Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting
{{Short description|Media critique group in New York City}}
{{Infobox organization
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| formation = {{start date and age|1986}}
| founder = Jeff Cohen, Martin A. Lee
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| type = 501(c)3 organization
| tax_id = 13-3392362
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| purpose = Media criticism
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| products = Extra! magazine, CounterSpin radio program
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| key_people = Janine Jackson, Jim Naureckas
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Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) is a progressive left-leaning{{cite web |last=Goodman |first=Walter |date=June 17, 1990 |title=TV VIEW; Let's Be Frank About Fairness And Accuracy – |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE6DA173AF934A25755C0A966958260 |access-date=May 2, 2010 |work=New York Times}}{{cite news |last1=Shepard |first1=Alicia C. |date=12 April 2011 |title=What to Think about Think Tanks? |agency=NPR |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/ombudsman/2011/04/22/134229266/what-to-think-about-think-tanks |access-date=24 June 2015}}{{cite book |last1=Callahan |first1=David |url=https://archive.org/details/fortunesofchange0000call |title=Fortunes of change : the rise of the liberal rich and the remaking of America |date=2010 |publisher=J. Wiley & Sons, Inc. |isbn=978-0470177112 |location=Hoboken, N.J. |url-access=registration}}{{cite book |last1=Sheppard |first1=Si |title=The partisan press : a history of media bias in the United States |date=2008 |publisher=McFarland & Co. |isbn=978-0786432820 |location=Jefferson, N.C.}} media critique organization based in New York City.{{cite news|last1=Hays|first1=Constance L.|title=MAKING IT WORK;FAIR or Not?|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/05/19/nyregion/making-it-work-fair-or-not.html|access-date=9 December 2015|work=New York Times|date=May 19, 1996}} The organization was founded in 1986 by Jeff Cohen and Martin A. Lee.{{cite web|title=What's FAIR?|date=30 August 2012 |url=https://fair.org/about-fair/|publisher=Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting|access-date=9 December 2015}} FAIR monitors American news media for bias, inaccuracies and censorship, and advocates for more diversity of perspectives in the news media.{{Cite web |title=Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Fairness-and-Accuracy-in-Reporting |access-date=2022-08-14 |website=Encyclopædia Britannica |language=en}} FAIR describes itself as "the national media watch group".
FAIR publishes Extra!, a magazine of media criticism, and also produces the radio program CounterSpin, which features interviews with journalists, scholars, and activists on current media-related news stories.
Mission
FAIR describes itself on its website as "the national media watch group" and defines its mission as working 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." FAIR refers to itself as a "progressive group that believes that structural reform is ultimately needed to break up the dominant media conglomerates, establish independent public broadcasting and promote strong nonprofit sources of information."
Commentators on FAIR's syndicated radio program, CounterSpin, have frequently argued that American media is biased in favor of conservatism.{{Cite book |last=Vance |first=Lucian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xi1mDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA84 |title=Fake News and Media Bias |date=2017 |publisher=Greenhaven Publishing LLC |isbn=978-1-5345-6200-4 |pages=84 |language=en}} Professor of public policy Terry J. Buss has argued that FAIR combines media criticism and partisan advocacy for progressive causes, and that their criticism of conservative groups is done "more on ideological grounds than on substance".{{Cite book |last1=Buss |first1=Terry F. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FlhFdTRCzOEC&pg=PA319 |title=Modernizing Democracy: Innovations in Citizen Participation |last2=Buss |first2=Nathaniel J. |publisher=Routledge |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-7656-1934-1 |editor-last=Redburn |editor-first=F. Stevens |edition=1st |location=New York |pages=319 |language=en |chapter=The Internet, Politics, and Democracy}}
FAIR believes that corporate sponsorship and ownership, as well as government policies and pressure, restricts journalism and therefore distorts public discourse. FAIR also believes that most news media reflects the interests of business and government elites while ignoring or minimizing minority, female, public interest, and dissenting points of view. FAIR criticizes media outlets for engaging in false balance in order to not be accused of taking sides on controversial topics.
See also
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
External links
{{Wikiquote}}
- {{official website}}
- {{ProPublicaNonprofitExplorer|133392362}}
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Category:Media analysis organizations and websites
Category:American political websites
Category:Political advocacy groups in the United States