Media Play Up Protests, Play Down Effect of US Sanctions in Cuba
The corporate press consistently downplayed one of the primary causes of Cuban unrest: the increasingly punitive US blockade.
FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
Alan MacLeod @AlanRMacLeod is a member of the Glasgow University Media Group. His latest book, Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent, was published by Routledge in May 2019.
The corporate press consistently downplayed one of the primary causes of Cuban unrest: the increasingly punitive US blockade.
A key witness against Julian Assange has recanted his testimony, but this blow to the US case has received zero media coverage.
Although many still like to hold up the United States as a bastion of free speech uninhibited by government censorship, the idea is becoming increasingly difficult to sustain.
Once we realize what “stability” and “destabilizing” mean, news from corporate outlets makes much more sense.
Western corporate media overwhelmingly reserve the word “aggression” for official enemy nations—whether or not it’s warranted. In contrast, US behavior is almost never categorized as aggressive,
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman (Twitter, 12/29/20) described a $2,000 Covid relief check as “divisive,” even though 75% of Americans (and 72% of Republicans) wanted the government to prioritize another universal payment. All too often, words such as “divisive,” “contentious” or “controversial” are used merely as media codewords meaning “ideas unpopular with the […]
Corporate media invoke the language of human rights and humanitarianism to convince those to the left of center to accept, if not support, US actions abroad.
The financial press has long been afraid of what Lula’s liberty would mean for the profits of its readers.
Media are experts in using progressives’ empathy and compassion against them, presenting them carefully selected images and stories of suffering around the world, and suggesting that US military power can be used to alleviate it.
A Democrat has assumed office, and so, like clockwork, corporate media are here to play their favorite game of pretending to suddenly be deeply concerned with the deficit and the national debt.
We urgently need to rethink the power of these social media behemoths, because there are plenty of examples where their enforcement of their rules has been arbitrary and non-transparent.
Intelligence officials have pulled this same stunt twice in the last six months, first crying wolf over Russia, then Iran, accusing them of doing exactly the same thing: paying off the Taliban to kill Americans.
The $2,000 check is indeed far from a perfect plan to help ordinary Americans, yet if it is the only plan currently on the table, many in corporate media are inclined to leave it there.
Since the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Mohammed bin Salman has been on a media charm offensive, trying to present one of the most repressive states in the world as a progressive, emerging country.
With tremendously high stakes, media rely largely on the testimonies of US officials, many of them anonymous, who have a clear incentive to lie and defame three countries with whom the United States is currently ramping up tensions.
Corporate media—whose owners are overwhelmingly from the class that would be paying a wealth tax—threw cold water on the idea,
For the New York Times, crying election fraud then staging a coup is bad, and just like what dictators do—unless it is the US making dubious claims of electoral fraud against official enemies, in which case it is an honorable practice.
Corporate media—whose owners are overwhelmingly from the class that would be paying a wealth tax—are returning to throw cold water on the idea.
Virtually every story of national significance includes secret or leaked material; they could all be in jeopardy under this new prosecutorial theory.
Discussing the West Coast heatwave and fires, corporate media have been extremely hesitant to frame the discussion around climate change.
FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation. We work to invigorate the First Amendment by advocating for greater diversity in the press and by scrutinizing media practices that marginalize public interest, minority and dissenting viewpoints. We expose neglected news stories and defend working journalists when they are muzzled. As a progressive group, we believe that structural reform is ultimately needed to break up the dominant media conglomerates, establish independent public broadcasting and promote strong non-profit sources of information.
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