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By Martha Nussbaum
$15.48
Jane M. Hightower
$16.47
$18
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By Amy Goodman — Bell’s palsy. It hit suddenly a month ago. I had just stepped off a plane in New York, and my friend noticed the telltale sagging lip. It felt like Novocain. I raced to the emergency room. The doctors prescribed a weeklong course of steroids and antivirals. The following day it got worse. I had to make a decision: Do I host “Democracy Now!,” our daily news broadcast, on Monday?
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By Marie Cocco — Though time will certainly tell, the Bush administration so far has not yet surpassed that of Richard Nixon’s in its contempt for a free press and its unrelenting war on the truth.
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news.bbc.co.uk
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If you’re a Truthdig reader, chances are you’re also a BBC News reader. For 10 years now, the BBC has done an excellent job of bringing online news to the world. To celebrate, it has pulled together important online front pages from that period, ranging from the Clinton impeachment to 9/11 to the hanging of Saddam.
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FEMA has admitted that it was probably a mistake to hold a press conference without members of the press. On Tuesday the agency, perhaps trying to get a jump on the kind of negative publicity it received after Hurricane Katrina, stuffed a press briefing with its own employees, who lobbed softballs such as “Are you happy with FEMA’s response so far?”
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Boy, is al-Qaida ever busy these days! In addition to threatening U.S. troops in Iraq, running riot in the hinterlands of Pakistan and generally requiring huge amounts of money and the potential sacrifice of thousands of lives to thwart its infiltration on several fronts, al-Qaida might even be behind the wildfires currently plaguing Southern California, according to “Fox and Friends.”
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For years, we’ve been hearing about big companies increasingly taking over the American news business, as well as media execs jumping into bed with government higher-ups, but this report about the federal government and major corporations actually producing and planting prepackaged “news” stories in outlets around the country raises the Big Brother threat level to at least Orange.
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Surely TV news pundits are influential in shaping public opinion, but do they really know anything? The Onion satirizes expert opinion by asking about the situation in Nigeria, as opposed to, say, Hillary’s neckline.
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AP Photo / Suzanne Plunkett
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It’s been 15 months since Dan Rather’s former host network forced him out of the top spot on the “CBS Evening News,” and now he’s giving his erstwhile employer a number of strong reasons why he thinks that was no way to treat an anchor—70 million reasons, to be precise.
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Documentary filmmaker Robert Greenwald has put together an alarming new short film, “Fox Attacks: Iran,” in which he compares footage featuring Fox News anchors and pundits talking about Iraq before and after the U.S. invasion with the network’s more recent coverage about Iran. The similarities are striking.
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Laura Bush misplaces a “t” in this clip that makes you wonder if she gets her news from bubble gum wrappers. Not to beat up on the first lady, but seriously, if you forget what one of the most talked-about events of the last two years is called, don’t just make something up.
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By Eugene Robinson — Could the veteran of rough-and-tumble tabloid journalism with dubious ethics be the only appropriate buyer for the fabled newspaper?
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news.bbc.co.uk
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Alan Johnston, a correspondent in Gaza for the BBC, has been released to Hamas by his captors after they held him for roughly four months. Hamas said Johnston’s release was a sign that it was restoring order to Gaza, which it recently seized from rival faction Fatah. Johnston says he stayed on top of the news of his captivity by listening to the BBC World Service on the radio.
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MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski strenuously objected to covering Paris Hilton’s legal woes as a lead story, so much so that when her producer (and the teleprompter) refused to budge, she first tried to burn, then tore and shredded the copy. Here she explains her revolt: “I just don’t believe in covering that story, especially not as the lead story in a newscast when you have a day like today.”
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By Amy Goodman — Listening to retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. John Batiste, you sense his intense loyalty to the military. He commanded the Army’s 1st Infantry Division in Iraq, capping a 31-year Army career. So why did CBS News fire him as a paid news consultant?
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“The Simpsons” has never shied away from biting the hand that feeds it, but in its 400th episode—heavily promoted by the network—the show went for a two-fer, mocking both the low-brow Fox and the propagandistic Fox News.
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news.bbc.co.uk
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BBC reporter Alan Johnston will spend his 45th birthday in captivity. He was kidnapped nine weeks ago in Gaza, where he had worked for three years. The BBC will mark his birthday with candlelight vigils in cities around the world.
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comedycentral.com
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According to the latest Pew Research survey, the most knowledgeable Americans are regular viewers of “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” and avid newspaper readers. At the other end of the spectrum are viewers of Fox News and morning shows.
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This parody from the Onion challenges the assumption that 24 hours of news coverage, satellite uplinks and bold graphics actually keep us more informed.
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The superintendent of the Virginia state police has politely criticized NBC for airing the Virginia Tech shooter’s video diatribe. The head of NBC News defended the decision to broadcast the footage, saying: “I’m not sure we’ll ever fully understand why this happened, but I do think this is as close as we’ll come to having a glimpse inside the mind of a killer.”
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By Marie Cocco — News organizations continue to close bureaus around the world at a time when Americans seem to know less than ever about other cultures. It’s hard to know why they hate us when we’re not entirely sure who they are.
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Check out this spot-on sendup of news and punditry, which proves that the dumbing down of America can be funny when it’s not just plain sad.
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MSNBC has asked Keith Olbermann to stay on as the host of “Countdown” for at least four more years. The left-leaning broadcaster is the network’s golden boy, with a ratings jump of 85 percent over the last year, thanks to his unique synthesis of Edward R. Murrow-style commentary and a wicked sense of humor.
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By Andy Borowitz — Satirist Andy Borowitz pokes fun at the media’s reliance on the know-it-alls who often shape our opinions.
