26 Articles

Sunday, June 22, 2008
News Flash: Network Anchor Stands Against "Unfair"� Campaign Spending
(4 comments) The bad news is that it's taken years to see an anchor make such a stand. And that Gibson (like other media voices in recent days) is making his stand for "fairness"� against a candidate who has attracted 3 million contributions from 1.5 million donors giving an average donation of $91. In other words, against a candidate who is arguably less beholden to big-moneyed interests than McCain.

Friday, May 30, 2008
McClellan and His Media Collaborators
(6 comments) No sooner had Bush's ex-press secretary Scott McClellan accused President Bush and his former collaborators of misleading our country into Iraq than the squeals of protest turned into a mighty roar. I'm not talking about the vitriol directed at him by former White House colleagues like Karl Rove and Ari Fleischer. I'm talking about McClellan's other war collaborators: the movers and shakers in corporate media

Friday, April 4, 2008
(The Late) M.L. King Still Silenced
(2 comments) Most of his last speeches were recorded. But year after year, corporate networks have refused to air the tapes showing how he campaigned against US foreign and economic policy. Last night, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams enthused over new color footage of King that adorned its coverage of the 40th anniversary of the assassination. But the same old blinders were in place.

Monday, March 17, 2008
Iraq Winter Soldier Hearings: Victory for Independent Media
(7 comments) I was glued to web & radio broadcasts of Winter Soldier II hearings on Iraq all weekend. In 1971, I'd attended the first Winter Soldier. Both now and then, corporate media mostly ignored the hearings, BUT this time – thanks to Internet and independent media – word could get out, live, globally.

Friday, February 1, 2008
Stepford Republicans: All Caught on Tape!
(3 comments) "The Stepford Wives"- tells the chilling story of once smart, independent women who get abducted and turned into tamed, mindless robots. I have a theory about a similarly subversive process that turns grown men once capable of independent and reasoned thought into robotic extremists. Call them Stepford Republicans. With video proof!

Friday, October 5, 2007
Pundit Elite Enraptured by Hillary's "Flawless Campaign"�
(1 comments) The reality is that Clinton and the pundit clique (with a spectrum from conservative Republican to conservative Democrat, from GE to GM) are largely in sync in holding positions that are not only unpopular among Democrats, but unpopular among the public at large. To obscure this reality, Clinton keeps issuing doubletalk, and corporate media keep cheering.

Saturday, September 22, 2007
Senate Clown Show
(4 comments) There is a struggle for power going on in our country between forces for peace and international diplomacy and open debate and civil liberties and social justice on the one hand – and the forces of intimidation and militarism and corporatism on the other. The Democratic base is firmly in the first camp. But not all Democratic leaders are.

Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Keith Olbermann: Ask Hillary About. . .
(1 comments) onight, MSNBC will telecast a Democratic presidential forum sponsored by the AFL-CIO, with an expected audience of thousands of union members at Chicago’s historic Soldier Field. Although questions will come mostly from labor folks, the forum will be moderated by MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann, known for his searing anti-Bush “Special Comments.” Below I propose a few questions I’d like to hear tonight.

Thursday, February 8, 2007
Jonah Goldberg's Gambling Debt: Will Tribune Company Pay It?
(1 comments) Right-wing pundit Jonah Goldberg made a bet two years ago that by this time Iraqis and Americans would agree the war was worth it. Time to pay up.

Friday, February 2, 2007
Will Healthcare Timidity Trip Up Hillary Clinton?
he dividing-line issue in the upcoming primaries may turn out to be not Iraq, but healthcare. And just like on Iraq, the Democratic base is in no mood for timidity and half-way measures and vague rhetoric. Most rank-and-file Democrats support government-provided national health insurance: enhanced Medicare for All.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Jim Webb Offers the Democratic Response... to Hillary and Obama
Webb offered a populist, anti-corporate stand on economics and a blunt attack on Bush for "recklessly" dragging our country into the Iraq war-- a sharply-worded address that must have startled millions of TV viewers accustomed to Democrat vacillation.

Monday, November 27, 2006
TV Blowhard Barks at Iran: Let's Hold CNN Accountable
Turn on CNN Headline News -- a supposed "news" channel -- on weekday nights and you'll be subjected to the lectures of a loudmouthed, factually-challenged, occasionally funny know-it-all whose shtick is that he's "just a regular American schmoe."

