Jeff Cohen
Jeff Cohen was associate professor of journalism and the director of the Park Center for Independent Media at Ithaca College, founder of the media watch group FAIR, and former board member of Progressive Democrats of America. In 2002, he was a producer and pundit at MSNBC (overseen by NBC News). He is the author of Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media - and a cofounder of the online action group, www.RootsAction.org. His website is here: http://jeffcohen.org
Articles by this author
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Views Monday, January 14, 2019 Corporate Media Bias on 2020 Democratic Race Already in High Gear After having been a mainstream TV news pundit, I’m unfortunately addicted to cable news (mostly MSNBC and CNN ) and all the blather and repetition—laughably overhyped as "breaking news." Even when it's the same news that’s been breaking... and breaking... for hours or days. But I'm more bothered by... Read more |
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Views Sunday, October 21, 2018 Democratic Autopsy: One Year Later In October 2017, a team of progressive researchers published “ Autopsy: The Democratic Party in Crisis ,” which probed the causes of the disastrous 2016 election defeat. The report came in the wake of the party leadership’s failure to do its own autopsy. In a cover story for The Nation , William... Read more |
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Views Monday, October 15, 2018 Few Democrats Offer Alternatives to War-Weary Voters Chants of “No More War” from delegates at the 2016 Democratic National Convention gave voice to sentiments that still resonate through the base of the party and the broad U.S. public , notably in communities with higher rates of military sacrifice . While Trump’s 2016 victories in swing states may... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, August 15, 2018 Democrats Gather in Chicago: Elite Party or Party of the People? Despite being led by one of the most erratic and least popular presidents in modern history , the Trumpian Republican Party dominates U.S. politics. One of the main reasons for this awful state of affairs is that the opposition party—which calls itself “Democratic”—is led by vacillating, corporate-... Read more |
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Views Tuesday, April 10, 2018 Do U.S. Oligarchs Exist? Not in Mainstream Media TV news shows are good at getting viewers riled up. Day and night, I hear the anchors on CNN and MSNBC getting us riled up about the schemes of this or that “Russian oligarch with links to the Kremlin.” I’ve heard that phrase incessantly in recent weeks. And plenty of others have heard the “Russian... Read more |
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Views Monday, March 26, 2018 Same Old Media Parade: Why Are Liberals Cheering? When the “War on Terror” was launched in 2001, mainstream media—especially cable TV news—started a parade. It was a narrow parade of hawkish retired military and intelligence brass promoting war as the response to the crime of 9/11, predicting success and identifying foreign enemies to attack. We... Read more |
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Views Tuesday, November 14, 2017 Edward S. Herman: Master of Dissent (1925–2017) One of the greatest and sweetest media critics ever, Edward S. Herman, has passed away. Ed was the main author of Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media , written with Noam Chomsky—the 1980s masterwork that exposed how elite US media typically function as propaganda organs... Read more |
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Views Thursday, May 18, 2017 Roger Ailes: No One Did More to Debase US Politics Roger Ailes, the man who pioneered “alternative facts,” is dead. During the first five years of Fox News —which was built almost single-handedly by Ailes’ genius—I was a regular on-air contributor/panelist there. I dealt with his right-wing lieutenants plenty, but only met Ailes once, at a Fox News... Read more |
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Views Thursday, November 03, 2016 Dangerous Myths About Trump That Some Progressives Cling To Even now, in the last days of this horrendous campaign, we’re amazed by fervent assertions coming from some progressives about Donald Trump. Here are three key myths: Myth #1: “Trump can’t win.” "A Trump presidency—made possible by his demagogic appeals to racism, misogyny, immigrant-bashing and... Read more |
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Views Monday, August 15, 2016 TV Networks Should Open Up the Presidential Debates If ten major TV networks got together and decided to nationally televise a presidential debate restricted to Republican nominee Donald Trump and right-leaning Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson, while barring other candidates including Democrat Hillary Clinton, it would be recognized as an act of... Read more |