Media
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The accessories to war crimes are those paid to keep the record straight By John Pilger
The BBC’s Today programme is enjoying high ratings, and the Mail and the Telegraph are, as usual, attacking the corporation as left-wing. Last month, a single edition of Today was edited by the artist and musician P.J. Harvey. What happened was illuminating. There were weeks of absurd negotiation at Broadcasting House about ways of “countering”… Continue reading
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US threats mount against journalists, Snowden By Patrick Martin
Congressional leaders and representatives of the US military-intelligence apparatus have stepped up their threats against Edward Snowden and the journalists who have worked with him to expose massive illegal spying by the National Security Agency (NSA). Continue reading
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Domestic Terror Story Gets Media Cold Shoulder–Guess Why By Steve Rendall
Despite its compelling–not to say bizarre–details, there’s been little coverage of the story outside the Albany region. The New York Times, published 150 miles away, ran a single story (6/20/13) about the plot after the arraignments last June–on page 24. It’s hard not to be think back on previous undercovered terrorism stories and conclude that… Continue reading
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FAIR TV: Snowden on Sunday TV, New Pundits, USA Today on Fracking’s Riches
25 January 2014 — FAIR Blog This week on FAIR TV: Everyone seems to agree that Edward Snowden started an important debate over NSA surveillance. But on the Sunday chat shows, debate isn’t what you’re likely to see. And CNN and CBS add new contributors–but are they opening up or closing the discussion? Plus:USA Today cheers on the fracking boom in Continue reading
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FAIR TV: Snowden on Sunday TV, New Pundits, USA Today on Fracking's Riches
25 January 2014 — FAIR Blog This week on FAIR TV: Everyone seems to agree that Edward Snowden started an important debate over NSA surveillance. But on the Sunday chat shows, debate isn’t what you’re likely to see. And CNN and CBS add new contributors–but are they opening up or closing the discussion? Plus:USA Today cheers on the fracking boom in Continue reading
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Privatizing the Internet: US telecoms seek to make internet enhanced form of cable TV’
On Tuesday, January 14, the DC Court of Appeals struck down the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) “net neutrality” rules. This is one of the fundamental principles of the internet, meaning equal access to everything online. The initiative was pushed by Verizon, the largest mobile phone operator among telecom providers, which demanded that high-speed broadband providers… Continue reading
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“Fakethrough!” New Report Shows How Easily Media Was Duped by Claims of GMO “Breakthroughs”
In an article entitled “Fakethrough! GMOs and the Capitulation of Science Journalism,” Latham describes how GMOs lauded in the media as “breakthroughs” are often just PR boosts for genetically engineered varieties or traits that either aren’t new, are untested, or fail (and the failures are too often not reported). Often, GMO reporting also ignores or… Continue reading
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How the Big Papers Remember Ariel Sharon By Peter Hart
Reading the pieces in the Sunday editions of the New York Times and the Washington Post (3/12/14) about the death of former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, one gets the sense that reporters were aware of some of Sharon’s bloodiest history–but mostly kept that out of their accounts of his life. Continue reading
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Why Did the US Invade Iraq? The Answer in 2014 By Peter Hart
So at the 10-year mark, some reporters recall Fallujah as a place where US forces “redeemed the possibility of peaceful Iraq,” and the Iraq War as a noble effort to “plant democracy.” It boggles the mind what they’ll be telling us about the Iraq War in 2024. Continue reading
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U.S. Human Radiation Experiments Covered up by Public Broadcasting By William Boardman
When the military scientists of an advanced technological nation deliberately explode their largest nuclear bomb (and 66 others) over Pacific islands and use the opportunities to study the effects of radiation on nearby native people, which group is best described as “savage”? And what should you call the people who prevent a documentary about these… Continue reading
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O’Reilly’s Marijuana/Texting/Videogame Theory Destroyed by Guest By Steve Rendall
It happened as O’Reilly was explaining his latest crackpot theory about why young people are so horrible. According to the Fox News host, texting, marijuana use and videogames are leading the young down an escapist path to destruction. Continue reading
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BBC Caught Fabricating Videos to Push Libya and Syria War Agendas By Martin Iqbal
Many find it difficult to believe the sheer boldness of the lies peddled by the British Broadcasting Corporation – the world’s largest and most respected broadcasting organisation. Nevertheless, the BBC’s nefarious agenda has come to the fore during the wars on Libya and Syria, where it has taken every opportunity to justify foreign military intervention… Continue reading
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Media Lean Left, Say Journalists Who Don't Really Say That By Peter Hart
The end of a story in Politico (12/18/13), about a Politico media roundtable featuring CNN’s Jake Tapper, NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell, and Peter Baker and Mark Leibovich of the New York Times, caught my eye: Continue reading
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The Washington Post and Amazon are “Doing Business with the CIA” By Norman Solomon
News media should illuminate conflicts of interest, not embody them. But the owner of the Washington Post is now doing big business with the Central Intelligence Agency, while readers of the newspaper’s CIA coverage are left in the dark. Continue reading
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CIA and Mandela: Can the Story Be Told Now? Agency's role in Mandela capture still mostly not news
Back in 1990, FAIR (Extra!, 3/90) noted that the media coverage of Nelson Mandela’s release from prison failed to mention there was strong evidence that the CIA had tipped off South African authorities to Mandela’s location in 1962, resulting in his arrest. So with coverage of Mandela’s death dominating the media now, can the story… Continue reading
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Hersh: Syria Sarin Story 'Was Bought by the Mainstream Press' By Peter Hart
A new piece by veteran investigative reporter Seymour Hersh argues that the Obama administration’s case against Syria over a sarin gas attack last August relied on cherry-picked intelligence. Hersh’s piece was not published in the New Yorker, where so much of his work appears. And it apparently was not of interest to the Washington Post… Continue reading
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NYT Takes Mandela's Death as a Chance to Mock His Fight to Free His Country By Jim Naureckas
Former New York Times executive editor Bill Keller wrote his paper’s obituary for Nelson Mandela (12/6/13). As you might have guessed, it glosses over the CIA’s role in helping the apartheid government catch Mandela (Extra!, 3-4/90): “Upon his capture he was charged with inciting a strike and leaving the country without a passport” is all… Continue reading
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Red-herring ‘inquisition’: Guardian editor robustly defends Snowden leaks to UK MPs
Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger strongly defended his newspaper’s publication of the Snowden leaks in response to a hostile grilling by a UK parliamentary committee Tuesday, as MPs attempted to show that national security was breached. Continue reading
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The BBC and Government: time for some more light? By Brian Winston
The unwritten conventions of the British Constitution, anyway very much a concept cut from whole cloth by 19th century Vinerian professors of English Law at Oxford, are scarcely of a piece with the low political horse trading that has gone on at every BBC Charter renewal since the first in 1936. A BBC veto is… Continue reading
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CNN cuts ‘most crucial points’ from interview with Russia's UN envoy on Syria
CNN has made significant cuts to its interview with the Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, most notably his comments on the number of people that actually support Syrian President Bashar Assad. Continue reading
The New Dark Age 