Right Wing

Ruining "Reagan"

by Sheldon Rampton — November 25, 2003 - 12:00am

The director of "The Reagans" complained Monday that CBS butchered his made-for-TV movie, ultimately making it too incoherent for the network to air. According to Robert Ackerman, CBS expressed no problems until after a "rough cut" was hurriedly delivered in October. At that point, the network ordered changes to the dialogue that were "nonnegotiable," he said. "What they were doing with the structure of the film, I thought, was making it incoherent," Ackerman said.

Main Source: 
CNN, November 25, 2003

The Birth of "Journo-Lobbying"

by John Stauber — November 19, 2003 - 12:00am

"James Glassman and TCS have given birth to something quite new in Washington: journo-lobbying. It's an innovation driven primarily by the influence industry. Lobbying firms that once specialized in gaining person-to-person access to key decision-makers have branched out. The new game is to dominate the entire intellectual environment in which officials make policy decisions, which means funding everything from think tanks to issue ads to phony grassroots pressure groups.

Main Source: 
Washington Monthly, November 19, 2003

Scarborough to Lynch: "Shut Up and Take the Cash"

by Sheldon Rampton — November 12, 2003 - 12:00am

Now that Private Jessica Lynch has told the truth about the conditions of her capture and rescue in Iraq, right-wing telebabbler Joe Scarborough is complaining that she "started whining about the Pentagon PR machine and the fact that they told parts of the stories that may have made her more of a hero than she considered herself to be. ... Well, Jessica, I've got bad news to break to you. It was because of the Pentagon PR machine that turned you into an American hero -- that got book publishers interested in paying you $1 million to tell your story. It was the Pentagon PR machine that told America how you were a hero that got NBC interested in doing a movie about your story. It was the Pentagon PR machine that's turned you into a millionaire."

Main Source: 
MSNBC, November 12, 2003

Republican PR Man Promotes Iraqi Lawyer's Book

by Laura Miller — November 7, 2003 - 12:00am

"Shirley and Banister Public Affairs has been selected to promote Harper Collins' Because Each Life is Precious, the account by Iraqi lawyer Mohammed Odeh al-Rehaief of Pfc. Jessica Lynch's capture and rescue during the Iraq invasion," O'Dwyer's PR Daily reports.

Main Source: 
O'Dwyer's PR Daily, November 7, 2003

Gay-Bashing Provocateurs

by Sheldon Rampton — October 30, 2003 - 12:00am

A gay-bashing, right wing student newspaper at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island offers a fresh example of the conservative media's strategy of "publicizing censorship of their papers" so they can "cast themselves as the little guy up against the leftist establishment." The Hawk's Right Eye provoked the university administration into clamping down by running nasty attacks on Judy Shepard, whose son was beaten to death in Wyoming for being gay.

Main Source: 
Student Press Law Center, October 30, 2003

Arson Attack on Peace Activists

by Sheldon Rampton — October 29, 2003 - 12:00am

Cindy Hunter and her husband, Sam Nickels, opposed Bush's war against Iraq and put a sign on their front porch showing the number of Iraqi civilians and U.S. soldiers who have been wounded or killed thus far in the war. An anonymous arson responded by setting fire to the sign, endangering their lives and causing an estimated $50,000 in damages to their home.

Main Source: 
Progressive, October 29, 2003

Fox Gets the Memo

by Sheldon Rampton — October 29, 2003 - 12:00am

Charlie Reina, a former producer for Fox News, has posted a letter to the Poynter Institute's online journalism forum, explaining how the network deliberately slants the news. "Editorially, the FNC newsroom is under the constant control and vigilance of management," he writes. "The pressure ranges from subtle to direct. First of all, it's a news network run by one of the most high-profile political operatives of recent times. ... The roots of FNC's day-to-day on-air bias are actual and direct.

Main Source: 
Poynter Online Forums, October 29, 2003

Right Wing Collegians

by Sheldon Rampton — October 27, 2003 - 12:00am

The student editor of the California Patriot, a right-wing student newspaper at the University of California-Berkeley, claims that conservatives are the true heirs to the university's free speech movement of the 1960s. "The conservatives on Berkeley's campus have employed various strategies in order to insert their views -- whether they're wanted or not -- into campus debates," writes Michael Gaworecki.

Main Source: 
Wiretap Magazine, October 27, 2003

Is Media Bias a Dumb Debate?

by Sheldon Rampton — October 23, 2003 - 11:00pm

"Denouncing bias in the media has become a dumb instrument. The cases keep coming. The charges keep flying. Often the subject - journalism - disappears," NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen. Rosen poses six questions about the bias question, and two answers. "Liberal spin. Corporate spin. Texas spin. Zionist spin. Republican spin. Hollywood spin. American spin. Anti-American spin. We want it out, out, out. Spin, that's bad," Rosen writes.

Main Source: 
PressThink, October 24, 2003

Conservative Pundits Feel the Heat

by Sheldon Rampton — October 7, 2003 - 11:00pm

"The right wing talk media empire is taking some hits," observes Anthony Violanti. Rush Limbaugh got the boot from ESPN last week after making racially charged comments about "black quarterbacks." Michael Savage was fired by MSNBC after saying he wished a gay caller would "get AIDS and die." Bill O'Reilly at Fox News has made himself a laughingstock with his temper tantrums and attempt to sue satirist Al Franken. Columnist Robert Novak is in the center of a controversy about his role in publishing a White House leak that outed an undercover CIA officer.

Main Source: 
Buffalo News, October 8, 2003
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