Home > Archives for 2013
Jun
07
2013

Pointless Partisanship on Surveillance

By 11 Comments
Susan Page

"Democrats on one side, Republicans on the other" is the way conventional Beltway reporters seem to see the world–and it's reflected in their reporting on political events. On the front page of USA Today (6/7/13), Susan Page has a piece wondering if the unfolding scandals surrounding the White House and surveillance will threaten the president's "agenda." That's a strange concern for the moment, but we'll put that aside. The most unusual part of the piece is the very premise: That Obama's actions have verified Republican criticisms of his presidency. As Page puts it, the current story is especially problematic for [...]

Filed Under: Barack Obama, USA Today Tagged With:
Jun
07
2013

Bob McChesney on Internet Giants and the National Security State

By 5 Comments

Last week on CounterSpin, we spoke with scholar and media historian Bob McChesney about his new book Digital Disconnect. His closing thoughts seems especially relevant in light of the blockbuster reporting this week from the Guardian and Washington Post.

Filed Under: Internet Tagged With: , ,
Jun
06
2013

O'Reilly Spins a Correction on 'White House Visits'

By 10 Comments
oreilly

On last night's O'Reilly Factor (6/5/13), the Fox News host asserted that there's still a lot the White House isn't telling us about the IRS/Tea Party scandal. But in the process he also, in his own special way, issued a correction–of sorts: The president will also not explain the IRS situation. His defenders denying that former IRS Chief Douglas Shulman visited the White House 157 times. But he was cleared into the People's House 157 times. That is a fact. Those who diminish the Shulman factor are lying directly to you. Now this is confusing. O'Reilly has been telling his [...]

Filed Under: Fox News, Taxes Tagged With: , , ,
Jun
05
2013

After a Massacre, a 'Glimmer of Hope'?

By 6 Comments
CBS's Elizabeth Palmer in Afghanistan.

In a courtroom base near Tacoma, Washington, Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales will plead guilty today to killing 16 civilians–most of them women and children–in an Afghan village on March 11, 2012. A little more than a year later, U.S. media seem to have not much interest left in the Bales case.

Filed Under: Afghanistan, AP, CBS, Crime, USA Today Tagged With:
Jun
05
2013

Brian Williams Makes the Case for Putting NBC on Trial

By 15 Comments

NBC's Brian Williams called Bradley Manning "the man who may have put U.S. military secrets in the hands of Osama bin Laden." But giving classified information to the public is something that news outlets–including NBC News–routinely do, and each time they do it they too could be accused of "aiding the enemy."

Filed Under: First Amendment, NBC, WikiLeaks Tagged With: , , ,
Jun
04
2013

Bradley Manning on TV Network News

By 11 Comments
manning-nbc

If you care at all about war and peace, press freedom, whistleblowers' rights and the public's right to know what the government is doing, the trial of Bradley Manning is of enormous consequence. It would have been hard for NBC News to come up with a more hostile framing.

Filed Under: ABC, CBS, NBC, WikiLeaks Tagged With: , ,
Jun
03
2013

Did Obama Flip Flop on the War Against the Press?

By 14 Comments
gregory-mtp-flip

While Meet the Press's David Gregory is playing "gotcha" by selectively editing Barack Obama's speeches, the real story here is that the administration's record of targeting investigative journalism is all too consistent.

Filed Under: Barack Obama, First Amendment, NBC Tagged With: ,
May
31
2013

FAIR TV: Obama's Terror 'Pivot,' Monsanto March, Schieffer's Lament

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fairtv053113

This week on FAIR TV: Obama's big speech on U.S. anti-terrorism policies was treated as a big shift, a pivot away from war. Was it? Activists around the world rallied against Monsanto–which wasn't considered big news here. And Bob Schieffer complains that the White House makes it hard to get good guests for his Sunday chat show. There's an easy fix for that, isn't there?    

Filed Under: Barack Obama, CBS, protest, War/Military Tagged With: ,
May
31
2013

Time Magazine Stands With Rahm

By 20 Comments
G9510.20.indd

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is, to say the least, controversial. And now he's on the cover of Time magazine. He has his detractors, sure, but it's not hard to figure out where Time comes down: They're standing with Rahm.

Filed Under: Time Tagged With: ,
May
31
2013

PRI's Pro-Fracking Spin

By 25 Comments

FAIR's new action alert takes a look at the pro-fracking spin on the public radio show show America Abroad. If you're sending them a letter to, please feel free to share it in the comments section below.       

Filed Under: Media Criticism
May
31
2013

Two Churches Make an Anti-Gay Trend at USA Today

By 9 Comments
Boy Scout Eric Klein at DC rally (cc photo: mar is sea Y)

USA Today's front-page headline (5/31/13): Churches Sever Scout Sponsorship The online headline, over Bob Smietana's piece on the reaction of church groups that sponsor Boy Scout troops to the Scouts' announced plan to accept gay Scouts was longer but no less sweeping: Religious Regretfully Sever Scout Sponsorships That's bad news for the Scouts, since as the article points out, "about 70 percent of Scout troops are chartered by a faith-based group." Must be tough, losing seven out of 10 sponsors all at once. Except the article doesn't report what the headlines claim at all. The article quotes one church leader, [...]

Filed Under: LGBT, USA Today Tagged With: , ,
May
29
2013

Good News, Everyone! (Except You Wage-Earners)

By 10 Comments
Monopoly Man (cc photo: Thomas Galvez)

The Washington Post's Wonkblog has a hopeful headline (5/28/13): The Economy Is Holding Up Surprisingly Well in a Year of Austerity And a version of this piece landed on the front page of the Post's print edition, under the headline "Economy Shows Some Endurance." And here's the good news in a nutshell: Americans with higher incomes are wealthier thanks to the stock market's 16 percent rise so far in 2013. Middle-income earners, whose assets are disproportionately tied up in their homes, are becoming wealthier thanks to higher housing prices–up 10.2 percent in 20 major cities in the year that ended [...]

Filed Under: Economy, Washington Post
May
28
2013

Bob Schieffer Is Tired of Booking Bad Guests on His Show

By 14 Comments
schieffer

Mainstream reporters are speaking openly about the chilling effect of the Obama White House's investigations into leaks of classified material. But this willingness to talk about how the White House operates can lead some journalists to make some rather strange arguments.

Filed Under: CBS, Iran, Libya Tagged With: ,
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