WAce in the Hole, also known as The Big Carnival, is a 1951 American film noir starring Kirk Douglas as a cynical, disgraced reporter who stops at nothing to try to regain a job on a major newspaper. The film co-stars Jan Sterling and features Robert Arthur and Porter Hall.
WAd Fontes Media, Inc. is a Colorado-based media watchdog organization primarily known for its Media Bias Chart, which rates media sources in terms of political bias and reliability. The organization was founded in 2018 by patent attorney Vanessa Otero with the goal of combating political polarization. Ad Fontes Media uses a panel of analysts across the political spectrum to evaluate articles for the Chart.
WAfghanistanism is a term, first recorded in the United States, for the practice of concentrating on problems in distant parts of the world while ignoring controversial local issues. In other contexts, the term has referred to "hopelessly arcane and irrelevant scholarship", "fascination with exotic, faraway lands", or "Railing and shaking your fist at an unseen foe who is quite unaware of your existence, much less your fury".
WThe Betoota Advocate is an Australian satirical news website and digital media company that publishes articles on international, national, and local news. The site puts a comedic spin on current news topics and broader social observations. The site is based in inner Sydney, but takes its name from the deserted regional town of Betoota, Queensland, and purports to be "Australia's oldest newspaper".
WThe Brass Check is a muckraking exposé of American journalism by Upton Sinclair published in 1919. It focuses mainly on newspapers and the Associated Press wire service, along with a few magazines. Other critiques of the press had appeared, but Sinclair reached a wider audience with his personal fame and lively, provocative writing style. Among those critiqued was William Randolph Hearst, who made routine use of yellow journalism in his widespread newspaper and magazine business.
WJesse Benjamin Brown is a Canadian journalist, media personality, and businessperson. He is the founder and principal host of Canadaland, a talk show podcast he started in autumn 2013 that has by late 2014 expanded into a crowdfunded media site, which solicits donations to fund operations.
WCircular reporting, or false confirmation, is a situation in source criticism where a piece of information appears to come from multiple independent sources, but in reality comes from only one source. In many cases, the problem happens mistakenly through sloppy reporting or intelligence-gathering. However, the situation can also be intentionally contrived by the source or reporter as a way of reinforcing the widespread belief in its information.
WOn April 29, 2006, American comedian Stephen Colbert appeared as the featured entertainer at the 2006 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, which was held in Washington, D.C., at the Hilton Washington hotel. Colbert's performance, consisting of a 16-minute podium speech and a 7-minute video presentation, was broadcast live across the United States on the cable television networks C-SPAN and MSNBC. Standing a few feet from U.S. President George W. Bush, in front of an audience of celebrities, politicians, and members of the White House Press Corps, Colbert delivered a controversial, searing routine targeting the president and the media. He spoke in the persona of the character he played on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, a parody of conservative pundits such as Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity.
WThe Colbert Report is an American late-night talk and news satire television program hosted by Stephen Colbert that aired four days a week on Comedy Central from October 17, 2005, to December 18, 2014, for 1,447 episodes. The show focused on a fictional anchorman character named Stephen Colbert, played by his real-life namesake. The character, described by Colbert as a "well-intentioned, poorly informed, high-status idiot", is a caricature of televised political pundits. Furthermore, the show satirized conservative personality-driven political talk programs, particularly Fox News's The O'Reilly Factor. The Colbert Report is a spin-off of Comedy Central's The Daily Show, in which Colbert acted as a correspondent for the program for several years while developing the character.
WCopaganda, a portmanteau of cop and propaganda, is a phenomenon described by critics of law enforcement in which news media and other social institutions promote celebratory portrayals of police officers with the intent of swaying public opinion for the benefit of police departments and law enforcement. Copaganda has been defined as "media efforts to flatter police officers and spare them from skeptical coverage," "pieces of media that are so scarily disconnected from the reality of cops that they end up serving as offbeat recruitment ads," and "videos, photos, and news clips of police officers dancing, praying, or handing out free food" used to boost public relations. Copaganda has been described as promoting an image of police officers that does not reflect reality, especially for working class Indigenous, Black, and brown communities, and reinforcing racist misconceptions worldwide. The term is commonly used on social media platforms such as Twitter.
