Background fileDoc TBL-HIST
The press and the intelligence services: the documented record
■ Church Committee, 1975–76
A Senate select committee chaired by Frank Church investigated abuses by the CIA, FBI, NSA and IRS. Its final report documented covert intelligence programs that ran without real oversight, including the CIA's use of journalists and media outlets in its operations. The investigation led directly to the Senate Intelligence Committee and the FISA law.
■ "The CIA and the Media" — Carl Bernstein, Rolling Stone, 1977
Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein reported that, according to CIA documents, more than 400 American journalists had secretly carried out assignments for the agency over 25 years. He named cooperating news executives at CBS, Time Inc. and The New York Times, among others.
■ Project MKULTRA hearing, 1977
A 1977 joint Senate hearing examined MKULTRA, the CIA's behavior-modification research program, which included drug experiments on people who didn't know they were being tested. Most of the program's records had been destroyed in 1973, so much of the public record comes from this hearing and the files that survived.
31 JAN 2020CNN, New York Times, USA Today
Framing
In late January 2020 CNN reported that fear of the new coronavirus was fueling racism and xenophobia. On Feb 5 a New York Times opinion piece by Rosie Spinks questioned warnings against travel to China. In mid-February USA Today quoted a top US disease official describing the risk to Americans as 'minuscule' and advising hand-washing over masks. Seen in hindsight, the pieces show how early coverage understated the coming pandemic.
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EXHIBIT S-029
17 MAR 2019CNN
Framing
Two days after the Christchurch mosque attacks, CNN Business published an analysis arguing that YouTube and other platforms were radicalizing white men and that big tech could be doing more. Critics objected to the piece framing a demographic group as the subject of radicalization.
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EXHIBIT S-028
02 AUG 2018BBC News, Washington Times
Framing
The BBC first reported that the New York Times was standing by its new hire Sarah Jeong over her 'racist tweets'. The next day the headline was revised to put 'racist tweets' in quotation marks, and in the article body the word 'racist' was replaced with 'inflammatory'. The Washington Times reported the change.
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EXHIBIT S-027
16 APR 2018VICE
Double Standard
In 2018 VICE ran first-person accounts from women about the most hurtful comments made about their bodies. In 2019 a VICE item welcomed the new "pinching hand" emoji as a way to make fun of men, a reference to jokes about penis size.
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EXHIBIT S-026
01 FEB 2018AAUP Academe
Framing
Joshua A. Cuevas, a University of North Georgia education professor, wrote in the AAUP's Academe magazine about being targeted by online harassment campaigns. He argued that far-right networks increasingly use cyberharassment against academics. The essay presents the issue mainly as a problem of the political right.
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EXHIBIT S-025
03 JAN 2018Reuters
Contradiction
In January 2018 Reuters reported a government-sponsored study that found violent crime in Germany rose about 10 percent in 2015-16 and attributed most of that rise to young male refugees. In June 2018 Reuters covered Trump's statement that migration was changing Europe's 'culture'. Contemporaneous fact checks described his claim that German crime was 'way up' as inaccurate.
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EXHIBIT S-024
05 DEC 2017Foreign Policy
Framing
In a December 2017 Foreign Policy column, Max Boot declared Trump guilty and argued that the only remaining question was what he was guilty of. The column appeared while the Mueller investigation was still under way and before any findings had been released.
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EXHIBIT S-023
19 OCT 2017CNN, The Washington Post
Contradiction
After Trump tweeted asking whether Russia, the FBI or the Democrats had paid for the Steele dossier, a CNN analysis by Chris Cillizza described the tweet as a conspiracy theory; CNN's feed carried it under the short headline "President floats conspiracy theories". Five days later the Washington Post reported that the Clinton campaign and the DNC had funded, through a law firm, the research that produced the dossier.
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EXHIBIT S-022
06 OCT 2017Los Angeles Times, Washington Times
Framing
In October 2017 the LA Times reported that California had reduced knowingly exposing others to HIV from a felony to a misdemeanor. In May 2018 it reported that STD rates in Los Angeles County were soaring and that officials thought racism and stigma might be partly to blame. Placed together, the stories raise the question of which causes coverage chose to emphasize.
