a chance this […]
The New York Times features an op-ed today (3/5/10) by Gen. Merrill McPeak, a retired Air Force chief of staff, arguing against allowing gay men and lesbians to serve openly in the U.S. military. It’s not much of an argument, really–there’s not much more to it than the assertion that “warriors are inspired by male […]
Mac Margolis, Newsweek‘s right-wing Latin America correspondent (Extra!, 1/10), has a small piece in the latest issue (3/1/10) that misleads in a big way. Under the headline “A Killer Deal for Russia,” Margolis declares: Russia’s campaign to balance U.S. power and prestige around the globe has found a new and willing partner–Latin America–and Washington may […]
Salon‘s Glenn Greenwald has had a couple of posts (2/18/10, 2/22/10) on a New York Times op-ed (2/18/10) that urged the U.S. to not worry so much about killing civilians in Afghanistan. The piece was written by Lara M. Dadkhah, who is vaguely identified as an “intelligence analyst” and who notes that she is “employed […]
This Washington Post headline (2/13/10) caught my eye: 2008 Habeas Ruling May Pose Snag as U.S. Weighs Indefinite Guantanamo Detentions You have to read the piece somewhat closely to understand what they’re taking about. Theterrorism case against one Guantanamo detainee was “ironclad”until afederal judge deemed it “too weak”–because some of thestatements against the defendant had […]
