NewsTrust - Ethics in Journalism - Most Recent Stories: News (Independent)

New Report Shows Big-Money Politics and Broadcast Media Are Undermining Democracy

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

FreePress.net - Jan. 26 (Special Report) - On Thursday, Free Press released Citizens Inundated, a report that follows the money trail from big-spending political donors to the bank accounts of the nation's largest broadcast companies.

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Maddow Explodes At PolitiFact

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Rachel Maddow - Jan. 26 (News Analysis) - Rachel Maddow lit into controversial fact-checking outfit PolitiFact with notable fury on her Wednesday show, hammering the organization for a series of statements it made...

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GOP Debates Let Loose The Roar Of The Crowd

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Howard Fineman - Jan. 20 (News Analysis) - Candidates' attacks, gaffes and memory lapses have dominated coverage of the 21 Republican debates so far, but reporters are covering the wrong people. The real story isn't on the stage; it's in the audience.

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SHOCK: Meet The New Face Of San Francisco's Most Liberal Talk Radio Station

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - Jan. 06 (News Report) - When listeners of Bay Area progressive talk radio station Green 960 tuned into to host Stephanie Miller's weekday morning drive-time radio program on Wednesday, they...

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Politifact Has Decided That A Totally True Thing Is The "Lie Of The Year," For Some Reason

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Jason Linkins - Dec. 20 (News Analysis) - So, you know, go form an organization called WordTweaker and commit yourself to advocating for the most civil sounding adjectives, if that's what you want to do! But let's recall, Politifact, that your lie of the year is "Republicans voted to end Medicare." And end it, they did vote to do! Now, if the Democrats had said, "Republicans take Medicare out behind the Cannon Office Building and horsewhip it," that's a different story. But you've decided -- incorrectly -- that the most vanilla way of the describing what happened is a deception. And "privatizing" Medicare ends Medicare, as Medicare is a public entitlement program.

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5 of the Biggest Hacks in American Media

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Alex Pareene - Dec. 20 (News Analysis) - Excerpted from Alex Pareene and Salon's 2011 Hack List, here are five of the worst, most predictable and least interesting pundits in America.

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Paul Ryan’s Undeserved Awards

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

The Nation - By Ari Berman - Dec. 06 (News Analysis) - Tonight in Washington Rep. Paul Ryan will receive Politico ’s “ Health Care Policymaker of the Year ” award. Washington Monthly blogger Steve Benen deftly summarizes the many reasons why Ryan is so undeserving of said award. It’s been several months sinc

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Romney’s Ad ‘Deceitful & Dishonest’?

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

FactCheck - By Brooks Jackson - Nov. 23 (Fact Check) - The Obama campaign is in a lather over Mitt Romney’s first TV spot, calling it “a deceitful and dishonest attack” because of an edited quote from 2008. That’s a matter of opinion. We find a far more consequential issue is the ad’s exaggerated claim that the new health care law … More >>

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As Herman Cain Surges, Corporate Media Ignore His Koch Connections

Sun, 16 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Adele M. Stan - Oct. 16 (News Analysis) - With two major polls showing Atlanta businessman Herman Cain now moving ahead of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney to claim the top spot among the contenders for the GOP presidential nomination, media are beating a path to his door. Given Cain's clear and strong connection to the billionaire newsmaker David Koch, you'd think that Cain's longstanding ties to the Americans For Prosperity Foundation, which is chaired by Koch, and its sibling organization, simply known as Americans For Prosperity, would be a meaty topic for enterprising reporters. Apparently not.

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Protesters Are Seeking Change in the Streets Because It Won't Come From the Ballot Box

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Naomi Klein - Oct. 06 (News Analysis) - Among the thousands at last night's Occupy Wall Street protest here in New York City was award-winning journalist and author Naomi Klein. She is the author of the bestselling book, "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.” She also wrote "No Logo," a book that has become a cultural manifesto for critics of unfettered capitalism worldwide. Klein joins us to discuss the Occupy Wall Street movement and why it is being belittled in the corporate media. “My biggest fear was that the Obama presidency was was going to lead this generation of young people into political cynicism and political apathy,” Klein says. “But instead, they are going to where the power is. They are realizing the change is not coming in Washington because politicians are so controlled by corporate interest, and that that is the fundamental crisis in this country.” [Transcript to come. Check back soon.]

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Fox Continues To Fabricate Obama Administration Bullying

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Media Matters - Sep. 27 (Fact Check) - On its Fox Nation website, Fox accused the Obama administration of "pressur[ing]" the Ford Motor Co. to pull a television ad promoting the fact that the company didn't take advantage of the auto bailout. However, Ford and the White House have both denied the allegation, with Ford saying it pulled the ad because the ad's campaign had ended.