WCitizen journalism, also known as collaborative media, participatory journalism,democratic journalism, guerrilla journalism or street journalism, is based upon public citizens "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing, and disseminating news and information." Similarly, Courtney C. Radsch defines citizen journalism "as an alternative and activist form of news gathering and reporting that functions outside mainstream media institutions, often as a response to shortcomings in the professional journalistic field, that uses similar journalistic practices but is driven by different objectives and ideals and relies on alternative sources of legitimacy than traditional or mainstream journalism". Jay Rosen offers a simpler definition: "When the people formerly known as the audience employ the press tools they have in their possession to inform one another." The underlying principle of citizen journalism is that ordinary people, not professional journalists, can be the main creators and distributors or news. Citizen journalism should not be confused with: community journalism or civic journalism, both of which are practiced by professional journalists; collaborative journalism, which is the practice of professional and non-professional journalists working together; and social journalism, which denotes a digital publication with a hybrid of professional and non-professional journalism.
WNicholas Davies is a British investigative journalist, writer and documentary maker.
W"Dirty Laundry" is a song written by Don Henley and Danny Kortchmar, from Henley's debut solo album I Can't Stand Still, released in 1982. The song hit number 1 on the Billboard Top Album Tracks chart in October 1982, prior to being issued as a 45 rpm single. Lyrically, the song describes mass media sensationalism.
WThe Epoch Times is a far-right international multi-language newspaper and media company affiliated with the Falun Gong new religious movement. The newspaper, based in New York City, is part of the Epoch Media Group, which also operates New Tang Dynasty (NTD) Television. The Epoch Times has websites in 35 countries but is blocked in mainland China.
WExtra! is a monthly magazine of media criticism published by the media watch group FAIR. First published in 1987, its first full-time editor was Martin A. Lee. Since 1990, it has been edited by Jim Naureckas. The magazine covers a wide variety of media issues in the form of analytical essays, features publications on media commentators, and book reviews.
WFake news is false or misleading information presented as news. It often has the aim of damaging the reputation of a person or entity, or making money through advertising revenue. However, the term does not have a fixed definition, and has been applied more broadly to include any type of false information, including unintentional and unconscious mechanisms, and also by high-profile individuals to apply to any news unfavourable to their personal perspectives.
WThe Glass House was a half-hour Australian comedy talk show which screened on the ABC from 2001 to 2006.
WGood News Week is an Australian satirical panel game show hosted by Paul McDermott that aired from 19 April 1996 to 27 May 2000, and 11 February 2008 to 28 April 2012. The show's initial run aired on ABC until being bought by Network Ten in 1999. The show was revived for its second run when the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike caused many of Network Ten's imported US programmes to cease production.
WHate Inc.: Why Today's Media Makes Us Despise One Another is a 2019 non-fiction book by Matt Taibbi. It was first self-published by Taibbi online in serial form and later published by OR Books on October 8, 2019, in both hardcover and paperback as well as e-book format.
WMishu Hilmy is an American comedian, writer, actor, impressionist, and playwright. He most recently wrote, performed, and executive produced the Netflix-parody comedy special Trapped in the Netflix. He has contributed to and appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. In 2014, alongside Eric Simon, he co-wrote the Annoyance Theatre play Good Morning Gitmo.
WThe Independent Media Center is an open publishing network of activist journalist collectives that report on political and social issues. Beginnings were made in London and Sydney during the 1999 Carnival Against Capital then the first Indymedia Media Center was founded to report on the protests against the World Trade Organisational Ministerial Conference in Seattle. Indymedia became closely associated with the global justice movement, which criticized neo-liberalism and its associated institutions.
WThe Influencing Machine: Brooke Gladstone on the Media is a nonfiction graphic novel by journalist Brooke Gladstone and cartoonist Josh Neufeld. Gladstone describes the book as "a treatise on the relationship between us and the news media." It was further described by the New York Observer as "a manifesto on the role of the press in American history as told through a cartoon version of herself." The title of the book refers to On the Origin of the "Influencing Machine" in Schizophrenia, a 1919 article written by psychoanalyst Viktor Tausk.
