Search Results for: Chip Berlet

Aug

2012

Islamophobia, Antisemitism and the Demonized 'Other'

Parallels among bigotries reflect the conspiratorial mindset

Salman Rushdie--Photo Credit: Flickr Creative Commons/David Shankbone

Republican hopeful Mitt Romney is portrayed by online bigots as a Manchurian Candidate for a secretive cabal of Mormon elites—echoing anti-Catholic conspiracy theories about John F. Kennedy being a wind-up toy for the Vatican. Meanwhile, a chain letter currently being circulated warns that the “American Government is under the command and control of…the Freemasons and Leadership of the Catholic Church.” There are right-wing websites and blogs warning that if President Barack Obama is re-elected, hordes of scheming fanatic Muslims plan to impose Sharia law and turn America into a totalitarian socialist/Nazi theocratic state. Other websites and blogs warn that Obama [...]

Jan

2011

Chip Berlet on Tucson shootings, Ladd Everitt on gun control

Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: What do we know about alleged Tucson killer Jared Lee Loughner's world view, which has been described as rambling, incoherent and non political in various news media reports? And what of the right-wing backlash attacking anyone who even suggests that vitriolic right-wing rhetoric has gotten out of hand? We'll talk with right watcher Chip Berlet of the Political Research Associates. Also on CounterSpin today: The national debate in the aftermath of the Tucscon shootings is touching on violent rhetoric and mental health services, but some media are sending the message that gun policy isn't [...]

May

2010

Journalists ♥ Tea Party

At last a citizen movement corporate media can love

By Peter Hart and Steve Rendall

A Tea Party activist--Photo Credit: In These Times

In the first year of the Obama administration, the corporate media suddenly overcame their general aversion to citizen movements that criticize government policies, granting the staunchly conservative Tea Party activists enormous coverage—a decision that seems likely to impact politics for the foreseeable future. Citizen movements are hardly ever front-page news, even when they have clearly identifiable political agendas and broad public support. But the Tea Party movement—an amorphous, politically incoherent umbrella designation for various strands of opposition to Obama, much of it beset with racism and backed by less-than-grassroots deep-pocket Beltway lobbying groups—has managed to buck that trend, getting the [...]

Mar

2004

Homegrown Terrorists

WMD found—in Texas, so media yawn

By Richard Bottoms

In his interview with Tim Russert (Meet the Press, 2/8/04), George W. Bush said, "See, free societies are societies that don't develop weapons of mass terror." Putting aside the U.S. government's enormous stocks of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons—which Bush would presumably insist are not intended for terror—the statement also overlooks the fact that the U.S. also produces freelance domestic terrorists bent on creating weapons of mass destruction. Russert might have reminded Bush of recent events in his home state of Texas, where William Krar was indicted in May 2003 for, among other things, possession of a weapon of mass [...]

Jan

1999

Steven Emerson's Crusade

Why is a journalist pushing questionable stories from behind the scenes?

By John F. Sugg

Did self-styled anti-terrorism expert Steven Emerson help push the world toward nuclear war? On Sunday, June 28, a sensational story appeared in the British newspaper the Observer: "Pakistan was planning nuclear first strike on India." The stunning revelation that South Asia was on the brink of thermonuclear war was credited to an unnamed "senior Pakistani weapons scientist who has defected." The next day, papers on the Indian subcontinent were full of the news. Shock spread and distrust mounted. "The scenario is frightening," stated the Times of India (6/29/98). On Wednesday, July 1, a USA Today report by Barbara Slavin named [...]

May

1990

The Anti-Semitic Roots of Eastern European Nationalism

By Margaret Quigley

Press coverage of the dramatic changes in Eastern Europe in late 1989 and early 1990 has failed to provide adequate context concerning the anti-Semitic and fascist currents in Eastern European nationalism. As the New York Times has noted (10/8/89), the term "nationalist" has a "more extremist connotation here [in Eastern Europe] than in the West." But most reporting on Eastern Europe's nationalist movements, including that of the Times, has been rife with euphemistic references to "Christian values" and "Christian nationalism" without an explanation of the historic anti-Semitism that echoes in such rhetoric. News coverage of Eastern Europe has generally overlooked [...]