FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
And that someone is Fareed Zakaria, in columns published in the Washington Post (“Cool the Goldman Rage”) and in the Post-owned Newsweek. Zakaria is unimpressed by the SEC’s fraud case against Goldman Sachs; he likens the firm’s mortgage securities bonds to someone placing a bet against the New York Yankees. Then he writes: But the […]
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…. […]
The headline of this Washington Post piece today (4/26/10) is certainly not promising: Sharing a West Bank Highway Proves a Tall Order for Israel, Palestinians The highway in question was built by the Israeli government on occupied Palestinian territory. Since 2000, Israeli authorities have barred Palestinians from using the road. They are now offering to […]
E.J. Dionne has a good column in the Washington Post today (4/19/10) looking at the Tea Party movement, and pinning a fair amount of blame on the press: “The news media’s incessant focus on the Tea Party is creating a badly distorted picture of what most Americans think and is warping our policy debates.” Looking […]
From his Web column today (4/16/10): After initially dismissing the tea types as an unimportant sideshow, the media are drinking deeply from that particular cup, especially with today being Tax Day and all. If by “dismissing” Kurtz means “featuring on the network evening newscasts,” he might have a point–since that’s how last year’s Tea Party […]
Andrew Breitbart is the right-wing Internet provocateur behind the ACORN video hoaxes, which purported to show a pretend pimp-and-prostitute duo getting criminal advice from the community organizing group ACORN. That’s not what happened, but Breitbart’s inaccurate presentation was taken at face value. Yet some in the media are still treating Breitbart seriously. Washington Post ombud […]
In his stint as interim host of ABC‘s This Week, Jake Tapper has arranged for the fact-checkers at Politifact to review what the guests say on the ABC Sunday morning show.An idea worth applauding, it came to Tapper via NYU’s Jay Rosen. The Washington Post‘s Howard Kurtz asked NBC Meet the Press anchor David Gregory […]
The Washington Post (4/8/10) continues its crusade against Social Security (Action Alert, 1/6/10; FAIR Blog, 5/15/09, 5/13/09, 4/1/09) in a front-page news story by Neil Irwin and Lori Montgomery: Social Security is already draining resources from the broader federal budget, as spending on benefits has risen above this year’s Social Security tax collections. While that […]
Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank (3/18/10) returns from his excursion into mocking right-wingers to return to his natural role of ridiculing single-payer advocates. His target today is Rep. Dennis Kucinich. You know what’s funny about him? He’s short! Or, in Milbank’s words, he’s a “little man,” a “little guy,” a “diminutive figure” and–because he announced […]
Washington Post columnists Dana Milbank and David Broder are both committed guardians of the establishment center, but they don’t always interpret their role in the same way. Milbank led the cheers for White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel as chief dragger to the right (FAIR Blog, 3/2/10), whereas Broder saw his blame-the-boss disloyalty as […]
Actual Washington Post headline today (3/11/10): Rise in Washington Area Unemployment Seen as Good Sign for Economy’s Recovery Reporter V. Dion Hayes tries to explain: Rising unemployment as a positive sign may sound counterintuitive, but economists explain it this way: The increase suggests that long-term unemployed people in the D.C. area who had given up […]
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 […]
White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel has always been a controversial figure—famously profane and short-tempered, and politically speaking a center-right Clinton Democrat. As of late, though, there’s been a strange effort—particularly in the Washington Post—to present Emanuel as the confidant whose political advice Barack Obama has too often ignored and who offers a clear […]
In a February 28 pieceheadlined, “Obama Ready to Move Forward on Healthcare Reform,” the Washington Post‘s Anne Kornblut closed on a rather odd note: Republicans have expressed growing confidence heading into the midterm elections, with healthcare as a potential campaign tool. Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele took the argument a step further, saying […]
From the paper’s editorial today (2/22/10) on climate change deniers: The Earth is warming. A chief cause is the increase in greenhouse gases accumulating in the atmosphere. Humans are at least in part responsible, because the oil, gas and coal that we burn releases these gases. If current trends persist, it’s likely that in coming […]
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 […]
Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank thinks it’s pretty silly for Republicans and climate change deniers to say that the recent snowstorms mean that climate change is phony. BUT…. don’t think for a second that Milbank’s going to let “greens” off the hook that easy. No way. As he put it on Sunday (2/14/10): “There’s some […]
“I miss John McCain,” writes the Washington Post‘s Dana Milbank today (2/5/10). Milbank calls himself “an original McCainiac”–by which he means that he, like so many others in the corporate media, adored the so-called “maverick”John McCain of the 2000 presidential campaign. As we’ve pointed out plenty of times before, McCain’s Senate record has staunchly conservative […]
The Washington Post‘s Eli Saslow (2/3/10) on Obama: He is a rare president who comes from the middle class, yet people still perceive him as disconnected from it. It’s true that very few presidents come from the middle class—except for Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson, Dwight Eisenhower, […]
The Washington Post‘s publication of a “news” article written by an organization created to advance an ideological agenda is a troubling reminder of the declining ethical standards at one of the nation’s most influential newspapers. The article, headlined “Support Grows for Tackling Nation’s Debt” (12/31/09), was a product of the Fiscal Times, described in an […]
