FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
There is little reason to care about what the polls say right now about who’s leading in the Republican presidential nomination. But the media obviously think otherwise, hence this headline in the Washington Post yesterday (8/25/11): Romney Loses GOP Front-Runner Status The “news” is that Rick Perry is leading in a new Gallup Poll. But […]
Much of the media coverage of the riots in England dwells on the issue of police restraint. There is a “public backlash against police restraint,” the Washington Post explained (8/11/11), with some wanting “a tougher response to the rash of disturbances that has sullied Britain’s image.” The problem is the “seemingly halting, even timorous, policing,” […]
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has named his picks to the “super committee” charged with making deficit reduction recommendations. Reid named Washington Sen. Patty Murray and center-right Max Baucus, who the Post‘s Rosalind Helderman today (8/10/11) calls a “natural choice,” given that he chairs the Finance Committee. The New York Times is a little more […]
There are plenty of thoughtful pieces—Drew Westen’s in the New York Times over the weekend being the most recent one—that try to figure out what’s going on with Barack Obama. Then there’s Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen today (8/9/11), who begins by retelling a story about FDR: In her autobiography, Helen Gahagan Douglas recalled telling […]
U.S. officials seem to be making progress in convincing Iraqi politicians to let some troops stay in Iraq beyond the December withdrawal deadline. The Washington Post weighs in today (8/4/11) and gets some anonymous straight talk: “There seems to be broad partnerships and political coalitions emerging that take tough decisions,” said a senior U.S. Embassy […]
New York Times reporter Dan Barry has an “outsider visiting the Capitol” piece (8/3/11) about the strange things one encounters in the legislative sausage factory. In some rooms you are required to wear a necktie; others have no such rules. The place is confusing in other ways, too: “To reach the third level from the […]
Washington Post ombud Patrick Pexton weighed in yesterday (7/31/11) on the criticisms of right-wing Post blogger Jennifer Rubin. She was among a handful of media personalities who declared the Norway terror attacks to be the work of Muslim jihadists. As she put it (7/22/11): “In all likelihood the attack was launched by part of the […]
When your column is headlined “It’s the Elderly, Stupid,” I guess readers should know what to expect. Robert Samuelson delivers in today‘s Washington Post (a column that will appear elsewhere around the country, unfortunately), in a nasty diatribe about the kind of debt debate he thinks the country should be having–one that blames older people: […]
Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen wrote a rather apoplectic column about presidential candidate Michele Bachmann this week, lamenting the fact that other GOP candidates aren’t calling her out for being completely ill-prepared for the job: Bachmann does not deserve to be in the presidential race. Legislatively, she has done little, she knows next to nothing […]
“Iran arming Iraq insurgents”was last month’s story. Today’s papers are telling a different story; the new line being pushed by U.S. officials is that Iran is supporting Al-Qaeda. Today’s Washington Post: Iran Allows Money, Recruits to Reach Al-Qaeda, U.S. Says ‘Secret deal’ allegedly supports activities of terrorists in Pakistan In the New York Times: Treasury […]
In a piece today, the Washington Post’s Greg Miller reports on a CIA base that will be used to conduct drone strikes in Yemen: The agency is building a desert airstrip so that it can begin flying armed drones over Yemen. The facility, which is scheduled to be completed in September, is designed to shield […]
Forget about “winning the future”–Barack Obama wants to win the center. That’s what the Washington Post is telling readers (7/25/11): Obama ‘Big Deal’ on Debt a Gamble to Win the Center Advisers think securing his plan would ensure general-election victory The Post‘s Zachary A. Goldfarb (who can’t be held responsible for the headline) explained that […]
The convention in mainstream journalism is that the new stories give you the facts, and the columnists give you their opinions (hopefully backed by facts). But in the coverage over the debt ceiling and budget debates sometimes you’re better off heading straight to the columns. Today offers a good example. In the Washington Post (7/15/11), […]
You may have heard about new Defense Secretary Leon Panetta‘s trip to Iraq–mainly because while in the country he told some U.S. soldiers that they were there because of 9/11. That led to coverage like this in the Washington Post: On Monday, in his first visit to Iraq as Pentagon chief, Panetta appeared to justify […]
I was struck by this headline in the Washington Post (7/10/11): Loss of Support for Nuclear Power Threatens Japan’s Economy There are probably a lot of things that are threatening the Japanese economy–a massive, deadly earthquake and tsunami, for instance. Or the massive nuclear disaster that resulted from that tsunami. The news here is that […]
In the Washington Post (7/7/11), Fareed Zakaria tries to defend Barack Obama against the criticism that he needs a more consistent foreign policy. He writes: All American presidents have supported and should support the spread of democracy. The real question is: Should that support involve active measures to topple undemocratic regimes, especially military force? Since […]
The Washington Post‘s Chris Cillizza’s curious take on the Mark Halperin affair: The truth of the Halperin matter is that all reporters (or others) who go on television frequently are forever in a ‘there but for the grace of God go I’ situation…. We know of what we speak, having found ourselves tongue-tied or worse […]
The Washington Post reports today on a one day walkout by public sector workers: The strikes are the first major uprising over the Conservative-led government’s ambitious plans to slash $128 billion in spending over the next four years. I don’t know how one defines “major uprising,” but on March 26 hundreds of thousands hit the […]
The Washington Post‘s Juan Forero comments today (6/30/11) on how Hugo Chavez’s illness means that he’s off television: Chavez governs like the host of a reality show, cameras always rolling as he presides over summits, hectors opponents and warns of diabolical American plots to unseat him. Wherever would he get such ridiculous ideas.
The headline in today‘s Post, previewing Obama’s speech tonight: Obama’s Challenge: Leaving, but Not Too Quickly Funny how it’s not the other way around–leaving too slowly would seem to be a larger political problem, given the state of public opinion. The Post reports: President Obama will face a stiff political challenge Wednesday in presenting his […]
