U.S. airstrikes in Libya have brought renewed focus on the 1988 explosion of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Some are making the argument that the U.S. could–and should–be getting revenge for this act a mere 22 years later. Last night (3/21/11), one cable news host said this: Given the fact Americans died on that 747 over Lockerbie, I'm all for this mission…. I'm an American. You're an American. We all have opinions. I have always believed thatQaddafi was a terrorist. Let's look at the tape again of flight Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Do you need any [...]
Feb
07
2011
The Right Way to Support a Friendly Dictator…er, 'Strongman'
By 6 Comments
From the Friday broadcast of the PBS NewsHour (2/4/11) came a discussion about how the U.S. supports dictators–which elicited some chuckles. Remember, Mark Shields is the one who plays the "left" on the program. MARK SHIELDS: Just one little point of personal privilege on Joe Biden, who did take a hit for not being able to say dictator, but in United States politics, I mean, it's always been, if someone is on our side, he is a strongman. (LAUGHTER) MARK SHIELDS: If he is on the other side, he is a dictator. I mean, that has sort of been the [...]
Feb
01
2011
Arab TV vs. Polite People Like You
By 14 Comments
An accidentally revealing moment fromRachel Maddow's interview with Martin Indyk of the Brookings Institution last night (MSNBC, 1/31/11): MADDOW: Well, let me ask you about one tactical question in this diplomatic dance, I guess. Are American officials making appearances on Arabic language TV channels at this point? Should they be prioritizing doing that right now? INDYK: Probably. I don't think they are doing a lot of that at the moment, partly because the Arab interviewers are likely to be a lot more pressing than polite people like you. MADDOW: I think that is a great insult, thank you. INDYK: No, [...]
Jan
11
2011
O'Reilly: The Real Problem Is MSNBC
By 11 Comments
Last night (O'Reilly Factor, 1/10/11), Bill O'Reillytalking to Brit Hume: O'REILLY: We have a network, an entire network that's built around attacking Fox News and right-wing people. That's all they do at MSNBC. They have nothing else. HUME: How's that working out for them? O'REILLY: It's not working out for them. But it does mean that I have to have 24-hour security. That I have to worry about my children being assaulted. OK? That's what it means. You talking about nuts? These people ignite those nuts all day long. I don't see the equivalency of talk radio. I said that [...]
Jan
10
2011
With Short Memories, Violent Tone of Media Unlikely to Change
By 3 Comments
One theme in the coverage of the attempted assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffordsconcerns whether the tone of the political debate will change. That's probably going to happen in the short-term. A long-term shift is unlikely. There have been frequent allusions to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and the nationaldiscussion that ensued at the time about violent rhetoric on right-wing talk shows. See Extra!'s 1995 article "AM Armies" for more background. Roughly 10 years later, MSNBC's Joe Scarborough convened a panel (4/27/05) to discuss talk radio extremism, in the wake of incendiary comments made by Air America's Randi Rhodes. As FAIR [...]
Nov
18
2010
No, Senator, You Can't 'End' Fox–But Do We Have to Pay for It?
By 35 Comments
Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia caused a bit of an uproar at a hearing yesterday. As Brian Stelter reported at his New York Times blog (11/17/10), Rockefeller mused: There's a little bug inside of me which wants to get the FCC to say to Fox and to MSNBC, "Out. Off. End. Goodbye." It would be a big favor to political discourse, to our ability to do our work here in Congress and to the American people, to be able to talk with each other and have some faith in their government and, more importantly, in their future. Rockefeller [...]
Nov
16
2010
Olbermann and the Cult of Objectivity
By 41 Comments
I agree with Keith Olbermann (11/15/10) about the dubious value of "objectivity" as a journalistic value; he makes a telling point about how journalistic icons like Walter Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow are most honored for the moments when they reached conclusions and asserted values. And I think he's right that the U.S. media establishment's failure to see through the lies that sold the Iraq War is a singular failure of our journalistic system–one that does indeed suggest that we need an entirely different system that better serves our democracy. Olbermann's MSNBC forerunner, Phil Donahue, was fired in the run [...]
