Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: After a lull in reporting about the Japanese nuclear disaster comes news that officials there are admitting that radiation releases were much larger than previously claimed-- not a surprise to critics who saw those early claims as part of a government/corporate/media misinformation loop that kicks in whenever we talk about nuclear power. So what is the real story out of Fukushima, and where can you get independent information? We'll talk to journalist and activist Harvey Wasserman. Also on the show: Ten years ago mainstream media were running stories like the Dallas Morning News’ "FINDING [...]
Mar
01
2010
'America Was Safer Under Bush'
Journalists accept GOP’s screwy terrorism scorecard
That George W. Bush kept America safer from terrorism than Barack Obama is a conservative article of faith these days—and corporate media seem little inclined to challenge the blatant falsehoods used to advance this childish GOP talking point. The most prominent example came on Good Morning America (ABC, 1/8/10) during a discussion of the failed Christmas Day “underwear bomb” plot, when former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani told anchor George Stephanopoulos: “We had no domestic attacks under Bush. We’ve had one under Obama.” Get that? So-called terrorism expert Giuliani, who can barely finish a sentence without mentioning September 11 [...]
Dec
01
2009
That's Not Funny!
Colbert act gets media riled
Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert shook things up at the annual White House Correspondents’ dinner on April 29. In the right-wing, Bill O’Reilly-like persona made famous on his Colbert Report, Colbert skewered George W. Bush and the press, ironically congratulating journalists for giving cover to Bush on tax cuts, WMD and global warming, and chiding them for exposing secret CIA prisons and warrantless domestic spying. Colbert offered this advice to Beltway journalists: Here's how it works: The president makes decisions. He's the decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, [...]
Sep
01
2009
The Weekly Standard's War
Murdoch sells the magazine that sold the Iraq invasion
The Weekly Standard, the country’s preeminent neoconservative magazine, was sold to Clarity Media Group, a Denver-based publishing group, for an undisclosed sum in June (Washington Examiner, 6/17/09). Rupert Murdoch’s unloading of the country’s most vigorously pro-war journal marks the end of a particularly sinister and regrettable era in the history of U.S. media. At a glance, the move may seem unremarkable, given the Standard’s relative size. With a circulation of about 65,000 and annual losses estimated from $1 million (New Yorker, 10/16/06) to $5 million (Forbes, 6/29/09), the Standard represented only a tiny fraction of Murdoch’s vast media empire. Murdoch’s [...]
Jan
16
2009
Phyllis Bennis on Gaza & the law, Charles Kaiser on Bush-era torture
Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: Listeners have likely seen some horrific and affecting images from Gaza, where the death toll has exceeded an estimated 1,000 overwhelmingly Palestinian people as, as the New York Times had it, "the Israeli military operation continued apace." We'll hear from author and journalist Phyllis Bennis about part of the story that should be central but in the U.S. press is often ignored or gotten wrong, namely international law. Also on the show: Should we be taking a hard look at Bush era crimes like torture? No, say many journalists. Look forward, not back. Indeed [...]
Dec
26
2008
Kali Akuno, Andy Worthington and Francesca Grifo on Bush legacy
Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: December 2008 marks not just the conclusion of another calendar year, but the end of eight years of the George W. Bush administration—an era notable for, among other things, particular predations on civil liberties, the free flow of information and the public's right to know. Other administrations have been wary of the press corps, to be sure. But it was the Bush White House whose first attorney general instructed federal agencies to drag their feet on FOIA requests; whose Defense Department orchestrated the pulling down of a statue of Saddam Hussein—supposedly by joyous Iraqis—as [...]
Dec
19
2008
Michael Ratner on detainee abuse report, Alfie Kohn on education nominee
Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: When the Senate Armed Services Committee issued a report finding former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other high officials responsible for abusive treatment of detainees in Guantánamo, Iraq and Afghanistan--with few exceptions, the media played the story down, preferring, for instance, righteous anger over embroiled Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich. We'll discuss the Senate report with the Center for Constitutional Rights' Michael Ratner, whose book, The Trial of Donald Rumsfeld, was published in September. Also on CounterSpin today, Obama's pick for education secretary drew more attention than you might have expected--in large part because the [...]
Dec
02
2008
Media Still Letting Bush Lie on Iraq Inspectors
ABC, WaPo fail to challenge president's misinformation
In a December 1 interview with ABC anchor Charles Gibson, George W. Bush gave a grossly erroneous history of the run-up to the Iraq War--a false version of events that Gibson failed to challenge and the Washington Post glossed over the following day. When Gibson asked if Bush wished he had any "do-overs," Bush responded: BUSH: I don't know--the biggest regret of all the presidency has to have been the intelligence failure in Iraq. A lot of people put their reputations on the line and said the weapons of mass destruction is [sic] a reason to remove Saddam Hussein. It [...]