WOn March 12, 2009, television personality Jim Cramer appeared as a guest on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. The host of CNBC's Mad Money, Cramer appeared in response to host Jon Stewart's highly publicized week-long criticism of CNBC. The exchange began with a scathing piece on CNBC's miscalculations regarding the financial crisis of 2007–2008 in response to CNBC commentator Rick Santelli, who had recently said on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade that homeowners facing foreclosure were "losers". Santelli had been set to appear on the show, but CNBC canceled Santelli's appearance. Stewart, along with Daily Show executives, claimed the CNBC montage was not retaliatory and that they planned to show it before the cancellation was announced.
WJordan Klepper is an American comedian, journalist, writer, producer, political commentator, television host, and actor. He began his career as a member of The Second City and Upright Citizens Brigade. From 2014 to 2017, he was a correspondent on The Daily Show. He started his own satirical program, The Opposition with Jordan Klepper, which was cancelled in 2018. He then starred in the 2019 docuseries, Klepper, before returning to The Daily Show later that year.
WLatma is a satirical right-wing Israeli website that also produces a weekly satirical news show.
WThe Listening Post is a current affairs programme broadcast on Al Jazeera English, filmed and produced from AJE's hub in London at the Shard.
WLiving with Michael Jackson is a television documentary, in which Martin Bashir interviewed Michael Jackson over a span of eight months, from May 2002 to January 2003, about different aspects of his life. It was shown first in the United Kingdom on ITV on 3 February 2003, and in the United States 3 days later on ABC, introduced by Barbara Walters. In November 2003, the BBC aired "Louis, Martin & Michael", a documentary by British filmmaker Louis Theroux who originally tried reaching out to Uri Geller to interview Jackson, after losing out to Bashir. In December 2003, following controversy raised from Bashir's documentary, Jackson was charged with seven counts of child molestation and two counts of intoxicating a minor with alcoholic drinks, all of which he was acquitted of in a court of law in June 2005.
WWilliam Maher is an American comedian, actor, political commentator, and television host. He is known for the HBO political talk show Real Time with Bill Maher (2003–present) and the similar late-night show called Politically Incorrect (1993–2002), originally on Comedy Central and later on ABC.
WMedia circus is a colloquial metaphor, or idiom, describing a news event for which the level of media coverage—measured by such factors as the number of reporters at the scene and the amount of material broadcast or published—is perceived to be excessive or out of proportion to the event being covered. Coverage that is sensationalistic can add to the perception the event is the subject of a media circus. The term is meant to critique the coverage of the event by comparing it to the spectacle and pageantry of a circus. Usage of the term in this sense became common in the 1970s. It can also be called a media feeding frenzy or just media frenzy, especially when they cover the media coverage.
WMedia Lens is a British left-wing media analysis website established in 2001 by David Cromwell and David Edwards. Cromwell and Edwards are the site's editors and only regular contributors. Their aim is to scrutinise and question the mainstream media's coverage of significant events and issues and to draw attention to what they consider "the systemic failure of the corporate media to report the world honestly and accurately".
WMedia Watch, formerly Media Watch: The Last Word, is an Australian media analysis television program currently presented by Paul Barry for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). The program focuses on critiquing the Australian media together with its interconnections, including with politics.
WJudith Miller is an American journalist and commentator known for her coverage of Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) program both before and after the 2003 invasion, which was later discovered to have been based on inaccurate information from the intelligence community. She worked in The New York Times' Washington bureau before joining Fox News in 2008.
WOn the Media (OTM) is an hour-long weekly radio program hosted by Brooke Gladstone, covering journalism, technology, and First Amendment issues. It is produced by WNYC in New York City. OTM is first broadcast on Friday evening over WNYC's FM service and is syndicated nationwide to more than 400 other public radio outlets. The program is available by audio stream, MP3 download, and podcast. OTM also publishes a weekly newsletter featuring news on current and past projects as well as relevant links from around the web.
WPaparazzi are independent photographers who take pictures of high-profile people, such as actors, athletes, politicians, and other celebrities, typically while subjects go about their usual life routines. Paparazzi tend to make a living by selling their photographs to media outlets that focus on tabloid journalism and sensationalism.
