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ABC's Iran Propaganda

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

FAIR - Feb. 02 (News Analysis) - The January 31 ABC World News broadcast featured a blatantly propagandistic report on the supposed threat from Iran.

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NPR Tries to Track Down Those Millionaire Job Creators

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

FAIR - Dec. 09 (Opinion) -

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Mary Bottari on ALEC Exposed, Marjorie Cohn on prison hunger strike

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

FAIR - Jul. 22 (Fact Check) - This week on CounterSpin: You've probably never heard of the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC. So why do they have so much sway over the laws affecting your life? We may get some sunlight on the actions of this influential "public/private membership organization" with the release of a cache of previously secret documents on their work. We'll hear from Mary Bottari of the Center for Media and Democracy about the ALEC Exposed project, and what it all means.

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To WaPo, Planet's Fate Is a 'Second-Tier' Issue'

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

FAIR - By Peter Hart - Jun. 10 (News Analysis) - The Washington Post had a piece yesterday (6/9/11) on Mitt Romney's views on global warming. It serves as a reminder that Republican political candidates are under enormous pressure from the right-wing base of the party on this issue--any politician who'

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Fed a Line of Bull by the NYT

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

FAIR - By Jim Naureckas - Jun. 08 (News Analysis) - "Fed Wants Priority Put on Deficit" was the New York Times' headline over Binyamin Appelbaum's June 8 story on the front page of the business section. Summarizing a speech Fed chair Ben Bernanke gave the day before, Appelbaum wrote, "He said that growth

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Waterboarding 'Worked'?: Media push pro-torture message

Wed, 04 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

FAIR - May. 04 (Investigative Report) - To hear some tell it, the intelligence clues that ultimately led to Osama bin Laden's hideout in Pakistan were generated by the use of torture. But the evidence available so far does not bear this out.

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Surprised by Solidarity in Wisconsin

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

FAIR - By Peter Hart - Apr. 11 (News Analysis) - One of the early assumptions in media coverage of the Wisconsin protests against Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed anti-labor legislation was that the public wouldn’t sympathize with “overpaid” public-sector workers. But soon enough, reality intervened.

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Paul Ryan, Serious Numbers Geek (Aside From His Fuzzy Numbers)

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

FAIR - Apr. 08 (Opinion) -

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WaPo Invents Dems' Social Security Split

Sat, 26 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

FAIR - By Peter Hart - Mar. 26 (News Analysis) - According to Montgomery, a "growing number of Democratic lawmakers say they are willing to consider controversial measures such as raising the retirement age and reducing benefits for wealthier seniors." That would be big. Who are they? She tells us who they aren't:

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How to Save Ourselves From the 'Save PBS' Routine

Fri, 18 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

FAIR - Feb. 18 (Editorial) - It is as predictable as can be: Invigorated Republican politicians announce their intention to kill public broadcasting, which they claim is a bastion of liberal bias. Defenders of NPR and PBS step in to defend the system. The Republicans, who were unlikely to win a vote on their plan, retreat for the moment. Public broadcasting is "saved."

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Duvalier = Aristide?

Thu, 10 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

FAIR - By Isabel Macdonald - Feb. 10 (Press Release) - some media accounts are expressing concern about Aristide's return, in effect equating him with the bloody Duvalier. USA Today columnist DeWayne Wickham wrote a piece on February 8 headlined "U.S. Meekly Allows Despots to Return to Haiti." Wickham recounted some of the horrors of Duvalier's reign of terror, but for some unfathomable reason decided that Aristide poses a comparable menace to Haiti: His return might "push Haiti closer to turmoil," and the two of them are "old troublemakers...returning at a time when Haiti's democracy is most vulnerable to the havoc they almost certainly will produce."

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After Obama, CNN's Right-Wing Double Dip

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

FAIR - By Peter Hart - Jan. 26 (News Analysis) - It's normal for the opposition party to deliver a rebuttal address to the State of the Union. Last night Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin was given that responsibility. But further-to-the-right Rep. Michelle Bachmann of Minnesota delivered the "Tea Party" response to the State of the Union, which was initially scheduled to air on the Tea Party Express website. That is, until CNN decided it would air it on television. Which meant, as Washington Monthly's Steve Benen put it, CNN broadcast "the president's address, followed by a speech by a far-right Republican, and then followed by another speech by a different far-right Republican."

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Fox News Is Outraged by Nazi Analogies--and Other Big Lies

Fri, 21 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

FAIR - By Jim Naureckas - Jan. 21 (News Analysis) - It is bizarre to see Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly denying that pundits from her network compare people to Nazis--contrasting this reticence to Rep. Steve Cohen (D.-Tenn.), who said calling healthcare reform a "government takeover of healthcare" was "a big lie. Just like Goebbels." In fact, such comparisons are common currency on Fox News and in much of right-wing media,

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Fox News: The No. 1 Name in Murder Fantasies

Mon, 10 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

truth-out.org - By Steve Rendall - Jan. 10 (Special Report) - Bill O'Reilly's recent "joke" about decapitating Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank was only the latest example of a demented Fox News culture that permits on-air personalities to fantasize....

