Issue Area: Race and Racism


Extra Articles and Studies
Scrutinizing the Victim in Florida Shooting: Before his killer, Trayvon Martin put on trial (May 2012) By M. Junaid Alam

The Colonial Roots of Media’s Racial Narratives: ‘Sculking Indians’ and ‘rebellious negroes’ (February 2012) By Juan Gonzalez and Joseph Torres

Islamophobia Still Rising—With the Right’s Help: The mainstreaming of anti-Muslim conspiracy theories (January 2012) By Steve Rendall

Less...
Letting Anti-Immigrant Movement Off the Hook By Focusing on Founding Figure’s Racism (June 2011) By Julie Hollar

Brian Williams Rehashes Katrina Violence Myth: Remembering media fantasy as reality (October 2010) By Julie Hollar

‘Spotlight’ on Police Violence Fails to Illuminate: Media connection sparks interest, not introspection (August 2010) By Janine Jackson

Who Gets to Review and Be Reviewed?: Authors, book critics drawn from narrow pool (August 2010) By Steve Rendall and Zachary Tomanelli

Wealth Gap Yawns—and So Do Media: Little interest in study of massive race/gender disparities (June 2010) By Julie Hollar

Predatory Lending? No Such Thing! (June 2010) By Janine Jackson

Institutional Racism Ignored: More feelings than facts in coverage of inequality (October 2009) By Janine Jackson

Misjudging Sotomayor Coverage: Not much of a case for left-wing media bias (August 2009) By Jim Naureckas and Peter Hart

Hate Speech, Media Activism and the First Amendment: Putting a spotlight on dehumanizing language (May 2009) By Candice O'Grady

Let’s Talk About Race—or Maybe Not: Coverage of Obama and ethnicity says more about media (March 2009) By Janine Jackson

Scapegoating Minorities for Failures of Banking: Blaming CRA makes little sense, but gets finance industry off the hook (January 2009) By Mary Kane

Making Islamophobia Mainstream: How Muslim-bashers broadcast their bigotry (November/December 2008) By Steve Rendall and Isabel Macdonald

‘Secret Muslims,’ Open Bigotry: Islamophobia in the 2008 presidential campaign (November/December 2008) By Isabel Macdonald and Steve Rendall

Islamofascism: A fringe term goes mainstream, with a little help from the media (10/1/08) By Steve Rendall and Isabel Macdonald

Daniel Pipes' Witch Hunt at a Public School (10/1/08) By Steve Rendall and Isabel Macdonald

Michelle Malkin Cooks Up Terrorist Donuts (10/1/08) By Steve Rendall and Isabel Macdonald

The Dirty Dozen: Who's who among America's leading Islamophobes (10/1/08) By Steve Rendall and Isabel Macdonald

Playing the Racism Card: Race-baiters are no strangers in the McCain camp (Update October 2008) By Jim Naureckas

Inventing Obama’s Race Problem: Media muddle needs some sort of trouble (September/October 2008) By Jim Naureckas

Obama the Snob?: Hanging the ‘elitist’ label on another Democratic candidate (July/August 2008) By Peter Hart

William F. Buckley, Rest in Praise: Glowing obits obscure an ugly record (May/June 2008) By Steve Rendall

'Tribal’ Label Distorts African Conflicts: Ethnic framing may obscure political contexts (May/June 2008) By Julie Hollar

Endorsing a Different Standard (Update April 2008) By Isabel Macdonald

Miseducation: The media and the Supreme Court on race and public education (November/December 2007) By Jacqueline Bacon

A Poverty of Coverage: Why aren’t the poor on the media agenda? (September/ October 2007) By Steve Rendall

Bono, I Presume?: Covering Africa Through Celebrities (May/June 2007) By Julie Hollar

Standing by Their Racist Friend: Before firing, pundits defended Imus (May/June 2007) By Peter Hart

Evolution Confusion: Newsweek’s muddled version of human origins (Update April 2007) By Jim Naureckas

Obamamania: How loving Barack Obama helps pundits love themselves (March/April 2007) By Peter Hart

Are You on the NewsHour’s Guestlist?: PBS flagship news show fails public mission (September/October 2006) By Steve Rendall and Julie Hollar

