Nov
01
2012

Why Do They Hate Us Back?

'Muslim Rage' is really no mystery

Time Magazine Sept. 24 Photo Credit: AMR ABDALLAH DALSH / REUTERS

U.S. coverage of Islam and Muslim-majority nations is such a carnival of distortion, double standards and bigotry that it’s sometimes hard to believe that journalists inhabit the same planet as the rest of us. This has been especially true as anti-American violence and demonstrations in Libya and other countries have put media fantasies of the U.S. as a benign force for democracy and peace in the Muslim world on full display. Immediately after the September 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi, Libya, which left U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others dead, U.S. media came alive with [...]

May
18
2012

Kenyon Farrow on NC Amendment 1, Nada Alwadi on Bahrain

By

Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: Before media were saying Obama's declaration of support for same sex marriage shows how far we've come, they were saying how North Carolina's constitutional amendment banning recognition of those marriages shows how far we have to go. Both can be true, of course, but what did media miss about North Carolina's Amendment One that might've changed that 'you win some, you lose some' framing? We'll hear from activist and writer Kenyon Farrow on that. Also on CounterSpin today, U.S. media have covered the Arab Spring uprisings pretty thoroughly—if not always with the kind of [...]

Dec
02
2011

Sharif Abdel Kouddous on Egypt, Hannah Gurman on Fallujah

By

Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: Egypt just finished its first round of elections since the uprising earlier this year by democratic activists. So why aren't the activists overjoyed? We'll talk about the state of democracy in Egypt and the way US corporate media are covering it, with independent journalist and Democracy Now! Cairo correspondent Sharif Abdel Kouddous. Also on the program: US elite media provided cover for the military during the 2004 invasion of Fallujah, dismissing and downplaying reports of civilian deaths in the besieged Iraqi city. Our guest says the failure to confront what happened in Fallujah may [...]

Oct
01
2011

Remote-Controlled Reporting on Remote-Controlled War

With Pakistan drone strikes, official story is media’s story

drone_6701-300x156

The New York Times (12/4/09) calls the American drone program “one of Washington’s worst-kept secrets.” This is particularly true for people in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) in Pakistan that border Afghanistan, where the low humming sound which gives them their local name—machay, meaning wasps—is very familiar. Since the drone program in Pakistan began in 2004, between 1,650 and 2,880 people have been killed in as many as 295 drone attacks (New America Foundation, 8/11/11; Bureau of Investigative Journalism, 8/10/11)—with the number increasing drastically in 2009, after President Obama took office. In his first year in office alone, there [...]

Jul
08
2011

Noam Chomsky on Arab Spring, Monica Novoa on Drop the I Word

By

Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: Where things stand with the Arab Spring and drive for democracy in the region. U.S. interests have always been prioritized over human rights and democratic values; the people-powered uprisings have threatened the status quo and scrambled some of the usual media narratives. But how much? We'll hear from MIT professor about longtime activist and critic Noam Chomsky about what has changed—and what hasn't—over the past few months. Chomsky's speech was part of FAIR's 25th anniversary celebration. Also on CounterSpin today, the remarkable story of Jose Antonio Vargas has brought discussions of immigration—and how it's [...]

Apr
29
2011

Andy Worthington on Guantánamo files, Lucinda Marshall on Greg Mortenson

By

Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: If you've heard much at all about WikiLeaks new disclosures about Guantánamo, you've probably noticed that US media tend to emphasize information justifying and rationalizing the U.S. actions regarding its offshore prison camp. But what should listeners really know about the new WikiLeaks revelations? We'll talk with journalist and Guantánamo expert Andy Worthington about what the latest disclosures mean. Also on CounterSpin today, the U.S. public soured on the Afghan War a long time ago. That might explain some of the popularity of Greg Mortenson, whose bestselling book Three Cups of Tea suggests that [...]

Apr
15
2011

Sharif Abdel Kouddous on Egypt, John Nichols on labor and Wisconsin

By

Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: With the Egyptian military still firmly in power, the Egyptian revolution is still very much a work in progress. The same military that we were once told was a liberal friend of democratic activists, is reportedly continuing policies of torture, political detainment and censorship. But you wouldn't know this from the reporting of many US media outlets, who seemed to lose interest in Egypt after the ouster of Hosni Mubarak in February. We'll talk about Egypt with independent journalist and Democracy Now! correspondent Sharif Abdel Kouddous. Also on the show: You can tell the [...]

Apr
01
2011

Stephen Zunes on Libya, Karen Greenberg on 'America's Growing Intolerance'

By

Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: The U.S.-led NATO bombing of Libya was supposed to last just a few days. It was supposed to just protect Libyan civilians. And, according to the White House, we weren't supposed to think of it as a war at all—it is a "kinetic military action." But the war in Libya has unmistakably expanded, with serious talk of arming anti-Qaddafi rebels and removing the Libyan dictator from power. Stephen Zunes from the University of San Francisco will join us to talk about it. Also on CounterSpin today: We'll talk to Karen Greenberg, the director of [...]

«Older Posts

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Site by nigelparry.net