FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
Failing to find weapons of mass destruction or an Al-Qaeda/Saddam Hussein connection almost two years after it invaded Iraq, the Bush White House fell back on its second-tier justification for the invasion: that occupying the country would start a domino-chain of democratization throughout the Middle East. In the wake of the January 30 Iraq elections, […]
Dan Noyes of the Center for Investigative Journalism talks Bush’s judges and what’s often missing from the media’s portrayal of this battle. Also on the program: a discussion with Greg Mitchell from Editor & Publisher magazine on the Pat Tillman scandal and what it says about media priorities.
Following FAIR’s call for more mainstream coverage of the “smoking gun memo”—the secret British document containing new evidence that the Bush administration manipulated intelligence to justify its plan to invade Iraq—a steady trickle of news reports have appeared. But that coverage has been downplayed in general and is still completely absent from the nightly news. […]
Journalism professor Robert Jensen discusses the Newsweek Quran desecration story. Also this week: environmental reporter Karl Grossman on the weaponization of space.
NOTE: Please see the Action Alert related to this Advisory. Journalists typically condemn attempts to force their colleagues to disclose anonymous sources, saying that subpoenaing reporters will discourage efforts to expose government wrongdoing. But such warnings seem like mere self-congratulation when clear evidence of wrongdoing emerges, with no anonymous sources required– and major news outlets […]
Maria Ruzicka was dedicated to documenting and securing compensation for civilian victims of U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. While the media has been paying tribute to Ruzicka, following her recent death in Baghdad, that same press corps seems uninterested in actually honoring her work. Also this week: there have been big changes at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, after its president was seemingly forced out and replaced by a more conservative overseer. Jeff Chester of the Center for Digital Democracy joins CounterSpin to discuss this situation.
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.
What’s the state of the Iraq debate now that the two-year anniversary of the Iraq war has come and gone? Also: author and Nation columnist Katha Pollitt on women and media.
On the weekend of the two-year anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, media outlets took stock of the war‘s death toll. But the national newscasts undercounted the most dramatic loss of life: the deaths of Iraqi civilians. On the March 18 CBS Evening News, reporter Byron Pitts gave these figures: “Today, U.S. deaths number […]
There was much journalistic hand-wringing and finger-pointing during the week of January 10, after CBS News’ official report on its dubious story on George W. Bush’s Vietnam-era service record. (See Extra! Update, 2/05.) But another story released that week suggests that media self-criticism has its limits—especially when the press’s failures involve being too credulous rather […]
Media has helped legitimize US interference in Iraq elections by declaring the elections “largely successful.” Author Frank Brodhead offers a different analysis. Also on the program: popular civil rights film Eyes on the Prize is currently being held hostage by copyright laws that do not allow it to be widely distributed around the country. Tiffiniy Cheng from the non-profit group Downhill Battle discusses the effort to bring back Eyes on the Prize.
On November 16, FAIR issued an action alert about misleading reporting in the New York Times regarding civilian casualties in Fallujah. FAIR noted that in coverage of the recent U.S.-led assault on the city, the Times characterized civilian deaths from the April siege of Fallujah as “unconfirmed” on three separate occasions (“mostly unconfirmed reports of […]
(NOTE: Please read the update to this alert.) In three recent reports about the military invasion of the Iraqi city of Fallujah, the New York Times has misreported the facts about the April 2004 invasion of the city and the toll it took on Iraqi civilians. On November 8, the Times reported: In April, American […]
When the New York Times reported on Monday (10/25/04) that over 300 tons of high-explosive materials appeared to be missing from an Iraqi weapons facility, it was no surprise that the Bush administration and conservative pundits would quickly challenge the story. But recent reporting has taken this spin as proof that the facts of the […]
With the election less than two weeks away, allegations of voter suppression are popping up all over– how is the press responding to these allegations? Also: journalist David Lindorff on the possibility of a new military draft.
What’s the state of the media debate over Iraq? And how biased is media discussion of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty?
The now-infamous report about George W. Bush’s National Guard service has been covered ad nauseam by the press. But why has CBS just decided to kill a critical story about the Bush administration’s justification for war in Iraq? Also this week: an official of the Environmental Protection Agency has recently directed staff to not talk to the press. More on that gag order, among other concerns, with Jeff Ruch.
In an outrageous politicization of journalism, CBS announced it would not air a report on forged documents that the Bush administration used to sell the Iraq war until after the November 2 election (New York Times , 9/25/04). A network spokesperson issued a statement declaring, “We now believe it would be inappropriate to air the […]
When UN Secretary General Kofi Annan recently declared the US-led invasion of Iraq “illegal,” he received a particularly hostile reaction from the press. But how much of Annan’s statement was true? Also this week: journalist Rory O’Connor of Globalvision on the decision by PBS to add right-wing programs to its lineup.
When U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said in a September 15 interview that he thought the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was illegal, CNN‘s Lou Dobbs was outraged, calling it “another incredible outburst by Kofi Annan” ( 9/16/04). But Dobbs and his CNN reporters neglected to pursue the most important aspect of the story: Was Annan […]
