(4 comments) SHARE        Sunday, June 22, 2008
News Flash: Network Anchor Stands Against "Unfair" Campaign Spending 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.

(2 comments) SHARE        Friday, April 4, 2008
(The Late) M.L. King Still Silenced 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.

(1 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, February 25, 2009
'News' Media Disgraced in Levy Case In 2001, at a crucial moment in modern American history--as evidence was mounting of an impending al-Qaeda attack on the United States--the U.S. news media obsessed over the disappearance of Chandra Levy, a young woman who was having an affair with Rep. Gary Condit. TV news executives would like us to forget this whole bizarre episode. But we shouldn't forget. I can't, since I experienced that loony summer inside Fox News

SHARE        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.

(1 comments) SHARE        Thursday, September 21, 2006
The Problem Began Way Before Fox News 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.

(6 comments) SHARE        Friday, May 30, 2008
McClellan and His Media Collaborators 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

SHARE        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.

SHARE        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.

SHARE        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.

SHARE        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.

SHARE        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.

(4 comments) SHARE        Saturday, September 22, 2007
Senate Clown Show 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.

(1 comments) SHARE        Friday, October 27, 2006
How to Turn This Election Into a Progressive Mandate 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.

SHARE        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

SHARE        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.

SHARE        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."

(1 comments) SHARE        Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Keith Olbermann: Ask Hillary About. . . 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.

(1 comments) SHARE        Friday, October 5, 2007
Pundit Elite Enraptured by Hillary's "Flawless Campaign" 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.

SHARE        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."

(1 comments) SHARE        Thursday, February 8, 2007
Jonah Goldberg's Gambling Debt: Will Tribune Company Pay It? 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.