Nostr notes by FAIR

Wall Street Journal opinion pieces—many authored by members of ...

2026-09-11T19:35:53Z

Wall Street Journal opinion pieces—many authored by members of the corporate elite—are rabidly anti-socialist. Paradoxically, that stance is not reflected in the paper’s news coverage, perhaps because its owners aren’t actually too worried about socialism swaying its readers.

By contrast, the wealthy Ochs/Sulzberger clan that has long owned the New York Times has been greatly concerned with keeping its largely Democratic audience from leaning too far left.

https://fair.org/home/the-wall-street-journals-socialism-reporting-is-better-than-the-new-york-times/

“Making it as difficult as possible for the agency to operate ...

2026-08-28T22:34:37Z

“Making it as difficult as possible for the agency to operate in their communities” is a mistake on the part of anti-ICE activists, the Atlantic argues.

https://fair.org/home/abolish-ice-perish-the-thought-says-press/

Headlines are telling us a range of stories about the proposal ...

2026-08-28T15:44:09Z

Headlines are telling us a range of stories about the proposal called Medicare for All. Much of it is familiar capitalist scaremongering, and some is a similarly familiar brand of shushing: “Let’s ask for less, because if we say what we want, they’ll come for us.”

https://fair.org/home/abdullah-shihipar-on-medicare-for-all/

“Cameras off the president right now”: Authorities forced the ...

2026-08-26T19:33:48Z

“Cameras off the president right now”: Authorities forced the press pool to look away as the president had an altercation with his wife--and none of the major outlets have acknowledged this blatant assault on the freedom of the press.

https://fair.org/home/networks-were-ordered-to-stop-filming-trump-and-they-didnt-protest-the-illegal-censorship/

The US began to impose a blockade on Cuba in 1960 to “decrease ...

2026-08-06T21:42:12Z

The US began to impose a blockade on Cuba in 1960 to “decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.” Rather than recognize such factors in Cuban suffering, many voices in the corporate media have embraced the political and economic equivalent of flat Earthism.

https://fair.org/home/press-opinion-treats-us-devastation-of-cuba-as-reason-for-more-devastation/

"The Supreme Court, in particular the conservative majority ...

2026-08-04T21:52:51Z

"The Supreme Court, in particular the conservative majority in the Supreme Court, has time and time again returned to this ideology of colorblindness, this notion that the way to deal with racial injustice is to ignore racism, and treat everyone as though race does not matter....

"Any action that acknowledges the ways in which race casts a shadow over everything in our society...is in and of itself a problem under the law, based on this ideology of colorblindness."

https://fair.org/home/this-decision-is-an-erasure-of-black-political-power-unlike-anything-weve-seen-in-our-lifetimes/

60 Minutes knew what they were getting when they hired Ross ...

2026-07-31T21:42:42Z

60 Minutes knew what they were getting when they hired Ross Douthat away from the New York Times: someone who could be counted on to distort reality to support a right-wing worldview.

https://fair.org/home/the-rigor-and-empathy-ross-douthat-will-bring-to-60-minutes/

The repeated note in coverage that Joan Sebastian Duran Guerrero ...

2026-07-17T15:41:49Z

The repeated note in coverage that Joan Sebastian Duran Guerrero was “not the intended target” of ICE when he was killed is unsettling, suggesting that ICE's behavior would be acceptable if it were more competent, transmitting without friction the idea that people can be valid “targets” of state violence as part of what we’re told is about "law enforcement."

https://fair.org/home/lauren-bonds-on-ice-murders/

Jeff Bezos laid off nearly half the Washington Post newsroom, ...

2026-07-09T18:18:56Z

Jeff Bezos laid off nearly half the Washington Post newsroom, claiming he was doing this for the long-term viability of the paper. To be relevant, the Post has to be a “profitable enterprise that stands on its own two feet,” Bezos CNBC.

Privately, however, Bezos told Trump that Post employees “are terrible…. They don’t listen. My other companies, they listen.”

https://fair.org/home/one-year-into-the-clampdown-wapo-opinion-cheers-for-maga-billionaires-and-ai/

"The thing that worries me is this comes after a lot of the ...

2026-07-07T22:11:48Z

"The thing that worries me is this comes after a lot of the conversation that Secretary RFK Jr. has had about creating camps and work farms that, I’m not being over-dramatic in saying these sound similar to the 'work camps' and concentration camps that happened in Nazi Germany. And the irony is that Nazi Germany got a lot of its eugenic policy ideas from the United States."

https://fair.org/home/disability-impacts-every-policy-we-create-and-every-policy-impacts-disabled-people/

Passionate about independent media? Become a FAIR intern! ...