Nov
12
2010
Political Donations Are OK for Executives, Who Don't Influence News…on Some Other Planet
By 24 Comments
MSNBC host Keith Olbermann's indefinite suspension for violating network policies regarding political donations lasted all of two work days. On his Wednesday show (11/10/10), Olbermannbrought up the point that FAIR made in our alert–the difficulty of squaring such a policy with MSNBC parent General Electric'spolitical giving and multi-million dollar lobbying. Olbermann was joined by Nation blogger Greg Mitchell and Howard Kurtz of CNN/Daily Beast. Olbermann asked Kurtz: Howard, how far up the tree does it go? If you and I and Greg can't donate, can our bosses donate? Can our bosses' boss donate? Can Rupert Murdoch donate? Because surely, no [...]
Nov
09
2010
FAIR Out There
By 5 Comments
–On Democracy Now! (11/8/10): While Keith Olbermann's donations became front-page news, little attention has been paid to the massive amount of political spending by MSNBC's parent company General Electric, one of the nation's largest military contractors. Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting reports GE made over $2 million in political contributions in the 2010 election cycle. The top recipient was Republican Senate candidate Rob Portman from Ohio. The company has also spent $32 million on lobbying this year and contributed over $1 million to campaign against a California ballot initiative aimed at eliminating tax loopholes for major corporations. –George Curry, writing [...]
Nov
05
2010
Action Alert: NBC/GE's Double Standards on Political Donations
By 73 Comments
MSNBC has suspended host Keith Olbermann for making political contributions–even though GE/NBC executives and fellow MSNBC host Joe Scarborough has made similar donations. If you'd like to urge MSNBC to follow a consistent standard, see FAIR's Action Alert (11/5/10). And please post copies of your messages, and/or comments on the alert, to the comments thread here.
Oct
08
2010
Undocumented Labor in Lou Dobbs' Backyard
By 5 Comments
Isabel Macdonald, a former FAIR staff member, published an article in the Nation (10/7/10) revealing that undocumented workers had been landscaping Lou Dobbs' Florida home and looking after his daughter's show horses. As a hardline commentator on the issue of "illegal immigrant workers," one would think Dobbs would be a little embarrassed about this discovery. When Dobbs and Macdonald appeared on MSNBC's Last Word (10/7/10) yesterday to debate the issue, Macdonald pointed out that "Lou Dobbs, who has made himself an emblem of this get-tough approach to immigration…had been exploiting undocumented labor." Dobbs attempted to sidestep the issue by claiming [...]
Oct
08
2010
Chris Matthews' Role in MSNBC's Donahue Firing
By 50 Comments
Gabriel Sherman's piece in New York magazine (10/3/10) on the cable news wars includes a bit of history on MSNBC's firing of progressive host Phil Donahue in 2003; an internal memo at the timeworried that the showwould be "a home for the liberal anti-war agenda at the same time that our competitors are waving the flag at every opportunity." Sherman focuses on MSNBC personality Chris Matthews–who sometimes claimshe was opposed to the Iraq War–and his desire to get Donahue fired: Donahue's problems only increased when Chris Matthews let it be known that he wanted Donahue off the air. Matthews was [...]
Oct
04
2010
MSNBC Does Not–and Never Can–Play the Same Game as Fox
By 27 Comments
Gabriel Sherman's New York magazine piece on cable news (10/3/10) has an important insight into the Fox News' success: Fox's rightward flanking maneuver, capturing a disenfranchised part of the audience, was only part of its strategy. The news, especially political news, wasn't something that happened. It was something that you shaped out of the raw data, brought out of the clay of zhlubby, boring politics, reborn with heroes and villains, triumphs and reverses, never-ending story lines–what TV executives call "flow." And the beauty of it was that the viewers–the voters–were the protagonists, victims of evil Kenyan socialist overlords, or rebels, [...]
