FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
Richard Cohen recently (FAIR Blog, 2/15/11) took to the Washington Post to argue that Teach for America is wonderful because…. Well, it just is. He predicted that the “best teacher in America” is likely to be drawn from the ranks of the program, which draws recent graduates from elite universities into the teaching profession. His […]
In journalistic parlance, a “beat sweetener” is a story that lavishes praise on a powerful figure the reporter is assigned to cover on a regular basis–a great way for that reporter to get in good with an important source. That may have been what was happening with Lori Montgomery‘s February 26 Washington Post piece touting […]
As Josh Marshall noted recently, one of the assumptions in the media discussion about Wisconsin is that Republican politicians are playing on public outrage over the perks given to public workers. That assumption took a hit after a new Gallup Poll, reported on the front page of USA Today, found this: Americans strongly oppose laws […]
The Washington Post has an interesting piece on the CIA’s drone program in Pakistan (2/21/11), pointing out that the drones are killing plenty of Pakistanis, but not the “high-value” ones: CIA drone attacks in Pakistan killed at least 581 militants last year, according to independent estimates. The number of those militants noteworthy enough to appear […]
New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie is the object of intense devotion among some on the right (Glenn Beck in particular). No surprise, then, that he’d get a lot of attention for going to Washington and delivering a stern lecture about how to fix the deficit. And no surprise that he’d talk about Social Security. […]
Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen‘s Teach for America column today (2/15/11) demonstrates a real problem with logic. “Cut Teach for America Funding and We’ll Be Closer to Flunking the Future,” declares the headline, with Cohen kicking things off this way: The best teacher in America was in Washington over the weekend. So was the best […]
From the Washington Post piece today (2/15/11) about TARP inspector general Neil Barofsky’s resignation: “We’re fine with critics,” said one Treasury official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to speak more candidly. “[But] he’s been consistently wrong about a lot of big things.” That’s a prettyserious charge to level atsomeone–which is probablywhy you’d […]
The Washington Post yesterday (2/13/11): Mubarak Resignation Throws Into Question U.S./Egyptian Counterterrorism Work By Mary Beth Sheridan and Joby Warrick Washington Post Staff Writers Sunday, February 13, 2011; A01 For decades, Egypt’s government has been a critical partner for U.S. intelligence agencies, sharing information on extremist groups such as al-Qaeda and working hand in glove […]
On Sunday (2/13/11), the Washington Post had an odd piece about Obama’s budget proposal–starting with the odd headline, “Obama to Propose Spending Cuts in Budget Plan Aimed at Countering Conservatives.” Republicans have been stressing spending cuts, so Obama is “countering” that with… spending cuts? Huh. The piece tries to argue that these calls for austerity […]
The L.A. Times‘ controversial investigation last year that rated Los Angeles schoolteachers’ effectiveness based on a value-addedresearch methodhasfaced a storm of criticism. (See Wayne Au’s recent Rethinking Schools piece.) Now the National Education Policy Center has weighed in, finding that the research “was demonstrably inadequate to support the published rankings.” The NEPC was covered in […]
In yesterday’s Washington Post (2/6/11), David Broder likened the U.S. position on Egypt to being a fan of the hapless Chicago Cubs: Big things are happening all around you, but you have noway to do anything about it. That is the reality that confronts President Obama today. His hands are tied while Egypt erupts. At […]
Displaying the same allergy to actual democracy shown by Joe Klein (FAIR Blog, 2/3/11), Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer (2/4/11) calls, like Klein, for a military regime in Egypt to impose a “period of stability” for “guiding the country to free elections”–the kind of “free elections” in which the military will “guarantee” that the right […]
Washington Post columnist (and CNN host) Kathleen Parker turned in some thoughts (1/30/11) about what she didn’t hear Barack Obama’s State of the Union address: He didn’t say it. That word: “exceptional.” Barack Obama described an exceptional nation in his State of the Union address, but he studiously avoided using the word conservatives long to […]
Now this is a head scratcher.”As Arabs Protest, U.S. Speaks Up” is the headline today over a story by Scott Wilson and Joby Warrick in the Washington Post. The storyattempts to arguethat the Obama administration is backing protests in Tunisia, Egypt and Lebanon–in the first two cases, regimes backed strongly by the United States (Egypt […]
As Sam Husseini noted, one of the things we’ll miss about print newspapers is ironic juxtaposition of stories. The front page of yesterday’s New York Times (1/20/11) provided a classic example: There was a story about Chinese President Hu Jintao visiting the White House, headlined (in the late print edition) “Obama Raises Human Rights, Pressing […]
Four months ago, Steve Rendall wrote here (9/10/10) about the militarization of the State Department and its role in the continuing occupation of Iraq—developments that were getting little attention amidst all the talk of the “end” of the war. Now Aaron Davis of the Washington Post (1/14/11) fills in some of those details, writing that […]
Right-wing pundits have come out vociferously against the idea that they, their colleagues and the political movement they identify with have anything to answer for in the wake of the Tucson massacre. David Brooks (New York Times, 1/11/11) asserted that “the evidence before us suggests that [shooting suspect Jared] Loughner was locked in a world […]
Washington Post columnist Harold Meyerson writes an important column today (1/12/11) about right-wing rhetoric and the Tucson shootings. Meyerson’s point is that discussing certain symbols–like the Sarah Palin “cross hairs” map–makes little sense without understanding the paranoid worldview that is advanced by right-wing leaders and commentators like Glenn Beck. When folks like Beck and Erick […]
The Washington Post headline overa story about Joe Biden’s remarksthat U.S. military forces would stay in Afghanistan after the supposed 2014 withdrawal deadline “if the Afghan people want it” is: Biden Promises Long-Term Aid to Afghans Of course, if theU.S. troop presence in Afghanistancame down to what the “Afghan people want,” it might end sooner […]
Today in the New York Times Paul Krugman (1/10/11) suggests that we not pretend that “both sides” are responsible for toxic political rhetoric: Where’s that toxic rhetoric coming from? Let’s not make a false pretense of balance: It’s coming, overwhelmingly, from the right. It’s hard to imagine a Democratic member of Congress urging constituents to […]