2026-07-07T15:20:29Z

Passionate about independent media? Become a FAIR intern! We're looking for interns for Fall 2026. Application deadline is July 17.

Visit fair.org/internship-program to learn more & apply!

Washington Post editorials defending data centers continue to ...

2026-06-23T18:53:02Z

Washington Post editorials defending data centers continue to fail to mention that data centers are key to the paper's owner's business plan.

https://washingtonian.com/2026/06/23/the-washington-post-loves-data-centers-a-lot-more-than-disclosing-jeff-bezos-financial-interest-in-promoting-them/

"In the early years of FAIR, I would sometimes hear from ...

2026-06-12T20:16:21Z

"In the early years of FAIR, I would sometimes hear from journalists in corporate media who genuinely welcomed our presence—as a media watch group that cherished journalism, unlike media-bashing right-wing groups—but who thought we were putting far too much emphasis on media concentration as a villain. In the era of Ellison, FAIR is widely understood to have been correct, even prophetic."

https://fair.org/home/forty-years-of-raising-hell-about-corporate-media-bias/

In so many ways, big media failed to provide accurate information ...

2026-04-23T21:27:18Z

In so many ways, big media failed to provide accurate information about Israel’s bombing attacks and their consequences on the people in Gaza. They improvised a language of confusion, denial and justification.

https://fair.org/home/genocide-doesnt-happen-without-language-to-incite-it/

The Wall Street Journal, one of the few major US outlets to cover ...

2026-04-16T20:41:39Z

The Wall Street Journal, one of the few major US outlets to cover the Israeli attack on the Tehran synagogue, referred in a headline to Israel's "Damage to Iran Synagogue"--which resembles the "damage" Al Qaeda did to the World Trade Center towers.

https://fair.org/home/israel-destroys-a-synagogue-us-media-yawn/

If the New York Times is unable (or unwilling) to send its own ...

2026-03-30T22:27:07Z

If the New York Times is unable (or unwilling) to send its own reporters to Iran, it can hire local Iranian reporters. Instead, it is choosing not to report on the ground in Iran, and then coming up with unpersuasive excuses to cover its tracks.

https://fair.org/home/nyt-covers-iran-war-with-no-reporters-in-iran/

CounterSpin this week presents a few of the many interviews ...

2026-03-13T16:09:57Z

CounterSpin this week presents a few of the many interviews we've done over the years debunking media alarmism on Iran.

https://fair.org/study/a-history-of-iran-propaganda/

The sparse US corporate media coverage of the Epstein/Israel ...

2026-02-20T21:18:38Z

The sparse US corporate media coverage of the Epstein/Israel angle sharply contrasts with the extensive reporting of Epstein’s alleged ties to Russia.

https://fair.org/home/doj-released-much-more-on-epsteins-israel-ties-but-media-still-arent-much-interested/

The New York Times apparently didn’t have space to cover ...

2025-12-05T23:13:59Z

The New York Times apparently didn’t have space to cover Czech’s murder, but they did have room for Ross Douthat to host a debate on “Did Women Ruin the Workplace,” and for David French to muse on “How Women Destroyed the West.”

https://fair.org/home/media-reaction-to-a-woman-murdered-at-work-is-nothing-to-see-here/

There has been wall-to-wall US corporate media coverage of the ...

2025-11-14T23:21:38Z

There has been wall-to-wall US corporate media coverage of the Department of Justice’s Epstein files and the battle over its release. So why has a hack that documented Jeffrey Epstein's ties to Israeli intelligence been largely ignored by US corporate media?

https://fair.org/home/emails-reveal-epsteins-ties-to-mossad-but-corporate-media-looked-away/

The Wall Street Journal looked for a "pragmatic streak" ...

2025-11-07T13:57:10Z

The Wall Street Journal looked for a "pragmatic streak" in Zohran Mamdani, but concluded that the New York City mayor-elect “has never demonstrated a talent for moderation.”

It would seem that “pragmatism” in the minds of the country’s establishment punditocracy means not the dictionary definition of “dealing with a problem in a sensible way that suits the conditions that really exist,” but instead something more like “upholding the status quo.”

https://fair.org/home/for-establishment-press-the-lesson-of-mamdanis-victory-is-to-take-no-lessons/

Denying an unfolding genocide like the one in Palestine is even ...