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bradblog.com
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The folks at Fox News, always innovative in the ways of fairness and balance, do some of their most inflammatory work on the banners that hover at the bottom of the screen. Not to rest at mislabeling party affiliation, they’ve taken to editorializing given names.
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left: smh.com.au / right: ffmedia.ign.com
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On Jan. 18 Bill O’Reilly and Stephen Colbert will exchange appearances on each other’s shows, putting news TV’s highest-rated windbag in direct contact with a satire of himself. Fans wait anxiously to see who will do a better job of faking righteous indignation.
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During interviews with Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity, ABC News’ political director Mark Halperin said that the weeks before the election offer a chance for the mainstream media to prove that they understand conservatives’ grievances.
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A group of researchers at Northwestern University may have rendered TV news reporters obsolete with this completely automated and virtual newscast, in which a video game character reads news culled from RSS feed, and the screen behind her displays relevant photos and videos. Pretty cool.
Posted on Oct 26, 2006
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Arianna Huffington issues an appeal for calm in the face of election season fear-mongering: “Remember FDR. ‘The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.’ And, of course, those who use it for their own political purposes.” (Video & Transcript)
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Norma Jean Roy
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It has often been said that “The Daily Show” is the major source of news for many Americans, but a recent study found the comedy program to be just as informative as nightly news broadcasts. The only difference: While Jon Stewart and Co. dilute the news with humor, the networks fill their broadcasts with hype.
Posted on Oct 18, 2006
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Bill O’Reilly claims Iran is “upping the violence” in Iraq to give Democrats a boost in the November election. O’Reilly then hypocritically encourages Bush to use military action to achieve a political end. (Video & Transcript)
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“There’s steam coming out of [Bush’s] ears over the Foley thing,” someone close to Bush told the N.Y. Daily News. The president is reportedly likewise furious with administration insiders for being so candid with Bob Woodward for his new book.
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From Comedy Central
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That’s the conclusion of a professor at Indiana University who analyzed coverage of the 2004 presidential conventions. Of course, that’s not necessarily saying much. The study noted: Network news shows are filled with fluff.
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From Robert Grossman / NYT
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Within two days of the fiery Clinton-Wallace interview, Sen. Barbara Boxer and former Clinton lawyer Lanny Davis mocked Fox’s “fair and balanced” motto on air. It’s part of a strategy: no more rolling over for the Murdoch empire.
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Stephen Colbert offers his take on the fallout from Bill Clinton’s Fox News appearance, including the Hillary/Condi fracas, and why the former president is to blame for everything from Republican tax cuts to the war in Iraq.
Posted on Sep 28, 2006
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cnn.com
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Only a day after the secretary of state tried to smear Bill Clinton’s terror-fighting effort, Hillary came to the defense of her husband, and took a swipe at Condi in the process….
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“The Daily Show” host spanks most cable news outlets for focusing on anything except the substance of Bill Clinton’s Fox News interview. Watch it
For example: MSNBC focuses in on the fact that Clinton’s sock was showing during the interview.
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Remember the scene toward the end of “The American President” in which Michael Douglas, playing President Andrew Shepherd, delivers a stand-up-and-cheer tongue-lashing of his critics? Watch as Bill Clinton demolishes Fox News’ Chris Wallace in a similar manner.
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The “Daily Show” pokes fun at Bill O’Reilly’s recent bragging that Al Qaeda has him on a hit list. As Jon Stewart points out: “I don’t know if you’ve seen the Al Qaeda tapes, um…we’re kind of all on the hit list.”
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From Facebook
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Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program failed to arouse much more than a collective shrug across much of America, but when the social networking site Facebook recently began broadcasting every change a user makes to his online “friends,” (“you’re out of my top-50,” for example), the community rebelled—quickly and viciously. Could this be the start of something?
Posted on Sep 7, 2006
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Elizabeth Dole was asked by Fox News to name a Democrat who was appeasing terrorists. She couldnt, but instead launched into a nonsensical yarn, loosely linking opposition to the long-ineffective missile defense program and the Patriot Act to appeasement.
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While out pimping his book, Pat Buchanan made an appearance on Fox News on Wednesday, where he exposed himself with a statement as racist as it was whiny: Id like the country I grew up in. It was a good country. I lived in Washington, D.C., 400,000 black folks, 400,000 white folks, in a country 89 or 90 percent white. I like that country. (Video & Transcript)
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From Fox News
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Stop the presses! Fox News has a scorching “breaking news” update! Ready for it? OK: Suspected Jonbenet killer John Mark Karr drank champagne on his flight to the United States!
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From Fox News
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Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol continues his drumbeat for war against Iran in this clip from Fox News.
This is how it all starts. Unconvinced? Take it from Sy Hersh, the country’s best investigative journalist: (chronological dispatches, from oldest to newest: here, here, here and here)
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Illustration by Peter Scheer
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It’s one thing to report a story, it’s another to obsess over every detail at the expense of real news. Wall-to-wall coverage of the JonBenet case continues on every major news channel, despite Israel’s violation of the cease-fire, the ruling against wiretapping, and Iran’s missile tests.
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From ThinkProgress
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Speaking on Fox News on Tuesday, conservative radio host Mike Gallagher proposed installing a Muslims-only line at U.S. airports. (Watch it) Even scarier, the studio audience broke into applause.
This is happening in real-life America, folks.
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George Galloway, the Scottish MP who came to international prominence for his outspoken opposition to the war in Iraq, engages in a heated (and abusive) debate with a Sky News anchor over the morality of the Israel-Hezbollah conflict. We don’t agree with Galloway on everything, but this is the rare shouting match with substance.
NOTE: Broken link to video is now working
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