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EXHIBIT S-021
05 JUL 2017New York Times, Washington Free Beacon
Contradiction
Trump tweeted that China's trade with North Korea grew almost 40 percent in the first quarter. The Times story wrote that it was not clear where he got the 40 percent figure, then reported later in the article that China's trade with the North grew 37.4 percent in the first three months of the year. The Washington Free Beacon pointed out the juxtaposition.
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EXHIBIT S-020
04 APR 2017CNN
Opinion as News
In April 2017 a CNN opinion piece argued that every worker should have access to paid family leave. In May CNN reported that Trump's budget would propose paid parental leave, and eight days later CNN published an opinion piece arguing that paid leave mandates can backfire on women's hiring and pay.
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EXHIBIT S-019
04 MAR 2017CNN
Contradiction
CNN called Trump's March 2017 claim that Obama wiretapped him baseless, and in September Chris Cillizza wrote that Trump had flatly lied after the Justice Department said in a court filing that it had no evidence for the claim. Two weeks later CNN reported as an exclusive that federal investigators had wiretapped Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign chairman, under secret FISA court orders.
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EXHIBIT S-018
26 JAN 2017Philadelphia Inquirer / Philly.com
Contradiction
In January 2017 Chris Palmer reported that Trump's claim that Philadelphia's murder rate was 'terribly increasing' was not true. In December 2017 the same reporter wrote that, while most crime fell, the city recorded more than 300 homicides that year, its highest year-end total since 2012.
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EXHIBIT S-017
19 JAN 2017The New York Times
Contradiction
On January 20, 2017, the Times' print front page reported that intercepted communications were part of a federal inquiry into Trump associates' links to Russia, under the print headline "Wiretapped Data Used in Inquiry of Trump Aides". In March, when Trump tweeted that Obama had tapped his phones at Trump Tower, the Times said he offered no evidence for the claim.
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EXHIBIT S-016
19 OCT 2016CNN
Contradiction
Three weeks before the vote, while Trump was warning of a rigged election, CNN's Tal Kopan explained that the decentralized US voting system made changing the result by hacking practically impossible. After the election, CNN reported Obama's order for a review of Russian election-related hacking (Kopan was a co-author), and a CNN opinion piece by Paul Waldman asked why there was not more outrage over Russia's hack.
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EXHIBIT S-015
10 OCT 2016NBC News
Framing
In its fact check of the second presidential debate, NBC News rated Trump's claim that Clinton "acid washed" her email server as false, explaining that her team used a software program called BleachBit, not a corrosive chemical. Critics say this read a figure of speech literally while confirming the underlying point that the files were permanently wiped.
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EXHIBIT S-014
12 SEP 2016CNN
Double Standard
The day after Hillary Clinton stumbled at a 9/11 memorial and her pneumonia was revealed, a CNN Health piece asked how much the public is owed about a candidate's medical history and quoted a bioethicist who said a candidate may keep it private unless they expect to die in office. Three days later CNN Health published a rundown of what was known about Donald Trump's health after he released results from a physical.
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EXHIBIT S-013
11 AUG 2016The Independent, indy100
Double Standard
A 2016 Independent opinion piece argued that people who choose not to have children help the environment more than any campaign. A 2017 Independent news story reported research that ranked having fewer children as the most effective way to cut personal emissions. The intended contrast is with indy100/Independent coverage calling Macron's July 2017 remarks about African birth rates 'incredibly offensive', but that piece could not be located.
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EXHIBIT S-012
01 AUG 2016The Washington Post (reporter's Twitter)
Framing
Then-Washington Post reporter Abby Phillip tweeted a photo describing a big, boisterous crowd at a Clinton rally in Omaha with Warren Buffett. Conservative sites said the photo's angle exaggerated the turnout, posting other images that seemed to show a smaller crowd.
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EXHIBIT S-011
29 JUL 2016The Hollywood Reporter
Framing
The morning after Clinton accepted the Democratic nomination, The Hollywood Reporter promoted a coloring book that shows her as Daenerys Targaryen, Superwoman and other heroic figures. It is included as an example of admiring, pop-culture framing of a candidate during an election.
