FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
Since FAIR sent out an action alert (10/27/08) about the Washington Post‘s weekly chart, “Iraq War Casualties,” the newspaper has ceased using the misleading term “maximum count” to refer to an Iraqi civilian death toll figure 2 to 10 times lower than the casualty figures reached by household surveys (Washington Post, 11/1/08, 11/8/08, 11/15/08). FAIR […]
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin111408 Maurice Carney and Sasha Lilley @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin111408.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: As the Congo sinks again into crisis, U.S. journalism is again largely portraying the conflict as peculiar to the Congo, a story explained by the country’s and its neighbors’ endless, intractable ethnic struggles. We’ll be joined by Maurice Carney, the executive […]
The New York Times failed spectacularly in its coverage of Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction, helping lead the country into war and only much later (5/26/04) publishing a half-hearted mea culpa. As the near-apology acknowledged, the paper’s failure resulted in large part from its lack of skepticism regarding its sources, most notably exiled Iraqi […]
The Washington Post‘s weekly Saturday feature on “Iraq War Casualties” has consistently listed a “maximum count” of Iraqi civilian deaths that is dramatically lower than the likely civilian death tolls assessed through surveys of the Iraqi public. In the most recent edition of this feature (10/25/08) which the Post has been publishing as a chart […]
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin102408 Devin West and Francesca Grifo @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin102408.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: Stories about civilian casualties inflicted by the U.S. military in Afghanistan or Iraq may be moving and troubling, but you virtually always come away with the sense that, while regrettable, such deaths are certainly always unintentional and somehow unavoidable in the […]
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin100308 Phyllis Bennis and Wendy Weiser @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin100308.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: There’s been a lot of discussion about who won or lost the September 26th presidential debate, but little discussion of how it served the voters. What was and wasn’t talked about in a debate that focused largely on war and military […]
When Russia and Georgia clashed in August over Georgia’s separatist enclaves, U.S. corporate media frequently evoked the Cold War as a key to understanding the conflict—and they themselves certainly played their Cold War part, generally placing white hats on Washington’s allies and black hats on Moscow’s. On August 11, NBC Nightly News reporter Jim Maceda […]
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin081508 Helena Cobban and Iyanna Jones @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin081508.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: “Russia bad, Georgia good” is the theme of much U.S. coverage of recent hostilities between those two countries and their battles over the breakaway Georgian territory known as South Ossetia. We’ll be joined by Helena Cobban of the website Just World […]
U.S. corporate media frequently evoked the Cold War as a key to understanding the conflict between Russia and Georgia over South Ossetia. This was certainly true of the media themselves, which generally placed black hats or white hats on the actors involved depending on whether they were allied with Moscow or Washington. On August 11, […]
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin080108 Juan Cole and Todd Tucker @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin080108.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: The media debate on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars seems to rest on the assumption that the troop surge in Iraq has “worked,” and more troops in Afghanistan would help turn that conflict in the favor of U.S. and NATO forces. […]
CNN‘s Election Center program devoted a July 25 report to mocking a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee investigating White House abuses of power. “Believe it or not, there was a congressional hearing today about impeaching the president,” scoffed host Campbell Brown, who added: “It was all stagecraft, though.” Brown went on to introduce the […]
The Washington Post reported on July 15 that the public is evenly split between Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama’s positions on ending the Iraq War. But the paper arrived at that conclusion based on a deceptively worded poll question. Under the headline “Poll Finds Voters Split on Candidates’ Iraq-Pullout Positions,” the Post reported […]
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin071108 Robert Dreyfuss and Amanda Marcotte @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin071108.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: Barack Obama’s image as a harbinger of change has many hoping his election will bring change in foreign policy. He certainly differs from George Bush on the need for diplomacy. But what about issues such as the projection of American power […]
The host of NPR’s Bryant Park Project, Mike Pesca, has responded to FAIR’s media advisory “Press Distorts Clark’s Comments” (7/2/08), which quoted Pesca (6/30/08) as likening Wesley Clark’s statements about John McCain’s Vietnam record to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign to smear John Kerry’s service record. In a letter to FAIR, Pesca argued […]
Dramatically misleading accounts of comments made by retired general Wesley Clark concerning Republican nominee John McCain have dominated corporate media campaign coverage for days. Clark’s statement on CBS’s Face the Nation (6/29/08) that “I don’t think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president” has been distorted and […]
This week on CounterSpin: Former federal prosecutor and author Elizabeth de la Vega on press handling of impeachment charges. Also on the program: Brown University’s Catherine Lutz joins to discuss the impact of U.S. bases in Iraq and the rest of the world.
FAIR associate Norman Solomon on the recently-revealed Pentagon propaganda program. Also this week: Sheldon Rampton of the Center for Media & Democracy joins to discuss corporate greenwashing on Earth Day.
A lengthy April 20 New York Times investigation of the Pentagon’s program of feeding talking points to military pundits featured on TV newscasts raised disturbing questions about the media’s role as a conduit for Pentagon propaganda. According to the Times, the Pentagon recruited over 75 retired generals to act as “message force multipliers” in support […]
This week on CounterSpin: A resurgence in confusing corporate media coverage of Iraq, with political analyst and blogger Raed Jarrar. Also on program: Julie Hollar joins to discuss U.S. interference in Somalia and how the press has abetted a propaganda campaign that attempts to manufacture consent for such a gross overstep.
FAIR founder Jeff Cohen on recent harrowing testimony from veterans about their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan. Also on the program: Washington D.C.’s handgun ban and the 2nd Amendment with Carl Bogus, a law professor at Roger Williams University.