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Smell Something Rotten?: 2010 P.U.-litzer Prizes recognize the worst of U.S. journalism

Thu, 30 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

FAIR - Dec. 30 (Opinion) - At the end of every year FAIR rounds up some of the stinkiest examples of corporate media malfeasance. This year brought no shortage of contenders; indeed, the hardest part of the P.U.-litzers is narrowing down the list.

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Fox Reporter on Florida Ballots: Burn Them or Shred Them?

Tue, 16 Nov 2010 13:32:15 -0800

FAIR - Nov. 16 (News Analysis) - Journalists are supposed to criticize government officials for suppressing information or destroying evidence-- not advocate such actions. If journalism is to contribute to a democratic society, it must frequently expose the country to unpleasant truths. But for Gibson, guest-hosting Fox's popular "The O'Reilly Factor" program, the point of journalism is to preserve the legitimacy of those in power: "George Bush is going to be president. And who needs to know that he's not a legitimate president? Al Gore? Jesse Jackson? His political opponents? How does it do any good for the country to find out that, by somebody's count, the wrong guy is president?"

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Political Donations Are OK for Executives, Who Don't Influence News…on Some Other Planet

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

FAIR - By Peter Hart - Nov. 12 (News Analysis) - Olbermann asked Kurtz: Howard, how far up the tree does it go? If you and I and Greg can't donate, can our bosses donate? Can our bosses' boss donate? Can Rupert Murdoch donate? Because surely, no matter what you might think of what I did, he must have more influence on what appears on TV news than I do. And if it's not Rupert, what about the chairman of GE or of Comcast?

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FAIR Blog » Blog Archive » Incoherent Trade Reporting

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

FAIR - By Peter Hart - Nov. 12 (News Analysis) - It's never hard to figure out what side the media are on when it comes to corporate-friendly "free trade" deals. They're for them, because they're "free," and people who oppose them apparently prefer protectionism over freedom.

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Fox News: The No. 1 Name in Murder Fantasies

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

FAIR - By Steve Rendall - Nov. 10 (News Analysis) - Bill O'Reilly's recent "joke" about decapitating Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank was only the latest example of a demented Fox News culture that permits on-air personalities to fantasize about assassination and other forms of violence against those deemed enemies of the station, its personalities or their worldview.

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NYT Fails to Factcheck Republican Victory Laps

Mon, 08 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

FAIR - By Peter Hart - Nov. 08 (News Analysis) - There are almost always stories in the Monday papers about what politicians said on the Sunday morning chat shows. Today's New York Times is no different, and given the election outcome the quotes are primarily from Republicans taking their victory laps. None of that is surprising, but it would make sense for journalists to fact check some of the egregiously misleading statements that these politicians are uttering. (In a perfect world, of course, they'd be pressed during their TV interviews, but we're nowhere near that reality.)

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PBS Responds to FAIR Studies: Ombud echoes concerns, but producers question need to broaden sources

Mon, 25 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

FAIR - Oct. 25 (Press Release) - The PBS ombud and representatives of the public television programs studied in FAIR's new report, "Taking the Public Out of Public TV," have responded to the research that shows an elite, inside-the-Beltway slant to the programs' guestlists.

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Howard Fineman: 'The Best of the Old' Media?

Wed, 22 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

FAIR - Sep. 22 (Opinion) - One potential benefit of so-called "new media" is the chance that news outlets on the Web might offer a break from the tired old conventional wisdom of the corporate "old media." But when Arianna Huffington (Media Decoder, 9/19/10) announced the Huffington Post's hiring of Newsweek's Howard Fineman, she described the move as a sign that her website was now "able to bring in the best of the old." While Fineman may not exactly represent the best of old media, a case can be made that he's one of the most old media of all political journalists.

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Militarization of State Dept. Stirs Little Media Interest

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

FAIR - By Steve Rendall - Sep. 10 (Opinion) - The policy has not changed. It is true that the number of troops are significantly lower than they were at their height of 165,000; it's now down to about 50,000. That's a good thing. Reduction in troops is a good thing. But the notion that this troop reduction somehow means that all combat brigades, let alone combat troops, are out of Iraq is just specious.

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First, Bash the Teachers

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

FAIR - Sep. 10 - by Peter HartWriting on the Wall Street Journal editorial page (10/1/09) under the headline “How Teachers Unions Lost the Media,” two education writers praised the press for turning on teachers, showing a “new attitude” that is in sync with today’s politics: read more

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Violence Does Cross the Border After All--Going the Other Way

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

FAIR - By Jim Naureckas - Sep. 08 (News Analysis) - An imaginary crime wave supposedly caused by unauthorized immigration from Mexico has been frequently offered by pundits as a rationalization for Arizona's draconian anti-immigrant law. It would be more helpful for media observers to call attention to the actual assistance U.S. gun dealers are providing to violent criminals on the other side of the border.

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