FAIR’s Original 1990 NewsHour Study (September/October 2006) By Steve Rendall and Julie Hollar

Live vs. Taped Sources (September/October 2006) By Steve Rendall and Julie Hollar

Never Apologize (September/October 2006) By Janine Jackson

Sidebar: ‘Can’t We Give This a Rest?’ (July/August 2006) By Neil deMause

The False Debate Over 'Broken Borders': When pro-business passes as pro-immigrant (May/June 2006) By Saurav Sarkar

"Our Media Refuse to Name This Reality": Jonathan Kozol on resegregated education (March/April 2006)

Philly Papers Defend Non-Coverage of Mumia Victory (March/April 2006) By Dave Lindorff

George Gerbner, 1919–2005: From anti-fascist fighter to cultural environmentalist (March/April 2006) By Robin Andersen

Fighting Back: FAIR's media activism successes (January/February 2006) By Peter Hart

20 Stories That Made a Difference: For better or worse (January/February 2006) By Steve Rendall and Peter Hart and Julie Hollar

Failing at Its "No. 1 Goal": Lack of balance at C-SPAN’s Washington Journal (November/December 2005) By Steve Rendall

Demonizing the Victims of Katrina: Coverage painted hurricane survivors as looters, snipers and rapists (November/December 2005) By Jaime Omar Yassin

“Saying What They’ve Been Thinking”: Racial stereotypes in Katrina commentary (November/December 2005) By Jacqueline Bacon

Suspect Sources: Behind Tales of Mayhem (November/December 2005) By Jaime Omar Yassin

Opinion Omission: Women hard to find on op-ed pages, TV panels (May/June 2005) By Julie Hollar

World’s Worst Disasters Overlooked: Survey identifies biggest “forgotten” crises (May/June 2005) By Carole J.L. Collins

Sweeping Away Lott's Racist Record (Update June 2005) By Peter Hart

Academic Racists Make Mainstream Inroads: From National Review to the New York Times (March/April 2005) By Steve Rendall

America’s Broken Electoral System: Get over it, says mainstream press (March/April 2005) By Miranda Spencer

Suppressing the Vote, Suppressing the News: Stories on pre-election manipulation took false balance to absurd lengths (January/February 2005) By Miranda Spencer

A Different Race: The black press reveals gaps in mainstream election coverage (November/December 2004) By Jacqueline Bacon

Weeding the Field: Press tries to determine who should and shouldn't run for president (September/October 2003) By Jacqueline Bacon

Inventing Africa: New York Times archives reveal a history of racist fabrication (September/October 2003) By Milton Allimadi

The Blair Witch Trial (Update June 2003) By Jim Naureckas

O'Reilly's Racist Slurs--in Context (Update June 2003) By Peter Hart

Disrespect, Distortion and Double Binds: Media treatment of progressive black leaders (March/April 2003) By Jacqueline Bacon

White Noise: Voices of color scarce on urban public radio (September/October 2002) By Steve Rendall and Will Creeley

The 'Oh Really?' Factor: Bill O'Reilly spins facts and statistics (May/June 2002) By Peter Hart

Power Sources: On party, gender, race and class, TV news looks to the most powerful groups (May/June 2002) By Ina Howard

Reparations and the Media: A slanted arena for discussions of slavery recompense (May/June 2002) By Jacqueline Bacon

"This Isn't Discrimination, This Is Necessary": Amid pleas for tolerance, some call for profiling--and worse (November/December 2001)

Study of NPR's Coverage of Deaths in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (November/December 2001)

What's Not Talked About on Sunday Morning?: Issues of corporate power are not on the agenda (September/October 2001) By George Farah and Justin Elga

The Most Biased Name in News: Fox News Channel's extraordinary right-wing tilt (July/August 2001) By Seth Ackerman

Media Passed by Jesse Jackson: . . . And passed up a great story (January/February 2001) By Derrick Z. Jackson

Novak on 'Color-Blindness' (Update October 2000)

Fronting for Big Coal: Halting global warming would be racist, PR insists (September/October 2000) By Robert Weissman and Russell Mokhiber

Limbaugh: A Color Man Who Has a Problem With Color? (6/7/00) By Jeff Cohen and Steve Rendall

Statistical Bias: Journalists find 'comfort' after the Diallo killing (May/June 2000) By John L. Hess

