FAIR: Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting
The national media watch group
Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden is either a whistleblower or a traitor, depending on whom you listen to. We'll hear from Kathleen McClellan of the Government Accountability Project about Snowden and the NSA. Also on CounterSpin: Veteran consumer rights activist Ralph Nader joins us to talk about his new book Told You So. He'll share his thoughts about a media system that too often silences the voices of dissent.
There are plenty of people working in the media who don't have much use for whistleblowers--and they've been having a field day going after NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
As Bradley Manning's court martial trial gets underway, journalists face real obstacles in trying to report on it, and they should be facing the constitutional issues the case raises. We'll be joined by Michael Ratner, president emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights and U.S. attorney for WikiLeaks and Julian Assange.
Also on the show: Are parents keeping their kids from learning how to read, so they can get a disability check from the state? The claim has come from some high places in elite media, which you won't be surprised to learn, doesn't make it true. We'll speak with author and journalist Neil deMause about this not-so-new media canard.
Public Radio International's recent energy special had a very positive take on fracking. Which is not surprising when you find out who's funding the show.
Did Barack Obama's National Defense University speech signal a sea change in White House terrorism policy? That depended on who was doing the listening. We'll talk with Pardiss Kebriaei of the Center for Constitutional Rights.
And Bob McChesney talks about his new book Digital Disconnect, and why understanding capitalism is essential to understanding the development of the internet.
Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: PBS says no to Koch. Not the soft drink, but a documentary called Citizen Koch, about the billionaire right-wing political donors. We'll speak with Tia Lessin, the film's co-director, about what happened. Also on CounterSpin today, actress Angelina Jolie’s announcement that she had a preventive double mastectomy brought breast cancer into the spotlight. The thing about media spotlights, though, is they don't always shed the most useful light. Is the press drawing the sort of lessons from the Jolie story that really will improve women's health choices? We'll talk with Karuna Jaggar from the [...]
Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: The Justice Department's investigation of the AP poses a threat to freedom of the press and the public's right to know, but the story itself, about a supposed al Qaeda bomb plot thwarted by the CIA, has taken some interesting turns, calling into question the facts of the bomb plot story, and the Justice Department's rationale for investigating AP. We'll talk with Marcy Wheeler of Emptywheel, who has been out in front on this story from early on. Also on CounterSpin today: The AP story is a reminder, if one were necessary, that [...]
