Monthly Archives: January 2010

Action Alert: NPR Brings on David Horowitz to Trash Howard Zinn

Posted on 01/29/2010 by Jim Naureckas

FAIR has a new Action Alert (1/29/10) about All Things Considered's obituary of historian Howard Zinn, which "balances" the praise of Noam Chomsky and Julian Bond with a substance-free attack by far-right activist David Horowitz. If you communicate with the … Continue reading →

Posted in Media Activism | 382 Comments

David Brooks Thinks the Little Guy Isn't Sacrificing Enough

Posted on 01/29/2010 by Jim Naureckas

David Brooks, the conservative New York Times columnist who speaks for the little guy who eats at the Applebee's salad bar, has figured out (1/29/10) what Barack Obama ought to do: Force the country to accept common sacrifice. This is … Continue reading →

Posted in Economy, New York Times | Tagged , | 17 Comments

Presenting the Fed as Financial Philosopher Kings

Posted on 01/29/2010 by Jim Naureckas

AP's story (1/28/10) on Ben Bernanke's reconfirmation as chair of the Federal Reserve states plainly what is more usually the unstated assumption in corporate media coverage of the Fed: The battle over Bernanke's confirmation has been a test of central … Continue reading →

Posted in Economy | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Another Embarrassing Factcheck From Calvin Woodward

Posted on 01/28/2010 by Jim Naureckas

AP's Calvin Woodward, who has the standing assignment of "factchecking" political speeches, continues to be an embarrassment to genuine factcheckers everywhere–substituting his own weird value judgments, semantic games and crystal-ball gazing for genuine examination of facts (FAIR Blog, 10/30/08, 2/25/09, … Continue reading →

Posted in Economy, Healthcare, Politics | Tagged , | 4 Comments

New Action Alert: Does NYT's Jerusalem Chief Have a Conflict?

Posted on 01/27/2010 by Jim Naureckas

FAIR has a new Action Alert out, "Does NYT's Top Israel Reporter Have a Son in the IDF?" (1/27/10), about the New York Times' failure to respond to questions about whether Jerusalem bureau chief Ethan Bronner's son is enlisted in … Continue reading →

Posted in International, Israel/Palestine, Media Activism, New York Times | Tagged , | 13 Comments

NYT Covers Tasini's 'Long Shot' Senate Bid

Posted on 01/27/2010 by Jim Naureckas

The New York Times, which we had criticized (FAIR Blog, 1/12/10, 1/13/10) for ignoring insurgent candidate Jonathan Tasini in its coverage of the New York Senate race, ran a substantial piece about his candidacy today (1/27/10). While the piece, by … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Maybe Anti-ACORN 'Pimp' Should Have Listened to His Friends

Posted on 01/27/2010 by Jim Naureckas

An interesting catch from Think Progress (1/26/10)–from an interview conducted last year by Fox News' Chris Wallace (9/27/09) with pretend pimp James O'Keefe: WALLACE: O'Keefe says he wants to do more undercover films, and he has some targets in mind. … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | Tagged | 8 Comments

Healthcare and Budget Reconciliation…Again

Posted on 01/27/2010 by Peter Hart

The lead in an article in today's New York Times (1/26/10) tells us that the White House and Congressional Democrats will soon decide "whether to use a procedural maneuver" to pass a healthcare bill with less than 60 votes in … Continue reading →

Posted in Healthcare | Tagged , | 12 Comments

If Americans Are Uninformed, Corporate Media Have Made Them So

Posted on 01/26/2010 by Jim Naureckas

Time's Joe Klein wrote on his magazine's Swampland blog (1/25/10) that the American public doesn't understand that the economy benefited from the Obama administration's stimulus efforts. So far, so good–it's true that economists generally feel that the stimulus bill had … Continue reading →

Posted in Economy | Tagged | 5 Comments

Paul Harvey's Attempted Hoax Was Beginning of Beautiful Friendship

Posted on 01/23/2010 by Jim Naureckas

An enterprising Washington Post report by Joe Stephens (1/23/10) uses the Freedom Of Information Act to uncover the close and creepy relationship between folksy far-right broadcaster Paul Harvey and longtime FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. The documents Stephens uncovered show … Continue reading →

Posted in Media Criticism | Tagged , | 8 Comments

'You Can't Write These Things About People You Respect'

Posted on 01/22/2010 by Jim Naureckas

Amy Wilentz has a strong critique of the media in her column in the new issue of the Nation (2/8/10). Starting with the New York Times' David Brooks (1/15/10; see FAIR Blog, 1/15/10), she demolishes his facile comparison of Haiti … Continue reading →

Posted in International | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Harper's Questions Gitmo 'Suicides'

Posted on 01/22/2010 by Steve Rendall

Following a 2006 incident in which three Guantanamo detainees had apparently taken their own lives, the Pentagon responded by describing the suicides as "asymmetrical warfare" against the U.S. Here' s how the BBC reported it at the time (6/11/06): Rear … Continue reading →

Posted in Media Criticism | 3 Comments

Newspeak 2010

Posted on 01/22/2010 by Jim Naureckas

The First Amendment confirms the freedom to think for ourselves. –Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy (1/21/10), granting corporations the power to spend untold billions to do our thinking for us

Posted in First Amendment | Tagged | 11 Comments

O'Reilly's Lament: We Can't Make Fun of Arabs Anymore

Posted on 01/21/2010 by Steve Rendall

On the January 15 edition of his show, while chatting with Ray Stevens, who recorded the song "Ahab the Arab" nearly 50 years ago, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly seemed to become nostalgic for a time when making fun of … Continue reading →

Posted in Fox News, Race | Tagged | 8 Comments

Pedophiles, Terrorists and the Massachusetts Senate Race

Posted on 01/21/2010 by Jim Naureckas

An illuminating account of how conservatives won the Massachusetts Senate race (Washington Independent, 1/20/10) singled out an op-ed by Dorothy Rabinowitz in the Wall Street Journal (1/14/10) as having energized citizens to vote against Martha Coakley. And, honestly, the piece … Continue reading →

Posted in Media Criticism, Wall Street Journal | Tagged | 2 Comments