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Subject: [FAIR-L] FEAR & FAVOR 2000: How Power Shapes the News
Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2001 17:29:01 -0500
From: FAIR-L <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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FAIR-L
Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting
Media analysis, critiques and news reports
New Report:
FEAR & FAVOR 2000:
FAIR's First Annual Report on How Power Shapes the News
February 14, 2001
FAIR is pleased to announce our first annual roundup of the year's most
egregious examples of owner, advertiser and government influence on the
news: "Fear & Favor 2000: How Power Shapes the News."
A "serious" talkshow turns itself into an infomercial for Campbell's Soup,
complete with a veteran news anchor leading a chorus of the "M'm, m'm,
good!" jingle. A Boston reporter is suspended without pay after writing
critically about a bank that is a major advertiser in his paper. A network
news show interviews a sock puppet-- a puppet that is the mascot for a
company the network's owner has a stake in.
Welcome to the sometimes whimsical, frightening world of the corporate-owned
media, where the "fear and favor" of the powers that be can shape-- and
twist-- the news. A few items detailed in the report:
--In the final days of the 2000 presidential campaign, conservative
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review publisher Richard Mellon Scaife ordered all photos
and prominent mentions of Al Gore removed from the front page. As a result,
the pre-election Sunday edition featured George W. Bush in every front-page
campaign-related headline and photo.
--The AP's longtime Bolivia correspondent, Peter McFarren, resigned amidst
revelations that he had lobbied the Bolivian legislature for a $78 million
water privatization project profiting a foundation he presided over. One of
the biggest stories in Bolivia, water policy was central to McFarren's beat.
After a query from FAIR, the AP did a story on the resignation, but glossed
over key aspects.
--After receiving pre-publication complaints from various bigwigs, Brill's
Content watered down a piece whose subject-- entertainment reporter Lynn
Hirschberg-- apparently has too many powerful friends. Brill's editor David
Kuhn reportedly told staffers, "You don't understand: I have to go to
cocktail parties with these people."
Many journalists have heard war stories about controversial articles that
got cut or quashed before they were written, or, more chillingly, of careers
cut short. The breakneck consolidation of media ownership means news
divisions are increasingly subject to corporate control, but it can be
difficult to find documentation of specific instances in which this has
distorted the news. With that in mind, FAIR has compiled reports of some of
the most outrageous examples of "fear and favor" in the newsroom from the
last year.
We hope "Fear & Favor 2000" will serve to support journalists who are
struggling to seek truth and report it, empower the public to demand
accountability from the media and inspire all of us to fight back when the
powerful try to restrict the free flow of information.
Read the full report online: http://www.fair.org/ff2000.html
***
NEW YORK CITY EVENT:
FAIR's Janine Jackson, Program Director and co-host of CounterSpin, will be
presenting "Fear & Favor 2000" to the public on Friday, February 16 (details
below). Joining FAIR will be Blake Fleetwood and Frances Cerra Whittelsey,
two former New York Times reporters with their own stories of "fear and
favor" in the newsroom.
"Fear & Favor 2000: How Power Shapes the News"
Friday, February 16, 6:30 PM
Housing Works Used Book Café
126 Crosby St (between Prince and Houston), New York
*Free and Open to the Public*
--
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