Search Results for: Norman Solomon

Feb
08
2013

Norman Solomon on Iraq War Ten Years Ago, Richard Kim on Ed Koch

Powell-UN

This week on CounterSpin: "Irrefutable" was the headline on the Washington Post editorial responding to Secretary of State Colin Powell's UN presentation making the case for war on Iraq. That was ten years ago this week; we'll talk with author and activist Norman Solomon, co-founder of RootsAction.org about how much difference there is between then and now.

Also on the show: Reading the eulogies for late New York City mayor Ed Koch, you'd think he was a universally loved figure. But for the not so adoring, Koch is remembered as an antagonist of ethnic minorities who presided over massive corruption and failed to adequately confront the emerging HIV/AIDS pandemic. We'll explore how Koch dealt with the pandemic with Nation editor Richard Kim.

Oct
25
2011

NPR vs. Free Speech

Opera show dropped by NPR to punish host's political activism

On Friday NPR decided it would no longer distribute an opera program because of the political activism of the program's host--who does not work for NPR. Together we can send a message to NPR about this appalling decision. A controversy erupted over freelance radio host Lisa Simeone's participation with an activist group occupying a park in Washington, D.C. Simeone was promptly fired as host of the documentary program Soundprint (AP, 10/20/11), which cited NPR ethics guidelines. NPR claims it had nothing to do with that firing (Poynter.org, 10/20/11). On Thursday, North Carolina station WDAV, which produces World of Opera, announced [...]

Jul
01
2011

Letters to the Editor

The Bigger Picture on West Bank Death Alex Kane’s analysis of American media coverage of Jawaher Abu Rahmah’s killing by Israeli forces (Extra!, 4/11) was excellent, and I thank him for it. However, Mr. Kane did not point out a major logical flaw in the coverage: Even assuming IDF claims about a pre-existing illness were true, the IDF is still responsible for killing Ms. Abu Rahmah. The point is obvious enough, but just to illustrate: Suppose I assault a man on the street so that I can steal his wallet, and in the course of that crime hit him over [...]

May
01
2011

After Fukushima, Media Still Buying Nuclear Spin

Downplaying deadly dangers in Japan and at home

Fukushima Wikimedia Commons

Ever since the start of nuclear technology, those behind it have made heavy use of deception, obfuscation and denial—with the complicity of most of the media. New York Times reporter William Laurence, working at the same time with the Manhattan Project, wrote a widely published press release covering up the first nuclear test in New Mexico in 1945, claiming it was nothing more than an ammunition dump explosion. The Times and Laurence went on to boost nuclear power for years to come (Beverly Deepe Keever, News Zero: The New York Times and The Bomb). A central concern of nuclear promoters, [...]

Aug
20
2010

Hannah Gurman on Iraq, Norman Solomon on Petraeus and Afghanistan

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Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: One war is ending, while the other is the subject of a major PR blitz. Right on schedule, we're told, Operation Iraqi Freedom is winding down, with live TV coverage relaying the images of the final U.S. combat brigades leaving the country. The caveats to the story of the "end" of the war are abundant—tens of thousands of troops and private contractors remain, and some are already suggesting they'll be there longer than we've been told. So how does a war that isn't really ending actually end? Hannah Gurman wrote about the Orwellian state [...]

Jan
22
2010

Norman Solomon on Mass. election, Glenn Greenwald on anonymous sources

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Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: Corporate media chatter about the Republican Senate victory in Massachusetts reflects participants’ priorities: which means you're unlikely to hear advice offered to Democrats other than that they should act more like Republicans. Is that the takeaway? We'll get another angle from journalist and activist Norman Solomon. Also on the show: Anonymous news sources are a journalistic scourge, abetting some of the worst policies of our times, and allowing the powerful to escape accountability. But are they simply an occasional problem in reporting, or central to the way corporate journalism operates? We'll talk to Salon's [...]

Dec
22
2009

The 2009 P.U.-Litzer Awards

For 17 years our colleagues Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon have worked with FAIR to present the P.U.-Litzers, a year-end review of some of the stinkiest examples of corporate media malfeasance, spin and just plain outrageousness. Starting this year, FAIR has the somewhat dubious honor of reviewing the nominees and selecting the winners. It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it. So, without further ado, we present the 2009 P.U.-Litzers. --The Remembering Reagan Award WINNER: Joe Klein, Time Time columnist Joe Klein (12/3/09), not altogether impressed by Obama's announcement of a troop escalation in Afghanistan, wrote that a [...]

Dec
04
2009

Norman Solomon on Afghan escalation, Robert Naiman on Afghan civil war

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Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: 30,000 new troops to Afghanistan at the 'fastest possible pace,' President Obama has declared, are in our vital national interest. The Washington Post called it a strong but carefully calibrated to Afghanistan and Pakistan, describing the plan as "a counterinsurgency strategy aimed at protecting the Aghan population." Perhaps some message shifting going on, about whether US actions are aimed at helping Afghans or defending ourselves, (or maybe you can take your pick) but what doesn't seem up for serious discussion is whether the actions will have the effect of doing either. We’ll be talking [...]

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