Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting

From Free net encyclopedia

Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR), founded in 1986, is an American organization that works against and documents bias in the media, censorship, and erroneous reporting. 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." Because FAIR also refers to itself as a "progressive group" which encourages more "left" coverage to balance what it claims is an overall conservative bias in the mediaTemplate:Ref, some conservative critics of FAIR contend it is a liberal organization with a strictly anti-conservative bias.

First published in 1987, Extra!, FAIR's bimonthly magazine, features analyses of current media bias, censorship, and effects of media consolidation. Covering a variety of issues, FAIR addresses news coverage that it finds biased with rebuttals. FAIR also produces CounterSpin, a half-hour radio program hosted by Janine Jackson, Steve Rendall, and Peter Hart. It broadcasts nationally on over 130 radio stations and is available in MP3 and RealAudio format on the web.