WParazit was a weekly half-hour Persian-language satirical television show broadcast on Voice of America's Persian service. The show poked fun at Iranian politics. Kambiz Hosseini and Saman Arbabi, Iranian expatriates living in Washington, D.C., started the show as a 10-minute segment in another show influenced by the American satirical news show The Daily Show. Parazit was launched before the June 2009 presidential elections in Iran. It became very popular in Iran, reaching its audience via illegal satellite dishes, the internet, or bootleg DVDs. Its name is a reference to the Iranian government's repeated attempts to jam foreign satellite programming. Because it was distributed through unofficial channels, it is impossible to determine the audience. However, as of January 2011, the show's YouTube channel was viewed 45,000 times a week, while their Facebook page was visited 17 million times a month. A new season was reported to begin on 17 August 2012 after a six-month hiatus, but did not resume broadcasting.
WPoints of View is a long-running British television series broadcast on BBC One. It started in 1961 and features the letters of viewers offering praise, criticism and observations on BBC television programmes of recent weeks. The latest series was narrated by Nicki Chapman, a stand-in for Tina Daheley who was absent due to pregnancy.
WPresstitute is a term that references journalists and 'talking heads' in mainstream media who give biased and predetermined views misleadingly tailored to fit a particular partisan, financial or business agenda, thus neglecting the fundamental duty to report news impartially. Coined by American researcher Gerald Celente, the word is a portmanteau of press and prostitute.
WPrivate Eye is a British fortnightly satirical and current affairs news magazine, founded in 1961. It is published in London and has been edited by Ian Hislop since 1986. The publication is widely recognised for its prominent criticism and lampooning of public figures. It is also known for its in-depth investigative journalism into under-reported scandals and cover-ups.
WThe Project is an Australian news-current affairs and talk show television panel program, airing weeknights across Australia on Network 10, produced by Roving Enterprises. The show is hosted by Waleed Aly, Carrie Bickmore and Peter Helliar on weekdays and Lisa Wilkinson, Hamish Macdonald and Tommy Little on Sunday with rotating daily guest panellists.
WReliable Sources is a Sunday morning talk show on the cable/satellite news network CNN that focuses on analysis of the American news media, currently hosted by Brian Stelter. The show is aired from 11:00 am to noon ET, from CNN's WarnerMedia studios in New York City. It is also broadcast around the world by CNN International.
WDer schwarze Kanal was a series of political propaganda programmes broadcast weekly between 1960 and 1989 by East German television Deutscher Fernsehfunk. Each edition was made up of recorded extracts from recent West German television programmes re-edited to include a Communist commentary.
WIn journalism, sensationalism is a type of editorial tactic. Events and topics in news stories are selected and worded to excite the greatest number of readers and viewers. This style of news reporting encourages biased or emotionally loaded impressions of events rather than neutrality, and may cause a manipulation to the truth of a story. Sensationalism may rely on reports about generally insignificant matters and portray them as a major influence on society, or biased presentations of newsworthy topics, in a trivial, or tabloid manner, contrary to general assumptions of professional journalistic standards.
WThe Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour was an American comedy and variety show television series hosted by the Smothers Brothers and initially airing on CBS from 1967 to 1969.
WStatistical Assessment Service (STATS) is a non-profit organization which analyzes and critiques the presentation of scientific findings and statistical evidence in the news media. Formerly associated with George Mason University and the Center for Media and Public Affairs, STATS is currently associated with Jon Entine's Science Literacy Project and Sense About Science USA.
WJon Stewart is an American comedian, writer, producer, director, political commentator, actor, and television host. He hosted The Daily Show, a satirical news program on Comedy Central, from 1999 to 2015.
WStop Funding Hate is a pressure group which asks companies to stop advertising in, and thus stop providing funds for, certain British newspapers that it argues use "fear and division to sell more papers".
WThe War You Don't See is a 2010 British documentary film written, produced and directed by John Pilger with Alan Lowery, which challenges the media for the role they played in the Iraq, Afghanistan, and Israel/Palestine conflicts. The film, which went on nationwide general release on 13 December 2010, had its premiere at the Barbican and was aired through Britain's ITV1 on 14 December 2010 and later through Australia's SBS One on 10 April 2011.