Biased Coverage

We’ve written before about the potential harm done when the media report shallowly on medical issues, quote “experts” who aren’t, or give false balance and fluff treatment to sources whose health arguments are unfounded or even dangerous. Now a particularly scary example of this bad journalism has been pointed out in the British magazine The Spectator, which recently scheduled and then cancelled a debate on a film that mistakenly and dangerously questions...Go to full story

MediaMatters.org, a progressive website dedicated to correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media, brought up two instances of bad poll reporting in the press last week.

In one, they criticize the conservative press for calling a recent poll finding majority support for a public health care option “fraudulent," and "rigged."  In another, they specifically call out the program Fox & Friends for using an outdated poll...Go to full story

What began as a fact-checking mission escalated when missiles were launched, and has now morphed into a full-blown battle between the White House and Fox News. Round 3 began this past Sunday, October 18, 2009, when White House senior adviser David Axelrod appeared on ABC's "This Week" and told host George Stephanopoulus that Fox News is "not really a news station." That same day, chief of staff Rahm Emanuel appeared on CNN's "State of the Union" and...Go to full story

60 Minutes recently rebroadcast a 2007 story titled “The Age of Megafires,” which discusses the link between forest management policies, climate changes in the western United States, and a recent increase in the frequency of large western forest fires. Dealing with the subtle, and often thorny issue of climate change, the broadcast unfortunately makes a few factual missteps in its coverage. This kind of accuracy problem can often serve as a toehold for critics to...Go to full story

With the rise of 24-hour cable TV came the need for more and more content. But without the funds to pay more and more staff, broadcasters have increasingly turned to pundits to fill their air time. Sometimes those pundits are experts with specialized knowledge; often they are people who are able to speak on camera and will take a strong position to promote an agenda, political or otherwise. In the October issue of The Atlantic magazine, staff writer Mark Bowden looks at the...Go to full story

During this summer's recession, while news outlets were struggling to make ends meet, three TV stations in Las Vegas might have actually sold out. A TV news station, KVBC-TV, NBC Channel 3 News in Las Vegas is accusing three competitors of cashing in on an unethical (and illegal) arrangement. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, KVBC-TV "filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission" against KVVU-TV, FOX 5 News Channel 5; KLAS-TV CBS Eyewitness...Go to full story

This summer we wrote about freelance journalist and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee journalism lecturer Jessica McBride's affair with the city's police chief Ed Flynn after she had written a profile on him for Milwaukee Magazine.

Daniel Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel  broke the story after anonymously receiving e-mails and a letter exchanged between McBride and Flynn revealing their relationship. As details about the affair came out, McBride...Go to full story

The Quackometer, a blog commenting on pseudoscience, reported this week on such a blatantly bad story in the London-based Daily Mail, that it almost doesn’t seem real:  “Can this man cure cancer with his bare hands?” the paper asks of “psychic healer” Adrian Pengelly in its headline. The answer should be a decided “No he cannot,” according to scientific evidence.  Anecdotes from Pengelly's clients who feel they have been...Go to full story

A few days ago, we wrote about the Washington Post's new social media guidelines. As we noted then, the response from media critics was generally weary. They saw the restrictive nature of the guidelines as one more nail in the coffin for old-school media. Well, the Washington Post heard those concerns and ombudsman Andrew Alexander has responded with a lackluster defense. Alexander says that Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli sees the Post's neutrality as "essential to...Go to full story

The Federal Trade Commission has published the final version of its guide concerning the use of testimonials and endorsements in advertising.

Last updated in 1980, the guide now includes revisions for advertisers promoting atypical consumer results. As Brian Solis writing for TechCrunch/The Washington Post explains, "advertisers were allowed to get away with promoting unusually positive or outlier experiences in a testimonial as long as they included a...Go to full story