FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
New York Times reporter Rod Nordland (5/29/11) gave readers a lighter look at the war in Libya from rebel-controlled Benghazi. Some versions of the story were actually headlined, “In Benghazi, Warmth for West Doesn’t Come from Burning Flags”–which pretty well captures the tone of the piece. Nordland observes: Americans and, for that matter, all Westerners […]
On Sunday George Will wrote a strong Washington Post column about Obama, the Libya War and the law: In a bipartisan cascade of hypocrisies, a liberal president, with the collaborative silence of most congressional conservatives, is traducing the War Powers Resolution. Enacted in 1973 over President Nixon’s veto, the WPR may or may not be […]
There was some Congressional debate over extending certain parts of the Patriot Act last week– this Institute for Public Accuracy release is a helpful guide to some of the criticisms of the Act. But don’t let anyone tell you there wasn’t much coverage of this. On Friday, NBC Nightly News skipped reporting on what was […]
According to Tim Dickinson’s new piece in Rolling Stone, Fox honcho Roger Ailes lives in fear of “those gays”: Murdoch installed Ailes in the corner office on Fox‘s second floor at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Manhattan. The location made Ailes queasy: It was close to the street, and he lived in fear that […]
A good friend of FAIR happened to catch this segment on MSNBC. Turns out it was a false alarm; the noted Peace Prize winner was a guest, talking about another war criminal.
NPR ombud Alicia Shepard has a piece (5/25/11) about internal discomfort with a recent $1.8 million grant from the George Soros-connected Open Society Foundation. Shepard writes: The money is for a worthy purpose. NPR is using the two-year grant as seed money to start a local-national initiative, known as the Impact on Government project. Eventually, […]
MSNBC host Ed Schultz has been suspended without pay for a week for calling right-wing pundit Laura Ingraham a “right-wing slut” on his radio show. Schultz apologized on MSNBC last night, calling his words “terribly vile.” This is not a new thing at MSNBC. In 2006, Keith Olbermann did a bit about Paris Hilton being […]
On the Wall Street Journal op-ed page, conservative pundit Shelby Steele lays out the argument that Barack Obama’s blackness is a unique asset that makes him difficult to beat in 2012. The argument–which, on some level, is worth taking seriously–is that “his presidency flatters America to a degree that no white Republican can hope to […]
The New York Times (5/25/11) is reporting, perhaps accurately, that Newt Gingrich may have trouble living down his $500,000 credit line at Tiffany’s. But this sentence by Sheryl Gay Stolberg is so Timesian: The way some voters out in the rest of America might see it, he’s a guy who paid more for jewelry than […]
The New York Times had a good editorial on May 20 headlined”Gas Prices and Political Pandering.” The paper slammed Republican rhetoric about domestic production and gas prices: [Sen. Mitch] McConnell said his bill would bring relief at the pump by raising domestic output. That is fiction. Production will take years to come online and even […]
On Sunday the Pete Peterson Foundation took out an ad in the Washington Post touting its upcoming “Fiscal Summit,” which will feature speeches by the likes of Bill Clinton, Paul Ryan and Alan Simpson. Panels will be moderated by Gwen Ifill, George Will and others. The hook is that Peterson is promoting a “Solutions Initiative,” […]
Lori Montgomery has a piece today in the Washington Post (5/20/11) noting that Senate Democrats have yet to unveil a budget planthat would”counter the budget blueprint approved last month by House Republicans.”Some Democrats dosay that they will soon unveil a plan that “would offer a sharp contrast to the GOP budget.” Such a contrast exists […]
Last night’s broadcast of the O’Reilly Factor (5/19/11) provided ample evidence–if more were needed–of Bill O’Reilly’s bigotry. He started by trying to explain why Barack Obamais unpopular in Muslim countries: The answer is complicated but does reflect my opinion that there is a Muslim problem in the world. The United States and the West are […]
At Electronic Intifada, Ali Abunimah challenges the skewed history coming from Ethan Bronner in the New York Times (5/15/11). In trying to explain the context for the recent Palestinian protests, Bronner wrote: After Israel declared independence on May 15, 1948, armies from neighboring Arab states attacked the new nation; during the war that followed, hundreds […]
Bill Moyers on the Tavis Smiley Show (5/13/11), talking about the elite bias in the media: Television, including public television, rarely gives a venue to people who have refused to buy into the ruling ideology of Washington. The ruling ideology of Washington is we have two parties, they do their job, they do their job […]
Corporate media coverage of tax/budget issues often seems to be an argument between right-leaning Democrats and conservative Republicans. In the midst of a national discussion of budget deficits, raising taxes on the wealthy is considered a non-starter–even though most Americans would support it. The front page of the Washington Post on Saturday (5/14/11) offered a […]
Last week, Washington Post reporter Dan Balz explained that Newt Gingrich was “an idea-spewing machine” and a “one-man think tank”–even warning that “a keen intellect can also translate into the appearance of intellectual superiority.” Well OK. A few days in Balz’s paper, readers learned that in a recent speech Gingrich called Barack Obama a “food […]
The Washington Post‘s Outlook section has a feature (5/15/11) about getting rid of certain concepts or products. Former ABC anchor Ted Koppel suggests dumping democracy: “The concept remains worthy, but the word is rapidly being exhausted of all residual value.” Koppel’s point is that the Arab Spring uprisings might not produce wholly democratic outcomes: “The […]
New York Times business reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin wrote a piece on Sunday (5/15/11) that tried to advance the argument that $250,000 actually isn’t that much money to make in a year. The complaint is that politicians who advocate raising tax rates on income above $250,000 have chosen an arbitrary dividing line–above it you’re rich, […]
Washington Post reporter Dan Balz has a front-page piece about Newt Gingrich’s announcement that he’s running for president. Balz calls Gingrich’s Twitter declaration a “milestone in presidential politics,” adding that Gingrich “is an idea-spewing machine,” a “one-man think tank” and “someone who has remained in the forefront of the public policy debate over a span […]