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EXHIBIT S-010
29 JUL 2016CNN, Drudge Report, Mediaite, Business Insider
Framing
Videos posted by attendees showed CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer drinking wine and dancing at CNN's after-party following its coverage of Hillary Clinton's 2016 convention speech. The Drudge Report headlined it 'CNN CELEBRATES HILLARY: BLITZER TOASTS SPEECH, DANCING, PARTY!' Mediaite and Business Insider reported the episode and CNN's response.
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EXHIBIT S-009
21 JUL 2016The Washington Post, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, NBC News
Framing
On the night of Trump's July 21, 2016 acceptance speech and the morning after, several major outlets used "dark" in their headlines or framing. Critics such as Legal Insurrection said the shared word showed media groupthink that echoed Clinton campaign talking points.
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EXHIBIT S-008
19 JUL 2016Philadelphia Inquirer (Philly.com)
Double Standard
Philadelphia Inquirer fashion columnist Elizabeth Wellington read Melania Trump's white dress at the Republican convention as a worrying statement. Nine days later the same columnist wrote that Hillary Clinton's all-white pantsuit at the Democratic convention made her look presidential.
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EXHIBIT S-007
19 JUL 2016MSNBC (now MS NOW)
Double Standard
On the Maddow Show blog, Steve Benen wrote that the Republican convention exploited the grief of Pat Smith, whose son died in the Benghazi attack, for political gain. Ten days later he wrote that Khizr Khan's Democratic convention speech about his son, a soldier killed in Iraq, would be remembered for a long time.
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EXHIBIT S-006
15 MAR 2016HuffPost
Contradiction
One HuffPost food item mocked Trump for ordering his steak well done and called that the worst possible way to eat it. A HuffPost item a few days later carried a headline suggesting that judging people by how they like their steak is something a Trump supporter would do.
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EXHIBIT S-005
20 JUN 2015Salon, AlterNet
Double Standard
After the Charleston church shooting, Salon ran a piece by Kali Holloway (via AlterNet) arguing that white America as a whole was complicit in Dylann Roof's racist violence. After the November 2015 Paris attacks, Salon ran Ben Norton's argument that Muslims should not be collectively blamed and that the West should examine its own violence abroad. Critics read the two pieces as applying opposite standards of collective responsibility.
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EXHIBIT S-004
08 JAN 2014NPR, Education Week, The 74
Framing
In January 2014 NPR reported on new Obama administration guidance discouraging 'zero tolerance' school discipline and suspensions. After the 2018 Parkland shooting, Manhattan Institute fellow Max Eden testified to a House subcommittee that schools had rushed to cut suspensions under the guidance, creating unsafe environments. Education Week covered his testimony.
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EXHIBIT S-003
28 NOV 2013HuffPost
Framing
A 2013 HuffPost contributor blog by Nicole Breedlove argued that Thanksgiving's roots lie in the 1637 Pequot Massacre and called it a national genocide day. In 2015, during the Syrian refugee debate, a HuffPost politics piece by Igor Bobic presented the Pilgrims sympathetically as refugees in order to argue for admitting Syrian refugees.
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EXHIBIT S-002
12 NOV 2012Slate
Contradiction
A week after Obama's 2012 re-election, Slate ran Judge Richard Posner's case for keeping the Electoral College, which listed practical benefits such as certainty of outcome and pushing candidates to campaign nationally. Days after Trump's 2016 Electoral College win, Slate ran a piece arguing the system grew out of slavery and still gives extra weight to white and male voters.
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EXHIBIT S-001
06 DEC 2011Daily Mail, NPR, Full Fact
Double Standard
In December 2011 the Daily Mail reported that four women who kicked Rhea Page in the head during a racially abusive street attack in Leicester received suspended sentences. In March 2012 student Liam Stacey was jailed for 56 days for racist tweets about footballer Fabrice Muamba. Placed side by side, the cases raise questions about how UK courts weigh online speech against physical violence.
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