2025-10-09T19:43:34Z

Denying an unfolding genocide like the one in Palestine is even more contemptible than denying genocides that happened in the past, because an ongoing genocide can be stopped before even more people in the targeted population are killed, maimed and bereaved. That’s why every genocide denial is at the same time pro-genocide propaganda.

https://fair.org/home/the-wall-street-journal-has-many-ways-to-deny-genocide/

As the world’s preeminent governing body has officially labeled ...

2025-09-26T21:52:19Z

As the world’s preeminent governing body has officially labeled what is happening in Gaza genocide, prominent US news outlets failed to cover the largest-ever delegation of US state legislators to Israel meeting in Jerusalem at a conference sponsored by the Israeli government.

https://fair.org/home/un-declares-genocide-in-gaza-while-250-us-lawmakers-are-in-israel/

The Pentagon is saying it will only credential reporters if they ...

2025-09-23T22:05:53Z

The Pentagon is saying it will only credential reporters if they promise to be stenographers for the department’s press team, regurgitating press releases and spokesperson talking points, and avoid independent interviews and investigations.

https://fair.org/home/trump-turns-pentagon-into-department-of-war-on-first-amendment/

Kimmel was purportedly yanked over his benign comments about ...

2025-09-23T20:06:41Z

Kimmel was purportedly yanked over his benign comments about Kirk’s death. But his real offense may have been showing how Trump couldn’t be bothered to mourn his friend’s death, even as he insisted the rest of the country do so.

https://fair.org/home/charlie-kirk-purges-show-the-need-to-stand-up-to-government-bullying/

Snopes offers no reason for us to doubt Charlie Kirk's ...

2025-09-19T22:10:56Z

Snopes offers no reason for us to doubt Charlie Kirk's sincerity about his belief in the scripture he quoted, and therefore no justification for its definitive "false" rating.

https://fair.org/home/action-alert-snopes-thinks-kirk-was-kidding-about-killing-gays-being-gods-perfect-law/

In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s murder, it was taboo to point out ...

2025-09-12T23:30:56Z

In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s murder, it was taboo to point out that his politics, and those of the MAGA movement he embraced, contributed to a culture of hatred and demonization.

https://fair.org/home/kirk-coverage-downplayed-magas-culture-of-violence/

Transcript of CounterSpin's interview with Cathy Cowan Becker ...

2025-09-05T21:30:04Z

Transcript of CounterSpin's interview with Cathy Cowan Becker on insurance & climate disasters:

"Big institutional investors, insurance companies, really have a role to play on where this kind of capital and funding goes. So instead of investing in fossil fuels, they could be investing in resiliency projects to make local communities.... Instead of sending their institutional capital to make the problem worse, they could be sending it to solutions that make it better."

https://fair.org/home/insurance-companies-are-moving-to-protect-their-profits-in-a-short-term-way/

People have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to insurance ...

2025-08-29T16:12:46Z

People have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to insurance companies, with the idea that if a storm destroys their house, or a fire burns down their business, that will be acknowledged, and they can be made whole, based on the insurance they’ve paid for, for precisely this purpose, for many years.

And yet insurance companies are responding to people needing insurance by – dropping them, canceling them, and just straight up not paying them.

https://fair.org/home/cathy-cowan-becker-on-insurance-and-climate-disasters-aviva-chomsky-2016-on-workers-voices/

FAIR looked at 15 different news outlets’ initial coverage of ...

2025-08-22T22:05:12Z

FAIR looked at 15 different news outlets’ initial coverage of the murders of six Palestinian journalists. We found that they overwhelmingly centered Israel’s narrative, attempted to delegitimize pro-Palestinian sources, and failed to contextualize the killings within the larger context of the genocide.

https://fair.org/home/western-media-manufactured-consent-for-israels-murder-of-palestinian-journalists/

More than a year ago, New York Times management told its ...

2025-08-04T21:46:56Z

More than a year ago, New York Times management told its reporters covering Gaza to restrict the use of the terms "genocide" and "ethnic cleansing." Sounding the alarm on genocide earlier could have had an impact.

https://fair.org/home/nyt-suppressed-genocide-discussion-when-it-could-have-made-a-difference/

Transcript of CounterSpin's interview with Adam Johnson: ...

2025-07-08T20:28:28Z

Transcript of CounterSpin's interview with Adam Johnson:

"There's this 'Oh, the US has to be a policeman and police the world' faux-liberal framework that Trump doesn't take seriously, Netanyahu doesn't take seriously, but the media, especially the kind of prestige editorial pages and opinion pages, the New York Times and Washington Post, have to maintain that this is still a thing."

https://fair.org/home/the-goal-is-to-put-the-words-iran-and-nuclear-in-the-same-sentence/

The ruling ideology of Washington is we have two parties, they do ...

