A Hurricane Sandy-interrupted edition of the show. With travel and power problems in New York City, this week we bring you two recent interviews from the CounterSpin archives. Also this week: One major issue where the candidates' views overlap is education policy.
Oct
26
2012
Stephen Zunes on foreign policy debate; Yifat Susskind on Iraq War’s toxic legacy
The final presidential debate, addressing international issues, managed to promote several falsehood about U.S. foreign policy. And: The toxic legacy of the Iraq War. New research, largely unreported in U.S. media, shows alarming levels of toxic lead, heavy metals and a massive increase in birth defects in the city of Fallujah, the site of two major offensives by the U.S. military.
Oct
19
2012
David Roberts on coal, Julianne Hing on affirmative action
If you were unnerved to see Democratic and Republican presidential candidates competing over which was a bigger fan of coal, you weren't alone. And: Is affirmative action in danger?
Oct
12
2012
Josh Eidelson on Wal-Mart strike; Keane Bhatt on Venezuela vote
Workers at Wal-Mart walked off the job this week and that is business far from usual at the retail giant. Reporter Josh Eidelson explains why it’s a game-changer. And U.S. media were rooting against Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. Journalist and activist Keane Bhatt will tell us about the worst of the coverage.
Sep
21
2012
Vijay Prashad on "Muslim Rage," Imara Jones on 47 percent and race
This week on CounterSpin: In the wake of the killing of the U.S. ambassador to Libya and angry demonstrations in several other Muslim countries, corporate media are largely fingering religious differences and the peculiarities of Islam as the reason.
Sep
14
2012
Kevin Kumashiro on Chicago teachers' strike, Rose Aguilar on poverty reporting
This week on CounterSpin: The biggest fight the striking Chicago Teachers Union face is with the school district and Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel. But the story has exposed, once again, that corporate media have little good to say about organized teachers. We'll talk to Kevin Kumashiro of the University of Illinois-Chicago about what the fight in Chicago is really about. Also on CounterSpin: In a campaign in which economic issues play prominently, the issue of poverty, affecting huge numbers of Americans is almost totally ignored: A new FAIR study finds poverty has been discussed in just 0.2 percent of campaign [...]
Jul
06
2012
Steffie Woolhandler on ACA & single payer, Aziz Huq on Roberts decision
This week on CounterSpin: Now that Obamacare has largely been upheld by the Supreme Court, barring its political defeat, it will be fully implemented over the next couple of years. What can Americans expect? How will they be served? And how well have they been served by a media discussion that focused mostly on the one monetary aspect of the program, the individual mandate, at the expense of what healthcare will look like under the plan? We'll talk with Dr. Steffie Woolhandler of the Physicians for a National Health Program about that. Also on CounterSpin today, Supreme Court chief justice [...]
Jun
29
2012
Maegan La Mala Ortiz on Supreme Court and Arizona, Robert Naiman on Julian Assange
This week on CounterSpin: Media seemed unable to decide if the Supreme Court's ruling on Arizona's controversial immigration law was good news for the law's supporters or its opponents. Was the ruling that murky, or do journalists just not see it so clearly? We'll hear from VivirLatino blogger and writer Maegan La Mala Ortiz on the impact of the Court’s decision. Also on the show: The legal drama surrounding WikiLeaks' Julian Assange has intensified over the past week; Assange is reportedly requesting asylum from Ecuador, out of fear that Swedish authorities would turn him over to the United States to [...]