Friday, October 27, 2006
How to Turn This Election Into a Progressive Mandate
(1 comments) Many pundits are comparing the expected Democratic victory in the upcoming election to the Newt Gingrich-led Republican triumph of 1994, an election in which the GOP gained 52 House seats and ended 40 years of Democratic majority in that chamber. Unfortunately, the comparison may be overstated. Even if Democrats take control of the House, this will hardly be a triumph like 1994.

Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Let's Challenge TV's Lockout of Progressives
If this election shakes up the corrupt, conservative political system, that should be our signal to take on the media system that has enabled the corruption to flourish.

Friday, October 6, 2006
Is Olbermann on Thin Ice?
I fear for Keith Olbermann. So why do I fear for Olbermann? Because I know his bosses. In the run-up to the Iraq war, I too worked for MSNBC - as an on-air pundit and a senior producer on the primetime Donahue show.

Tuesday, October 3, 2006
Is Olbermann on Thin Ice?
So why do I fear for Olbermann? Because I know his bosses. In the runup to the Iraq war, I too worked for MSNBC – as an on-air pundit and a senior producer on the primetime Donahue show.

Thursday, September 21, 2006
The Problem Began Way Before Fox News
(1 comments) For two decades, I've been preoccupied with one issue above all others: that both ends of the political spectrum get their say in the media. One reason (among many) that I worked so hard to retire George W. Bush in 2004 was my nightmare that a defeated John Kerry would be hired by cable news to represent "the left" day after day on a TV debate show.

Saturday, September 16, 2006
Smoking Gun: Washington Post Hires Top Bush Speechwriter
Few media marching bands have beat the Iraq war drums more frantically and with more influence than the editorial pages of the Washington Post. On Monday, the Post announced the hiring of another drummer boy, one who played a key propaganda role inside the Bush White House.

Thursday, August 31, 2006
Sick Puppy Meets Media Beast
John Mark Karr is one sick puppy, and TV news in the US is one ravenous beast--abandoning any notion of journalism, proportion or decency to again prey upon JonBenet's corpse for ratings and profit... There's no mystery about what created the media beast: corrupt government policies combined with corporate greed.

Thursday, August 24, 2006
Hillary Still Hiding on War; Time Warner Provides Cover
The cover story in the new issue of TIME, the flagship publication of the Time Warner media empire, informs readers that Hillary Clinton has "virtually nonexistent opposition for her senate seat." Hold that phrase in your head. Because at another outpost of the Time Warner empire, decisions have been made that help ensure Sen. Clinton will have "virtually nonexistent opposition."

Friday, August 18, 2006
TV News Vultures Circling JonBenet’s Corpse -- Again
The MSM couldn't be more thrilled to see new life in the tabloid story of the death of Little Miss Colorado, a story they'd grudgingly given up on years ago.

Wednesday, August 9, 2006
Lamont Victory -- A Media Defeat
The defeat of Lieberman is not just a victory for grassroots politics and independent media, but a rejection of mainstream punditry.

Friday, August 4, 2006
Being a TV Expert Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry
It wasn't the news that prompted my hair-pulling (who doesn't know Iraq's a disaster?) -- but the way it was reported. On NBC News, viewers saw Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld testify that he'd "never painted a rosy picture" of Iraq and that he hadn't been "overly optimistic." And NBC allowed the claim to go unrebutted

Friday, July 21, 2006
Can Al Gore Be Trusted?
Many solid progressives want Gore to be the Democratic presidential candidate in 2008. A recent AlterNet readers' poll (in which Noam Chomsky won the MVP for "Most Valuable Progressive") showed Gore way in front of the pack -- with Russ Feingold second...

Thursday, July 6, 2006
Go to Venezuela, You Idiot
I don't usually take the advice of rightwingers. But I did this time. After receiving inflamed email messages from dozens of angry rightists that I should get the hell out of the USA and go to Venezuela, I accepted their challenge and flew to Caracas.

Thursday, May 4, 2006
I'm Tired of Bushes and Clintons
Jeff Cohen is a media critic and writer. His latest book -- "Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media" -- will be available in September.