2025-07-02T19:26:23Z

The ruling ideology of Washington is we have two parties, they do their job, they do their job pretty well. The differences between them limit the terms of the debate. But we know that real change comes from outside the consensus. Real change comes from people making history, challenging history, dissenting, protesting, agitating, organizing.
--Bill Moyers (1934-2025)

https://fair.org/home/farewell-to-bill-moyers-who-showed-what-public-tv-could-be/

It is not surprising that Rupert Murdoch’s editorial boards ...

2025-06-27T20:56:45Z

It is not surprising that Rupert Murdoch’s editorial boards savaged Mamdani. But the onslaught from the more centrist outlets is telling: Like the business establishment, they fear progressive economic policies when it comes to housing, education, transit and public safety, despite all overtures to the contrary.

https://fair.org/home/media-did-their-best-to-scare-voters-away-from-zohran-mamdani/

Transcript of CounterSpin's interview with Chip Gibbons on ...

2025-06-26T15:56:23Z

Transcript of CounterSpin's interview with Chip Gibbons on Mahmoud Khalil:

"The goal is to take away your right to criticize a foreign apartheid state’s genocide, with the eventual goal of taking away your right to criticize US foreign policy. And this is the vehicle for doing it. It starts today, with the visa holders and the Green Card holders, but they will come for the natural-born citizens eventually, too, if they get away with this."

https://fair.org/home/their-goal-is-to-equate-protests-for-palestine-with-support-for-terrorism/

Apparently a more accurate headline—like ”Study Finds No Sign ...

2025-06-19T16:00:51Z

Apparently a more accurate headline—like ”Study Finds No Sign Chernobyl’s Dogs Are Radioactive Mutants”—wouldn’t have gotten as many clicks.

https://fair.org/home/i-believe-in-science-but-not-necessarily-science-journalism/

There is pretty much no end to the crafty sidelining by Western ...

2025-06-06T21:34:02Z

There is pretty much no end to the crafty sidelining by Western corporate media of truthful assertions by “Hamas-run” entities—and the simultaneous provision of ample space to the Israeli military to continue its established tradition of propagating outright lies.

https://fair.org/home/the-hidden-story-israeli-aid-is-part-of-genocide-plan/

FAIR board member Robert McChesney was a leading voice and a ...

2025-03-27T14:54:50Z

FAIR board member Robert McChesney was a leading voice and a precious colleague in the battle for a more democratic media system, and a more democratic society.

https://fair.org/home/robert-w-mcchesney-a-scholar-activist-who-fought-for-media-democracy/

Israel's deliberate killing of a journalist was covered in ...

2025-03-26T21:39:49Z

Israel's deliberate killing of a journalist was covered in leading international papers and independent US outlets—but virtually no establishment US news organizations.

https://fair.org/home/israel-kills-palestinian-journalist-hossam-shabat-as-us-media-look-away/

The New York Times, Washington Post and Atlantic fanned the ...

2025-03-21T22:48:46Z

The New York Times, Washington Post and Atlantic fanned the flames of the right-wing pearl-clutching at the anti-genocide protests. Their writers might genuinely be aghast at Trump’s aggression toward universities now, but they might want to reflect on what they did to bring us to this point.

https://fair.org/home/elite-media-paved-way-for-trumps-targeting-of-columbia/

A couple months ago, when an LA police officer killed a child in ...

2025-02-21T17:07:29Z

A couple months ago, when an LA police officer killed a child in a department store, the New York Times ran the headline, “Stray Bullet Kills Girl as Officers Fire at Suspect in Los Angeles Store.”

We see that obscuring of agency and undermining of accountability writ larger when crimes are committed by governments favored by corporate media, against populations they don’t care much about.

https://fair.org/home/gregory-shupak-on-palestine-ethnic-cleansing-portia-allen-kyle-on-tax-unfairness/

There’s been a clear law on the books for over 50 years that ...

2025-01-29T21:01:10Z

There’s been a clear law on the books for over 50 years that expressly prohibits what Trump was attempting here. It should have been an easy call for journalists, then, to answer the basic and central question: "Is it legal?" The Washington Post failed this basic task.

https://fair.org/home/action-alert-when-trump-tried-to-freeze-federal-funds-wapo-saw-not-illegality-but-determination/

In a sign of the dangers that lie ahead for media, particularly ...

