Hollywood's latest superhero movie has a political message that's not particularly hard to decipher. Yet fail to decipher it New York Times film critic Manohla Dargis evidently did.
Apr
24
2013
Drone Strike Testimony: Not News?
By 4 Comments
In a moment when media are fixated on terrorism and the possibility that some people might be motivated to carry out acts of violence against the United States in part because of the effects of U.S. wars, a Yemeni writer's account of the effects of drone strikes on his village would be well worth covering.
Mar
22
2013
FAIR TV: Scarborough's War, Steubenville, Drone 'Debate'
By 1 Comment
This week on FAIR TV: Joe Scarborough remembers some things about the Iraq War–but forgets the things he said back then. We'll take a look at the CNN Steubenville coverage that had so many critics outraged. And the Washington Post presented two takes on drone deaths in Pakistan.
Mar
22
2013
Time's Rethink on Drones
By 7 Comments
The new issue of Time has a pretty interesting piece on the debate over Obama's drone program. One way to measure the shift in official opinion is to consider that a little more than a year ago, the magazine hardly seemed to think there was any debate at all.
Mar
18
2013
Two Sides to Every Drone Death
By 5 Comments
The UN's special human rights envoy found that the CIA's drone strikes in Pakistan have "resulted in far more civilian casualties than the U.S. government has recognized." But that message was muddled by the Washington Post's he said-she said approach to the question of civilian deaths.
Feb
11
2013
ABC Botches the Brennan Hearing
By 4 Comments
TV news is often not all that informative. Sometimes that's because the reports are so short–a few hundred words. But then there are TV reports that manage to use their short space to garble the details of a story completely. ABC correspondent Jonathan Karl's piece about the Senate confirmation hearing for Obama's CIA pick John Brennan fit into the latter category.
Feb
07
2013
EXCLUSIVE: Bill O'Reilly Does Not Have Access to the Internet
By 16 Comments
On last night's O'Reilly Factor, the Fox News host wondered why NBC has failed to cover the new revelations about the White House drone program. The real question here is why Fox doesn't let O'Reilly have access to the Internet.
Feb
06
2013
An 'Informal Arrangement' to Not Report the News
By 22 Comments
The Washington Post reported some news that it's known for years, but had decided not tell us until now: The CIA has a drone base in Saudi Arabia. Their rationale for withholding this information was simple: The government didn't want them to. And from what the Post is telling us today, they weren't the only ones.
Feb
06
2013
When It Comes to Drones, Trust the Churchgoing CIA Director
By 27 Comments
Last night, MSNBC's Chris Matthews hosted a discussion on the Obama administration's recently disclosed "white paper" justifying its policy of using drones to strike at U.S. citizens. Matthews ultimately deciding that the policy was defensible–on the grounds that the CIA director Leon Panetta goes to church.
Nov
30
2012
FAIR TV: NYT Counts Drone Victims, CBS=CEOs, AP's Iran Nukes Hoax
By 4 Comments
The new episode of FAIR TV is here! CBS tells us what CEOs think about the "fiscal cliff" and the New York Times counts drone victims– but not very many of them. And did the Associated Press fall for a hoax with their latest "exclusive" on Iran and nuclear weapons? Check it out– and share it with your friends on Facebook and Twitter:
Nov
30
2012
NYT Undercounts Drone Deaths in Pakistan
By 15 Comments
The New York Times editorial page (11/30/12) weighs in on the Obama administration's drone policies. What the paper wants is more accountability: The government "must stay within formal guidelines based on the rule of law." That's all well and good–but the paper should do a better job of counting the innocents killed by drone attacks. The Times explains that aspect of the story this way: For eight years, the United States has conducted but never formally acknowledged a program to kill terrorists associated with Al-Qaeda and the Taliban away from the battlefield in Afghanistan. Using drones, the Central Intelligence Agency [...]