Anything but Racism: Media make excuses for 'whitewashed' TV lineup (January/February 2000) By Janine Jackson

Racism and Mainstream Media (10/1/99) By Jeff Cohen

Only "Elegant" Victims Need Apply (May/June 1999) By Jim Naureckas

The Right’s 'Race Desk': American Enterprise Institute finds profit in prejudice (March/April 1999) By Deborah Toler

'Old Days' Slow to Haunt Lott: Press missed tips on racist ties (March/April 1999) By Mikal Muharrar

A Sex-Free Scandal: When racism is the issue, media are slow to dig (March/April 1999) By Steve Rendall

Steven Emerson's Crusade: Why is a journalist pushing questionable stories from behind the scenes? (January/February 1999) By John F. Sugg

Polls Apart: Manufacturing an Anti-Bilingual Latino Majority (November/December 1998) By Mikal Muharrar

Media Blackface: 'Racial Profiling' in News Reporting (September/October 1998) By Mikal Muharrar

The Myth of the 'Crack Baby': Despite Research, Media Won't Give Up Idea Of 'Bio-Underclass' (September/October 1998) By Janine Jackson

Media Preferences: The Myth of Popular Opposition in the Affirmative Action Debate (May/June 1998) By Mikal Muharrar

Criminal Communities: 'Racial dualism' puts white supremacy in the media crime frame (January/February 1998) By Mikal Muharrar

Hate Talk and Politics (Update August 1997)

Racism Meets Spacism: What If Deadly Plutonium Fell on Your Country—and No One Cared? (Update February 1997) By Karl Grossman

The End of Racism?: Somebody tell Marge Schott (March/April 1996)

FAIR's Bob Grant Success (Update June 1996)

White Man's Burden: How the Press Frames Affirmative Action (September/October 1995) By Janine Jackson

Islam: Fundamental Misunderstandings About a Growing Faith (July/August 1995) By Sam Husseini

Homophobia, Racism and Sexism?: The Connections Are Clear to Far Right (July/August 1995) By Laura Flanders

Dial H for Hate: Neo-Nazi Recruitment on ABC's Flagship (Update June 1995)

Racism Resurgent: How Media Let The Bell Curve's Pseudo-Science Define the Agenda on Race (January/February 1995) By Jim Naureckas

50,000 Watts of Hate: Bigotry Is Broadcast on ABC Radio's Flagship (January/February 1995) By Jim Naureckas

The Rehabilitation of Racism: Action Alert (Update December 1994)

Double Your Standard: Repudiation, Forgiveness and Martin Peretz (September/October 1994) By Alexander Cockburn

Crime Contradictions: U.S. News Illustrates Flaws in Crime Coverage (May/June 1994) By Janine Jackson and Jim Naureckas

Hearing What They Want to Hear: Media interpret Jackson as blaming blacks for crime (May/June 1994) By Janine Jackson

Fear of a Rap Planet: Rappers face media double standard (March/April 1994) By Kim Deterline and Art Jones

East Timor: Media Turned Their Backs on Genocide (November/December 1993) By Matthew Jardine

New York Post: Militant White Daily (January/February 1993)

Can You Believe What CBS Says About Arabs?: Dan Rather, Fouad Ajami and Henry Kissinger in Arab-Bashing Israeli Fundraiser (October/November 1992) By Sam Husseini

Hunger in Africa -- A Story Still Untold (September 1992) By Steve Askin

'The Loudest Silence Ever Heard': Black Conservatives in the Media (Special Issue on Racism, July/August 1992) By Lionel McPherson

Press Finds 'New Candor' in Old Stereotypes (Special Issue on Racism, July/August 1992) By Janine Jackson

For Media Decision-Makers, Urban Problems are Old News (Special Issue on Racism, July/August 1992) By Barbara Reynolds

'Asian Invasion' Cliches Recall Wartime Propaganda (Special Issue on Racism, July/August 1992) By Jon Funabiki

The Way Things Aren't: Rush Limbaugh Debates Reality (July/August 1994)

Buchanan and Duke: Playing the Same Hand (March 1992)

Gulf War Coverage: The Worst Censorship Was at Home (Special Gulf War Issue 1991) By Jim Naureckas