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Economists Shut Out of Debt-Ceiling Debate

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

nationofchange.org - Sep. 22 (News Analysis) - Of the 1,258 guest appearances during segments that discussed the issue in the month leading up to the debt deal, only 52 -- or 4.1 percent -- were made by economists.

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Maddow Gets Fed Up

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Rachel Maddow - Aug. 19 (News Analysis) - A frustrated Rachel Maddow called out Republicans for their hypocrisy surrounding President Obama's vacation--and the media for allowing the hypocrisy to go unchecked.

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Rick Perry says government wants to require commercial driver's licenses of anyone who drives a tractor across a road

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

PolitiFact - By W. Gardner Selby - Aug. 17 (News Analysis) - Stumping for president at an Iowa dinner on Aug. 14, 2011, Texas Gov. Rick Perry said: "Now you tell me whether this is true or not. But one of my fellas just told me, he said that they're talking about a new regulation that if you drive your tractor ... across one public road, you're going to have to have a commercial driver's license. Get out of here! You're kiddin' me. I mean, what are they thinking?" The former cotton farmer and Texas agriculture commissioner sounded more certain by the next morning, saying in remarks excerpted on CNN’s Aug. 15 "Newsroom": "Let me give you just a — this is such an obscene, crazy regulation. They want to make — if you are a tractor driver, if you drive your tractor across a public road, you are going to have to have a commercial driver's license. Now, how idiotic is that?" Attention drawn! We looked into who’s wanting to impose such a mandate and found that such a proposal popped up this year in Illinois. But after the federal government declared last week that it does not plan new rules affecting farm vehicles, the Illinois plans were shelved, according to Guy Tridgell, a spokesman for the Illinois agency. "That issue is null and void," Tridgell told us.

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The Mainstream Media's Shallow Coverage of The Response

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Texas Observer - By Robert Wilder - Aug. 15 (News Analysis) - There was probably a time when an evangelist calling for the mass conversion of Jewish people to Christianity at an event "initiated" by a mainstream presidential contender would ruffle some feathers. Apparenly not anymore.

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How the Head of Fox News Is Making Americans More Right-Wing, More Ignorant and Ever More Terrified

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Tim Dickinson - Aug. 10 (News Analysis) - Even his boss Rupert Murdoch is afraid of Roger Ailes. At the Fox News Chrismas party the year the network overtook arch-rival CNN in the cable ratings, tipsy employees were herded down to the basement of a midtown bar in New York. As they gathered around a television mounted high on the wall, an image flashed to life, glowing bright in the darkened tavern: the MSNBC logo. A chorus of boos erupted among the Fox faithful. The CNN logo followed, and the catcalls multiplied. Then a third slide appeared, with a telling twist. In place of the logo for Fox News was a beneficent visage: the face of the network's founder. The man known to his fiercest loyalists simply as "the Chairman" – Roger Ailes. "It was as though we were looking at Mao," recalls Charlie Reina, a former Fox News producer. The Foxistas went wild. They let the dogs out. Woof! Woof! Woof! Even those who disliked the way Ailes runs his network joined in the display of fealty, given the culture of intimidation at Fox News. "It's like the Soviet Union or China: People are always looking over their shoulders," says a former executive with the network's parent, News Corp. "There are people who turn people in."

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Atomic Cover-Up: The Hidden Story Behind the U.S. Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, George Weller - Aug. 09 (Special Report) - As radiation readings in Japan reach their highest levels since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant meltdowns, we look at the beginning of the atomic age. Today is the 66th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Nagasaki, which killed some 75,000 people and left another 75,000 seriously wounded. It came just three days after the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, killing around 80,000 people and injuring some 70,000. By official Japanese estimates, nearly 300,000 people died from the bombings, including those who lost their lives in the ensuing months and years from related injuries and illnesses. Other researchers estimate a much higher death toll.

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The Battle For Egypt's Media: Video Report On Press Freedom After The Revolution

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Sharif Abdel Kouddous - Aug. 08 (News Report) - The Egyptian revolution can count a number of huge successes: most notably, ousting former president, Hosni Mubarak, from power and putting him on public trial. But the revolution is far from over. The struggle for governmental reform, civil liberties and economic and social justice is being waged everyday. And there is one issue that affects all others: the media. Whether it is newspapers, television, radio or the Internet, the media is a central component of the revolution in Egypt. And while the press has opened up in a number of ways in the wake of the revolution, it is still very much an uphill battle. Journalists still face government repression and state media still largely acts as a government mouthpiece. Democracy Now! correspondents Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar have been looking at the issue of media reform in Egypt. They filed this video report from Cairo.