2025-01-24T00:15:01Z

In a sign of the dangers that lie ahead for media, particularly public media, Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene gave Musk a pass for his racist salute, and instead took aim at PBS for posting video of it.

https://fair.org/home/musks-nazi-salute-becomes-awkward-gesture-in-exuberant-speech/

It’s not to say big media always get the facts wrong; but that ...

2024-12-27T18:43:06Z

It’s not to say big media always get the facts wrong; but that what facts they point us toward, day after day, whose interpretation of those facts they suggest we credit, what responses we’re told are worth pursuing – all of that serves media’s corporate owners’ and sponsors’ bottom line at the expense of all of our lives and our futures.

https://fair.org/home/the-best-of-counterspin-2024/

The New York Times' Pamela Paul says Democrats should embrace ...

2024-12-20T20:40:11Z

The New York Times' Pamela Paul says Democrats should embrace a “common sense” approach to trans issues—which appears to mean believing that “gender is based on sex at birth.”

https://fair.org/home/press-downplays-danger-of-supreme-court-case-that-threatens-trans-rights-among-others/

Corporate media told us that California raising the minimum wage ...

2024-12-13T23:14:51Z

Corporate media told us that California raising the minimum wage for fast food workers to $20/hour would devastate the industry. Now we have actual data about the impact of California’s law.

https://fair.org/home/corporate-fearmongering-over-fast-food-wage-hike-aged-like-cold-french-fries/

The term “genocide” is ostracized by the corporate media ...

2024-12-12T23:34:56Z

The term “genocide” is ostracized by the corporate media world because it violates the political line of the United States, the global superpower that is currently enabling Israel’s genocidal behavior—to the tune of tens of billions of dollars in aid and weaponry. And the media’s refusal to call a spade a spade has produced all manner of linguistic gymnastics.

https://fair.org/home/what-we-talk-about-when-we-dont-talk-about-genocide/

FAIR now has many followers on Mastodon on BlueSky--3.5k on each. ...

2024-12-06T16:48:38Z

FAIR now has many followers on Mastodon on BlueSky--3.5k on each. We're going to be posting to both sites for the foreseeable future; Mastodon is the kind of decentralized, nonprofit platform FAIR has always called for, but BlueSky is the Twitter replacement the world desperately needs.

Buried deep within their reports, some outlets revealed a more ...

2024-11-15T23:00:36Z

Buried deep within their reports, some outlets revealed a more complicated reality: that many fans of Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv Football Club had spent the previous night tearing down and burning Palestinian flags, attacking a taxi and shouting murderous anti-Arab chants, including “Death to the Arabs” and “Why is there no school in Gaza? There are no children left there.”

https://fair.org/home/media-coverage-of-amsterdam-soccer-riot-erases-zionist-hatred-and-violence/

As media critics, we look to Palestinians to represent ...

2024-10-18T16:00:43Z

As media critics, we look to Palestinians to represent Palestinian views, but it’s crucial that we not see the present moment as something happening to Other People, Somewhere Else. The repression of simple anti-genocide calls, the censorship, the firings, the disinformation, the malforming of concepts like “antisemitism”—these are problems for all of us, about all of us, that will influence all of us forever.

https://fair.org/home/chip-gibbons-on-gaza-first-amendment-alert/

Our latest post, on the #NYTimes' distorted coverage of ...

2024-10-07T23:22:53Z

Our latest post, on the #NYTimes' distorted coverage of sexual violence allegations in Israel/Palestine got an immediate takedown from Facebook--as "spam."

It is hard to imagine a white author as celebrated as Ta-Nehisi ...

2024-10-04T23:03:32Z

It is hard to imagine a white author as celebrated as Ta-Nehisi Coates receiving such an immediate dismissal, not just of their writing, but the very basis of their political beliefs.

https://fair.org/home/exposing-bias-against-palestinians-ta-nehisi-coates-is-predictably-accused-of-bias-by-cbs/

The Wall Street Journal has a track record of advocating that the ...

2024-09-18T23:31:21Z

The Wall Street Journal has a track record of advocating that the court operate without public scrutiny. When Politico reported that a draft court decision would soon overturn Roe v. Wade, the Journal editorial board called the leak “an unprecedented breach of trust, and one that must be assumed was done with malice aforethought.”

https://fair.org/home/wsj-calls-for-keeping-judiciary-in-shadows/

Facebook is blocking shares of this piece critical of ...

2024-09-16T17:47:49Z

Facebook is blocking shares of this piece critical of The Atlantic :press: (npub1fv2…f48d) by Nathan J Robinson (npub15p8…glwd) of Current Affairs. People who post it are accused of trying "to get likes, follows, shares or video views in a misleading way."

https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-worst-magazine-in-america