So Sayeth Newsweek on Crime (May/June 1989) By Earl Ofari Hutchinson

Jackson's "Free Ride": Rather and Reality Are Polls Apart (March/April 1988)

Radio Broadcasts
Mark Cooper on e-book price fixing; Milton Allimadi on Gil Noble (4/13/12)

Jon O'Brien on contraception controversy, Richard Rothstein on segregation study (2/10/12)

Michael Hastings on 'The Operators,' Laura Flanders on Gingrich and racism (1/27/12)

Less...
Joe Torres on News for All the People, Amy Alexander on Uncovering Race (12/23/11)

Costas Panayotakis on Greece, Nusrat Choudhury on FBI mapping (11/4/11)

Robert Naiman on WikiLeaks-Honduras, Richard Prince on the Scott sisters (12/3/10) By CounterSpin

David Helvarg on BP spill, Earl Ofari Hutchinson on Rand Paul (5/28/10)

Sikivu Hutchinson on Tea Party movement, Carl Conetta on Pentagon spending (2/12/10)

Jordan Flaherty on Katrina anniversary, Sarah Anderson on executive pay (9/4/09)

Alfie Kohn on education 'reform,' Iyanna Jones on 'Disappearing Voices' (8/7/09)

Sonali Kolhatkar on Afghan women and the war, Dedrick Muhammad on Obama's NAACP speech and 'tough love' (7/31/09)

Gerald LeMelle on Obama in Africa, Katha Pollitt on Caitlin Flanagan in Time (7/17/09)

David Barsamian on Iran upheaval, Chandra Bhatnagar on UN racism report (6/26/09)

Ali Abunimah on Gaza, A.C. Thompson on Katrina's Hidden Race War (1/9/09)

Kai Wright on the Proposition 8 vote, Andy Worthington on Guantánamo (11/21/08)

Lori Minnite on ACORN & vote fraud, Bethany Albertson on the Bradley Effect (10/17/08)

David Cay Johnston on meltdown/bailout, Isabel MacDonald & Steve Rendall on 'Smearcasting,' FAIR's Islamophobia report (10/10/08)

Eartha Jane Melzer on Ohio GOP vote suppression, Sarah Anderson on Wall Street CEO pay (9/26/08)

Katrina Special: Colette Pichon Battle on Katrina three years later, Leigh Dingerson on New Orleans schools. Derrick Evans on the FEMA trailer tour, ' (8/29/08)

Helena Cobban on Russia/Georgia conflict, Iyanna Jones on black radio's 'Disappearing Voices' (8/15/08)

Adam Serwer on Obama and race, Eric Boehlert on TV diversity study (8/8/08)

Bill Fletcher on Wright and Obama, Andy Worthington on Guantanamo (5/16/08)

Glen Ford on Obama-Clinton, Rob Richie on electoral process (1/25/08)

Peter Hart on 2008 primaries, Kali Akuno on New Orleans public housing (1/11/08)

Robert Parry on 'Why We Write,' Karlos Schmieder on gentrification (11/16/07)

Neil deMause on FAIR's poverty study, Alex Koppelman on Lou Dobbs and U.S. Border Patrol criminals (9/7/07)

Tammy Johnson on affirmative action and the Supreme Court, Rachel Morris on Sami al-Haj (7/20/07)

Mark Lloyd, Hannah Sassaman, Dory Graham and Bruce Dixon on the state of radio (7/6/07)

David Swanson on 'benchmarks,' Mark Potok on Dobbs and leprosy (5/18/07)

David Enders on Iraq, Harut Sassounian on LAT and Armenian genocide (5/4/07)

Richard Prince on Don Imus, Carlo Bonini on Niger forgeries (4/13/07)

Mahmood Mamdani on Darfur, Karen Greenberg on Guantánamo (3/16/07)

Elizabeth de la Vega on domestic spying, Kristal Brent Zook on Duke rape investigation (1/26/07)

Rick Perlstein on Conservatives & Martin Luther King, Sarah Olson on Watada Subpoena (1/19/07)

Sarah Anderson on Augusto Pinochet, Rafael Olmeda on NBC-Telemundo (12/15/06)

Glen Ford on Barack Obama, Chris Slevin on trade & the elections (11/17/06)

John Nichols on midterm elections, Clarissa Martinez on Latino voters (11/10/06)

