FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
In his New York Times column today (3/24/11)–headlined “Hugs From Libyans”–Nicholas Kristof boils down the argument in favor of the war in Libya: Then, on Wednesday in Benghazi, the major city in eastern Libya whose streets would almost certainly be running with blood now if it weren’t for the American-led military intervention, residents held a […]
The New York Times‘ reassuring reporting on the radioactive plume drifting across the U.S. continues the paper’s troubling tradition of parroting comforting words from officials in the midst of modern-day environmental crises–like the environmental fallout post-9/11. Let’s compare headlines: “Radiation Over U.S. Is Harmless, Officials Say” (3/22/11) “Workers and Residents Are Safe, Officials Say” (11/2/01) […]
One of the peculiar things about the Fox News Channel is that they actually do invite progressive guests onto some of the shows. Last night on the O’Reilly Factor (3/22/11), we saw Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin talkingabout Libya. Of course, there’s a political point O’Reilly is trying to make; in this case, he was contrasting […]
The radioactive plume from Japan wafting from west to east across the U.S. is absolutely nothing to worry about, writes William J. Broad in a New York Times report today (“Radiation Over U.S. Is Harmless, Officials Say,” 3/22/11) about the radiation threats posed by the Japanese nuclear plant disaster. Broad writes: Health experts said that […]
On September 17, 2001, Fox host Bill O’Reilly gave his list of countries the United States should attack, including Libya: Target three is Libya and Qaddafi. Again, he either quits and goes into exile or we bomb his oil facilities, all of them. And we mine the harbor in Tripoli. Nothing goes in, nothing goes […]
U.S. airstrikes in Libya have brought renewed focus on the 1988 explosion of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Some are making the argument that the U.S. could–and should–be getting revenge for this act a mere 22 years later. Last night (3/21/11), one cable news host said this: Given the fact Americans died on […]
Here is Michel Martelly, one of the two conservative candidates vying to be next president of Haiti, courtesy of Kim Ives in an Institute for Public Accuracy release: In the years following Aristide’s restoration to power in 1994, Martelly became obsessed with hatred for the man. In a video from not too long ago, which […]
This is an ad for some sort of Time magazine web feature, grabbed today from the magazine’s homepage: Time is a little late to the table; this has been the media line since shortly after Obama was elected (FAIR Action Alert, 2/3/09) and has been going strong ever since (Extra!, 1/11).
The New York Times (3/17/11) presents a look at the Japanese government’s lack of candor about the Fukushima nuclear disaster. At first we’re given the impression that this is something cultural: “The less-than-straight talk is rooted in a conflict-averse culture that avoids direct references to unpleasantness.” We don’t have that problem, I guess. Then, we’re […]
On the release of CIA agent Raymond Davis, who was held in Pakistan on charges of killing two Pakistani men on a street in Lahore, the Times explains the reaction (3/17/11) The Davis episode was particularly sensitive because of the resentment among Pakistanis who believe that a growing American security contingent roams the country with […]
The New York Times has a piece today (3/17/11) about new White House press secretary Jay Carney and how his background suits him for the job. Carney was previously a reporter for Time magazine, and was apparently notmuch of a partisan–he “complained privately” that the magazine’s coverage of the 2008 campaign “was too lopsided toward […]
USA Today has a long piece (3/17/11) by Martha Moore about video hoax artist James O’Keefe’s NPR project. The article does a pretty good job of running down the deceptions in O’Keefe’s video. That’s good. This, however, is not: The video follows a long, if not always honorable, tradition of muckraking exposés. It also is […]
A recent Wall Street Journal editorial (3/11/11) defended the Peter King hearings on Islamist terrorism against “our friends on the left [who] are busy portraying them as the McCarthy hearings and Palmer Raids rolled into one.” The editors argued that in fact, the focus on Muslims is justified based on the facts: Since 9/11, there […]
If you’ve tracked media coverage of nuclear power, you know that every few months or so nuclear power is about to enjoy a comeback. The “nuclear renaissance” has always been right around the corner, we’ve often been told. Take the New York Times, for example: -Few industries have enjoyed the kind of renaissance that nuclear […]
Five members of a family in the West Bank settlement of Itamar were killed in their home on Friday night. Nothing is known about the perpetrators or their motivation. But much of the media coverage assumes the killers were Palestinians, and the murders were apolitical act. The New York Times on March 13: It was […]
From Wednesday’s NBC Nightly News (3/9/11), courtesy of reporter Lisa Myers: We last saw O’Keefe wearing a fur coat and playing a pimp when he managed to take down the liberal group ACORN. No we didn’t. As should be well-known by now, O’Keefe used footage of himself wearing a “pimp” costume in his ACORN videos–but […]
There was a lot of chatter about editor Tina Brown and the “new” Newsweek, which debuted last week. None of it struck me as all that interesting–a column up front from Leslie Gelb warning about the threat of Arab democracy and an anti-Social Security harangue from Robert Samuelson made it feel very much like the […]
Will the unfolding crisis in Japan lead to a debate over the safety of nuclear power in the United States? Initial signs are not encouraging. NBC‘s Meet the Press(3/13/11)had an interview with Marvin Fertel of the Nuclear Energy Institute.Host Chuck Todd prefaced one question with, “Iunderstand that you represent the industry’s interests in this….” Later […]
It was great to see this letter in the New York Times from Edward Said’s widow (3/11/11): To the Editor: I smiled when I read “Huntington’s Clash Revisited,” by David Brooks (column, March 4). Eighteen years after Samuel Huntington wrote his Foreign Affairs essay “The Clash of Civilizations,” Mr. Brooks has arrived at a conclusion […]
He’s back. Right-wing activist James O’Keefe‘s latest “work” is an undercover video that shows representatives from a fake Muslim charity trying to make a $5 million donation to NPR. The “Muslim” donors-to-be meet with two NPR development officers. In the ensuing conversation, as all the media coverage explains, one of the two–Ron Schiller–expresses critical views […]
