FAIR
FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
Posts
Bombing People Is Not Feminist, No Matter How You Spin It
Some corporate media have recently been taken with the “inspirational� story of Emily Thompson, the first woman to pilot the super-costly F-35 jet in combat.
Corporate Media Looks to Purveyors of State Violence Abroad to Condemn State Violence at Home
By relying on CIA testimony, media shift the focus away from the tyranny in our own backyard in favor of pointing fingers at the “despotic leaders� of “the Third World�—never mind the fact that the US has no qualms with oppressive leadership in the Middle East when it aligns with our interests.
Jim Naureckas on Covid’s Preventable Nightmare, Clare Garvie on Police Facial Recognition
Trump’s bizarre delusions on Covid-19 aren’t just bats in his attic; they’ve driven a response that is nothing short of disastrous.
CNN’s Portrayal of North Korea as Lawless Aggressor Reverses Reality
When an international siege campaign impoverishes North Korea and causes mass starvation, US propagandists sadistically mock the North for selling sand, calling it a “rogue state� that “starves its own people.�
‘You’re Not Allowed to Read Transgender People Out of Protection Because You Dislike Them’
“Generally applicable nondiscrimination laws protect everyone, including unpopular groups, including, in this specific instance, LGBT people; and we’re not going to read extratextual exceptions into them.”
Are Swedes Shunned for High Covid Rates—or Is It Really ABBA?
A New York Times reporter tries to explain why Swedes are no longer allowed to visit other Scandinavian countries in a way that minimizes having to acknowledge how much he sold deadly snake oil to Times readers.
FAIR’s 4-page, ad-free, newsletter publishes ten times a year bringing you the media analysis and activism that you won’t find anywhere else. Choose a print subscription, a digital PDF edition, or both together.
CounterSpin, the weekly radio show of FAIR, provides a critical exposé of the corporate news. Produced and hosted by Janine Jackson it is heard on more than 135 noncommercial stations. The current show, back archives and transcripts are available online.
FAIR Studies
In Pandemic, Sunday Shows Centered Official Voices, Sidelined Independent Health Experts
On the networks’ Sunday morning political talk shows, which play an important role in setting agendas for national political debate, the voices asked to participate were overwhelmingly the usual narrow cast of Beltway actors, with independent public health experts playing a marginal role, and public interest voices almost entirely sidelined.
As US Consigns Iranians to Death, Corporate Media Look the Other Way
Because the US government is directly responsible for Iranian deaths, Washington’s role should be a central concern to US media. Yet that’s not the case, according to an examination of stories.
Debate Moderators Frame Questions to Define Acceptable Politics
Media debate hosts use their platform less to inform voters in an even-handed way than to define which positions—and candidates—are acceptable, and which are not.
ABC Asking for Attacks Was a Lazy Way to Run a Debate
Election Focus 2020: The first half hour of the debate was almost entirely given over to non-policy sparring over electability (including the bogeyman of socialism) and experience.
Media on Climate Crisis: Don’t Organize, Mourn
While US media have indeed ramped up their coverage of the climate crisis, they continue to give short shrift to what are arguably the most important factors for determining our future: what specific human practices are responsible for the changing climate, why carbon emissions continue to rise, and what we can and should be doing about it.
