May
24
2013
Tia Lessin on Citizen Koch, Karuna Jaggar on Breast Cancer
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 [...]
May
15
2013
Iraq Then, Syria Now?
New York Times, sarin and skepticism
During the run-up to the Iraq War, the New York Times amplified erroneous official claims about weapons of mass destruction (FAIR Action Alert, 9/8/06). Looking at the paper's coverage of allegations of chemical weapons use by Syria, some of the same patterns are clear: an over-reliance on official sources and the downplaying of critical or skeptical analysis of the available intelligence. In "Syria Faces New Claim on Chemical Arms" (4/19/13), the paper told readers that, according to anonymous diplomats, Britain and France had sent letters to the United Nations about "credible evidence" against Syria regarding chemical weapon use. On April [...]
May
01
2013
Whose Police State?
National media focus on 2nd Amendment over 4th Amendment
National media focus on 2nd Amendment over 4th Amendment.
May
01
2013
When Bigotry Is 'Balance'
Media still worried homophobes aren't being heard
By Julie Hollar
As the Supreme Court finished hearing oral arguments on two same-sex marriage cases, the Wall Street Journal editorial page (3/27/13) proclaimed what has become a mantra of the right on this subject: The liberal media frame opponents of marriage equality as bigots. America’s cultural and media elites are attempting to browbeat the High Court into coercing the country into recognizing same-sex marriage by casting opponents as bigots for holding a position that President Obama held less than a year ago. Murdoch’s Journal is woefully misguided on two counts. It’s hard to make the case that the most prominent arguments against [...]
Sep
27
2012
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