Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: Yes, the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations aren't being covered much in the corporate media. But then when papers like the New York Times come down to take a look, one might wish they hadn't. We'll talk to Allison Kilkenny of Citizen Radio about the quality and quantity of media coverage of Occupy Wall Street. Also on the show: "We all know why the Postal Service is hemorrhaging cash," says the Chicago Tribune. Corporate media are clear on the causes of the Post Office's financial crisis: no one sends mail since the internet, and postal [...]
Sep
23
2011
Neil deMause on poverty, Phyllis Bennis on Palestinian statehood
By CounterSpin
Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: Census Bureau data showing one in six Americans live in poverty was received soberly by the press corps, but should it have surprised them? And what about next week, when the government doesn't release a report and people are still poor? We'll talk with journalist Neil deMause about media’s treatment of poverty and the poor. Also on the show: Mainstream reporting on the Palestinian bid for UN recognition regularly employs loaded language in portraying the initiative as and underhanded gambit which is threatening to the U.S. and Israel. But exactly how does the Palestinian [...]
Sep
23
2011
What if the Tea Party Occupied Wall Street?
Corporate media skip anti-corporate protests
In an action called Occupy Wall Street, thousands of activists took to the streets of Lower Manhattan on September 17. The protests are continuing, with demonstrators camped out on the Financial District's Liberty Street in support of U.S. democratization and against corporate domination of politics (Adbusters, 9/19/11). But you wouldn't know much about any of this from the corporate media--outlets that seem much more interested in protests of the Tea Party variety. The anti-corporate protests have been lightly covered in the hometown New York Times: One piece (9/18/11) largely about how the police blocked access to Wall Street, and one [...]
Sep
01
2011
Debt Ceiling Crisis 'Not Even Close to Being an Important National Priority'
By CounterSpin
James Galbraith is a professor of economics at the University of Texas at Austin, author most recently of The Predator State and chair of Economists for Peace and Security. Speaking to FAIR's radio show CounterSpin (7/15/11), Galbraith pointed out that there could be real effects from defaulting on our debt, which is why it's unconstitutional. JG: The Constitution states very clearly that once the government makes an obligation that is a firm commitment, that cannot be challenged and should not be challenged in the political process. So the people that have been raising these issues, who are elected officials that [...]
Sep
01
2011
Economic Ideas, On and Off the Table
Fringe theories get a hearing as textbook solutions are shunned
Economics has traditionally been the media's favorite academic discipline. In normal times, the "consensus" of the economics profession (or at least what passes for consensus) tends to weigh heavily in the way reporters and editors cover political subjects--assuming that less-regulated trade is always beneficial, for example. But since the onset of the economic crisis, journalists have increasingly abandoned their habit of deferring to the views of mainstream economics. As economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman often argues (e.g., 5/7/11), the answers to our economic problems that come from ordinary textbook economics have come to be seen as radical [...]
Aug
01
2011
Media Malpractice on Debt Ceiling
Five ways media misreported deficit debate
There are specific patterns in corporate media coverage of political debates: Progressive ideas are generally marginalized. "Compromise" between the major parties is encouraged. Democrats should "move to the center," which in practical terms actually means moving to the right. All of these tendencies have driven the discussion over the federal debt and the debt ceiling. In the end, the political process has produced an agreement that can be cheered by pundits and analysts for adhering to media's built-in bias for center-right economics and bogus ideas about centrism and political compromise. Of the criticisms one can make of the media's coverage [...]