Amitabh Pal on India, Eric Deggans on Hurricane Katrina (3/10/06)

Jonathan Kozol on "Shame of the Nation" (1/6/06)

Michelle Goldberg on the War on Christmas, Gadi Dechter on Michael Steele (12/2/05)

Earl Ofari Hutchinson on Katrina and racism, Ward Harkavy on the Bush Beat (10/14/05)

Rosa Brooks on Judith Miller, Patrice O'Neill on The Fire Next Time (7/8/05)

Mark Jones on "forgotten crises," Jack Shaheen on Arabs on TV (3/18/05)

Frank Brodhead on Iraq elections, Tiffiniy Cheng on Eyes on the Prize (2/4/05)

Stephen F. Cohen on Russia Danielle Worthy on voting rights and the black press (9/17/04)

Action Alerts and Advisories
Ignoring Trump's Record of Racism (5/6/11)

Limbaugh Defenders Ignoring Long Record of Racist Remarks (10/16/09)

Media Fall for 'Race Card' Spin: Outraged press ignores McCain's ties to GOP race-baiting tradition (8/5/08)

Less...
Dobbs' Dubious Disease Numbers: CNN host stands by faulty leprosy statistics (5/11/07)

Howard Kurtz's Imus Amnesia: Critic forgets requests to shun racist show (4/19/07)

Rallying Around Their Racist Friend: Before firing, pundits defended Imus (4/11/07)

Racism Is to Be Expected From Don Imus: CBS, NBC, media pundits complicit in talk host's bigotry (4/9/07)

Trent Lott's Redemption Song: Coverage of minority whip election ignores racist ties (11/17/06)

Study Finds Lack of Balance, Diversity, Public at PBS NewsHour: Public TV's flagship news program offers standard corporate fare (10/4/06)

CNN's Immigration Problem: Is Dobbs the exception—or the rule? (4/24/06)

C-SPAN Slanting Right: Washington Journal's guestlist lacks balance (12/19/05)

Covering Katrina: Has a More Critical Press Corps Emerged? (9/9/05)

Paul Harvey's Tribute to Slavery, Nukes, Genocide: Hateful rant shows Disney's double standard on speech (7/1/05)

Post Responds on Lott Profile (4/25/05)

Time Covers Coulter:: Magazine's Cover Story a Sloppy, Inaccurate Tribute to Far-Right Pundit (4/21/05)

Washington Post Sweeps Away Lott's Racist Record (4/18/05)

Women's Opinions Also Missing on Television: Women of color virtually invisible on Sunday shows (3/24/05)

GE, Microsoft Bring Bigotry to Life (2/12/03)

Media Play Catch-up on Lott’s Latest Endorsement of Racism (12/11/02)

Media Downplay Bigotry of Jesse Helms (8/31/01)

Washington Post Responds to FAIR: Letter-writing campaign called "group-thinking" (3/2/01)

Genocide, A Casino... What's the Difference?: Washington Post piece on "greedy Indians" exhibits ignorance of history (2/16/01)

Ashcroft Quizzed About Southern Partisan Endorsement: Attorney general nominee refuses to condemn white supremacist magazine (1/19/01)

Southern Partisan: "Setting the Record Straight": Attorney general nominee praised white supremacist magazine (1/12/01)

Why Does Tim Russert Associate With Don Imus' Bigotry? (3/1/00)

Why Does Tim Russert Associate With Don Imus' Bigotry? (3/1/00)

Hate Radio Makes a Comeback (9/3/99)

Washington Post Columnist Questions Lott's "Fitness" To be Majority Leader: Record Shows Lott's Involvement With Racist (12/22/98)

Trent Lott Supported White-Supremacist Group— Evidence Emerges:: Senator's Spokesperson Misled Journalists (12/15/98)

National Media Should Cover Racist Links of Prominent Elected Officials Like Rep. Bob Barr and Sen. Trent Lott (12/11/98)

Pat Buchanan in His Own Words (2/26/96)

Study Finds National Public Radio Fails To Reflect Public (3/29/93)

Questions About Source in Immigration Debate: Group Has Links to Racist Fund (1/1/93)

Media Beat
The Martin Luther King You Don't See on TV (1/4/95) By Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon