Feb. 13, 2015
FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting) — the progressive national media watch group — blends journalism, research and advocacy to provide timely fact checking of corporate media.
With funding from Voqal Fund, FAIR released several major research studies in 2014. Highlights include documentation of the lack of coverage by the major news networks on the Trans Pacific Partnership, lack of emphasis on the issue of poverty on network news and a lack of debate over the US wars in Iraq and Syria. One study, “Cable News: A White Man’s World” showed how rarely women and people of color appear on cable news programs.
FAIR has also launched several activism/media accountability campaigns. Examples include spurring activists to contact TV networks about their failure to cover the TPP trade pact and generating letters to the Washington Post over Iran inaccuracies. FAIR’s activism can, and has, achieved results by encouraging the public to contact media with their concerns, to become media activists rather than passive consumers of news.