Burning Australia Gave Us Shocking Images, Few Solutions
Media have mostly remained resistant to addressing which human policies helped lead us to Australia’s fire disaster, and what will be needed to prevent matters from getting much, much worse.
Extra! is FAIR’s hard-hitting newsletter of well-documented media criticism. The 4-page, ad-free, newsletter publishes ten times a year bringing you the media analysis and activism that you expect from FAIR. Extra! receives no money from advertisers or corporate underwriters, and depends on subscribers for its existence. Please subscribe and help make it possible for us to keep investigating and publishing.
News Flash! Billionaires Don’t Like Socialism
Big news, everyone! Billionaires don’t like socialism. In response to a rising progressive tide in the United States, a new genre of stories has emerged in corporate media: rich guys warning against taxing them, or really changing anything about the system at all. CNBC (1/22/20) ran an article headlined, “BP’s CEO Chides AOC and Bernie […]
As Democrats Began to Vote, Pundits Hit the Panic Button
Election Focus 2020: The real Sanders attack machine isn’t the mythical machine run by Sanders to take down his opponents; it’s run by the establishment Democrats and their media counterparts to take down Sanders.
Extra! March 2020 Soundbites
Moderators as Enforcers Debate questions seem designed less to inform voters than to steer candidates toward a corporate media-approved center. CNN’s Abby Phillip (1/14/20) asked: Senator Sanders, you have consistently refused to say exactly how much your Medicare for All plan is going to cost. Don’t voters deserve to see the price tag before you […]
Whitewashing a Far-Right Coup in Bolivia
Backed by Washington, the coup that the Western media deny is a coup (FAIR.org, 11/11/19) appears successful, at least for the time being. However, as in the short-lived 2002 coup in Venezuela, the media blackout and savage repression have not stopped multitudes of Bolivians from taking to the streets to restore democracy. Only time will tell if the pueblo will triumph.
NYT on Impeachment: How Not to Cover the Death of Democracy
The New York Times’ voluminous coverage of the impeachment hearings detailed many of the pieces that make up the overall strategy, but the vast majority of it boiled down to the predictable formula of covering the whole process like a partisan horserace
NYT Tells Us Again—and Again—to Seek ‘Political Middle Ground’
So the paper recycled its poll to tell essentially the same story, about Democrats being too far left for the battleground states, in a different and more roundabout way, presenting it as if it were new.
Extra! Soundbites November 2019
CNN Bashes Medicare for All Because It’s ‘Popular’ CNN’s Erin Burnett (7/15/19) pressed Joe Biden spokesperson Symone Sanders to attack Bernie Sanders’ healthcare plan for raising taxes (not coincidentally, the line of attack that had been identified as most effective in polling by the corporate advocacy group Third Way—FAIR.org, 10/2/19): As a general idea, […]
Media Want Evidence of Anti-Sanders Bias? Here It Is
Election Focus 2020: FAIR has been following the issue of the Washington Post’s bias against Bernie Sanders for quite some time, so we’re happy to offer the evidence CNN and the Post protest is lacking.
For NYT, the ‘Solution’ to Social Security Cuts Is—Social Security Cuts
The New York Times report failed to inform readers on the remarkable injustice of cutting Social Security benefits, in view of where the funding gap came from.
WaPo Warns Progressive Dems: They Could Win
A Washington Post “news” story warning of the progressive upsurge in the Democratic Party quoted a half-dozen sources from the corporate wing of the party, and none from the progressive wing.
FAIR Study: Elite Media Allowed No Dissent on Regime Change for Venezuela
When it comes to advocating the overthrow of the US government’s foreign undesirables, you can always count on opinion pages to represent all sides of why it’s a good thing. And the millions of people who beg to differ? Well, they’re just out of the question.
Clear-Eyed Antidotes to Misty Visions of the Elder Bush
It isn’t merely that it’s no part of journalists’ job to stoke misty visions of powerful public figures, dead or living; asserting that George H.W. Bush was America’s lovable Grandpa—that only the insolent would gainsay such an image—erases the many people harmed grievously by his actions and inactions.
In NPR’s Press Release for Its Sponsor Amazon, Workers Simply Disappear
NPR, using Amazon’s spokespeople and paraphrasing a nebulous cohort of “economists,” recast “criticism,” such that it is, as a generic, sanitized critique against an industry trend presumably out of Amazon‘s control, rather than directing criticism at Amazon.
USA Today Warns Dems: Don’t Try to Stop Climate Change
The real point of the 925-word story, by Gannett Washington reporter Ledyard King, was conveyed in the print edition’s subhead: “Policies Could Carry Risk for Leaders of New House.”
NYT’s Trauma Tourism Will Have Deadly Consequences
It’s unclear why the Times thinks readers would be puzzled by a phrase like “a person with a heroin addiction,” and that dehumanizing language is the only way to convey to their audience that a person uses drugs.
Finding Excuses to Blame the Left in the Wake of Right-Wing Terror
Clearly, left-wing violence is near nonexistent when compared to the rising levels of right-wing extremism.
Media: When ‘Moderates’ Lose or Progressives Win—Just Ignore Them
“Move to the right” is always corporate media’s advice for Democrats—win or lose. But did the 2018 midterms really demonstrate the virtues of moderation?
Facebook Fights ‘Fake News’ by Teaming Up With US Catspaws
The US government and its allies are effectively using the platform to silence dissenting opinion, both at home and on the world stage, controlling what Facebook‘s 2 billion users see and do not see.
Free Speech Includes the Right to Say ‘No Thanks’
If one takes a minimalist approach to free speech, centering on the First Amendment guarantee not to be jailed or otherwise harmed by the state for expressing one’s views, then it’s clear that Bannon’s disinvitation doesn’t violate such a right.
