FAIR, the national media watch group, has been offering well-documented criticism of media bias and censorship since 1986. We work to invigorate the First Amendment by advocating for greater diversity in the press and by scrutinizing media practices that marginalize public interest, minority and dissenting viewpoints. As an anti-censorship organization, we expose neglected news stories and defend working journalists when they are muzzled. As a progressive group, FAIR believes that structural reform is ultimately needed to break up the dominant media conglomerates, establish independent public broadcasting and promote strong non-profit sources of information.
Uniquely, FAIR works with both activists and journalists. We maintain a regular dialogue with reporters at news outlets across the country, providing constructive critiques when called for and applauding exceptional, hard-hitting journalism. We also encourage the public to contact media with their concerns, to become media activists rather than passive consumers of news.
FAIR publishes Extra!, the newsletter of media criticism, and produces the weekly radio program CounterSpin, the show that brings you the news behind the headlines. In addition, FAIR’s thriving email list distributes articles and Action Alerts to our international network of over 50,000 activists. Sign up today on FAIR’s homepage.
For an in-depth explanation of FAIR’s critique of the mainstream media, you should start with our overview, What’s Wrong with the News? You might also check out the article What’s FAIR?, by FAIR founder Jeff Cohen. See what journalists, activists and scholars have to say about FAIR.
Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting, Inc. (FAIR) is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. FAIR’s federal tax-exempt I.D. number is 13-3392362. Donations to FAIR are tax-deductible.
Staff & Associates
FAIR staff are available for speaking engagements on a variety of key media issues. To contact by email: use first initial (no space) last name@fair.org
Janine Jackson
Program Director & CounterSpin Producer/Host
Janine Jackson is FAIR’s program director and and producer/host of FAIR’s syndicated weekly radio show CounterSpin. She contributes frequently to FAIR’s newsletter Extra!, and co-edited The FAIR Reader: An Extra! Review of Press and Politics in the ’90s (Westview Press). She has appeared on ABC‘s Nightline and CNN Headline News, among other outlets, and has testified to the Senate Communications Subcommittee on budget reauthorization for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Her articles have appeared in various publications, including In These Times and the UAW’s Solidarity, and in books including Civil Rights Since 1787 (New York University Press) and Stop the Next War Now: Effective Responses to Violence and Terrorism (New World Library). Jackson is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and has an M.A. in sociology from the New School for Social Research.
Jim Naureckas
Extra! Editor and Social Media Director
Jim Naureckas is the editor of FAIR.org, the website of Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting. Since 1990, he has edited Extra!, FAIR’s print publication, now a monthly newsletter. He is the co-author of Way Things Aren’t: Rush Limbaugh’s Reign of Error, and co-editor of The FAIR Reader: An Extra! Review of Press and Politics in the ’90s. He has worked as an investigative reporter for the newspaper In These Times, where he covered the Iran/Contra scandal, and was managing editor of the Washington Report on the Hemisphere, a newsletter on Latin America. Naureckas was born in Libertyville, Illinois, in 1964, and graduated from Stanford University in 1985 with a bachelor’s degree in political science. Since 1997 he has been married to Janine Jackson, FAIR’s program director. You can follow him on Twitter at @JNaureckas.
Deborah Thomas
Publisher
Deborah Thomas is the publisher of FAIR’s newsletter Extra!. The publisher of Grand Street literary journal for ten years, she was art director of Dance Magazine, and worked on a variety of progressive magazines, including Seven Days, Politicks & Other Human Interests and The Nation. Book design work has included projects for Verso, Overlook Press, Nation Books, Franklin Square Press and Roof Books. She has received the Silver and Gold Folio Awards for Direct Mail, and the Computer Press Awards for Best Newsletter.
Jeff Cohen
FAIR founder
Jeff Cohen founded FAIR in 1986. He served as the group’s executive director for a number of years, and later on its board of directors. Upon taking a full time job with MSNBC in May 2002, Cohen stepped down from FAIR’s board. He now directs the Park Center for Independent Media at Ithaca College, where he is an associate professor of journalism. His most recent book is Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media. The book focuses on his years as a TV commentator at CNN, Fox News and MSNBC, and as senior producer of MSNBC’s Phil Donahue primetime show (which was terminated for political reasons three weeks before the Iraq invasion). With Norman Solomon, he coauthored three books: Adventures in Medialand, Through the Media Looking Glass and Wizards of Media Oz. He also coauthored The Way Things Aren’t: Rush Limbaugh’s Reign of Error (with Steve Rendall and Jim Naureckas). For four years, he co-wrote the weekly, nationally syndicated Media Beat column (with Norman Solomon) for Creators Syndicate. His columns on media and politics have been published online at such websites as HuffingtonPost, CommonDreams and AlterNet—and in dozens of dailies, including USA Today, Washington Post, LA Times, Boston Globe, Atlanta Constitution and Miami Herald. In 2011, he cofounded the online activist group RootsAction.org.
Associates
Joel Kupferman, Legal Counsel
Sharon Adams, Legal Counsel for Intellectual Property
Webmaster
Neil deMause
Counterspin Engineer
Alex Noyes