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Mainstream Media Ignores S&P Attack On Republicans

Sun, 07 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

truth-out.org - By Thom Hartmann - Aug. 07 (News Analysis) - Have you seen, anywhere, in any media, or even heard reported or repeated on NPR, the following sentence? “We have changed our assumption on this because the majority of Republicans in Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues, a position we believe Congress reinforced by passing the act.”

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Breivik's Fundamentalist War on Politics, and Ours

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

truth-out.org - By Henry A. Giroux - Aug. 03 (News Analysis) - by using the clip from "The Town," it appears that Republican leaders used gratuitous images of mind-crushing violence and retribution as a legitimate, even inspiring, framework for motivating support for legislative practices that will have deleterious, even violent, impacts on vulnerable populations in the United States, especially children. This is not merely barbarism parading as political reform - it is also a blatant indicator of the degree to which sadism and a theater of cruelty have become normalized at the highest reaches of government.

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If a Married Lesbian Couple Saves 40 Teens from the Norway Massacre and No One Writes About it, Did it Really Happen?

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

wordpress.com - Aug. 02 (News Report) - Dalen and Hansen drove the boat to the island, picked up from the water victims in shock in, the young and wounded, and transported them to the opposite shore to the mainland. Between runs they saw that the bullets had hit the right side of the boat. Since there were so many and not all fit at once aboard, they returned to the island four times.

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The NY Times’ Ostrich Act on JFK Assassination Getting Old

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Russ Baker - Aug. 02 (News Analysis) - How to explain this see-no-evil act? There are many reasons that news organizations will not tell the whole story, or fudge what could be revealed. Whatever is behind this shameful failure, reporters and editors know that the JFK assassination is just “too hot to handle,” that it is a kind of electrified third rail that can destroy a journalism career. But even well-founded fear—of being ridiculed, marginalized, demoted, or otherwise penalized—is no justification for this unrelenting pattern of behavior at an institution that promotes itself as a “paper of record.” Anyone who calls him- or herself a journalist must be willing to take risks for the truth. After all, if the public can’t count on journalists to get it right on the big stories, why should they trust us on the rest? And if journalism can’t be trusted, democracy is on a slippery slope.

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NewsTrust dives into the fact-check business with expanded Truthsquad

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Nieman Journalism Lab - By Justin Ellis - Jul. 27 (News) - Just in time for the 2012 elections, the cottage industry of media fact-checking is ramping up. That latest addition is Truthsquad, which began last year as a pilot project of NewsTrust. TruthSquad will differentiate itself from its peers by bringing in the crowd, combining the talents of professional journalists with the eagerness (if not competitiveness) of the public to separate fact from less-than fact. As the Truthsquad homepage puts it, they’re “developing a pro-am network to fact-check political claims during the 2012 elections.” What’s new is additional financial backing from Craig Newmark and a partnership with the Center for Public Integrity — and with them Truthsquad plans to go big, creating widgets and tools for fact-checking statements on any news site and joining PolitiFact and FactCheck.org as part of the Internet’s informal truth-sleuth network. The big push is a new phase for NewsTrust, which plans to shift its focus from its news curation and media literacy work to focus on fact-checking and building out Truthsquad with a launch this fall. When I spoke to Fabrice Florin, executive director of NewsTrust, he said the current state of politics and media have made for a environment ripe for fact-checking.

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Norway Attacks Expose U.S. Media’s Double Standard on “Terrorism”

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Glenn Greenwald: - Jul. 26 (News Analysis) - “When it became apparent that Muslims were not involved and that, in reality, it was a right-wing nationalist with extremely anti-Muslim, strident anti-Muslim bigotry as part of his worldview, the word 'terrorism' almost completely disappeared from establishment media discourse. Instead, he began to be referred to as a 'madman' or an 'extremist,'" says Greenwald. “It really underscores, for me, the fact that this word 'terrorism,' that plays such a central role in our political discourse and our law, really has no objective meaning. It’s come to mean nothing more than Muslims who engage in violence."

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What Does Lowballing the Number of Dead Iraqi Civilians Tell Us About Ourselves?

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Russ Wellen - Jul. 25 (News Analysis) - Over a period of about two weeks in May, I encountered in major news media three separate references to the number of people who had died in the Iraq war. Anderson Cooper, on his CNN show, Steven Lee Myers in the New York Times Magazine and Brian MacQuarrie in the Boston Globe all pegged the number in the tens of thousands, sometimes adding “at least.” . . . The “tens of thousands” mantra is peculiar because even the most conservative calculation—that provided by Iraq Body Count, a British NGO—is now more than 100,000.

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