In U.S. elite media, the main revelation of the WikiLeaks diplomatic cables is that the U.S. government conducts its foreign policy in a largely admirable fashion. Fareed Zakaria, Time (12/2/10): The WikiLeaks documents, by contrast [to the Pentagon Papers], show Washington pursuing privately pretty much the policies it has articulated publicly. Whether on Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan or North Korea, the cables confirm what we know to be U.S. foreign policy. And often this foreign policy is concerned with broader regional security, not narrow American interests. Ambassadors are not caught pushing other countries in order to make deals secretly to strengthen [...]
Dec
10
2010
Glenn Greenwald on WikiLeaks
By CounterSpin
Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: The journalism organization WikiLeaks is under massive attack by U.S. government officials, corporations, and journalists. Many are calling for the group and its spokesperson Julian Assange to be prosecuted; some have even called for Assange's execution or assassination. Transnational companies like Visa, MasterCard and Paypal have cut off services, and even liberal US pundits are attacking the group with inaccurate smears. WikiLeaks crime? Making leaked U.S. diplomatic cables available to the world both directly and through its mainstream media partners. In this special extended CounterSpin interview, we'll talk to Salon.com's Glenn Greenwald about the [...]
Oct
08
2010
Jodi Jacobson on Tea Party & social issues, T. Christian Miller on military contractor deaths
Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: The New York Times says democrats are "wielding" issues like abortion rights in hopes of frightening voters about Republican victories in upcoming elections, whereas Republicans really just want to talk about the economy. Same goes for the Tea Party: we're told not to focus on the movement leader who calls rape "part of God's plan," because actual Tea Partiers really only care about fiscal issues. What's going on, or not going on, here? We'll hear from Jodi Jacobson, editor in chief of RHReality Check, whose recent piece is titled, "Social Issues and the Tea [...]
Aug
27
2010
Pratap Chatterjee on Task Force 373, Timothy Karr on net neutrality
Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: The WikiLeaks Afghan War Diaries prompted waves of media coverage, though much of that amounted to "move on, there's nothing to see here." But digging into the documents might reveal more about the Afghan War than we knew—like the existence of something called Task Force 373, set up to capture or kill specific al Qaeda or Taliban figures. What does it really do, though, and where does it fit in with what we know about U.S. war policy? Journalist Pratap Chatterjee will join us to talk about that. Also on CounterSpin today: A few [...]
Apr
09
2010
Jeremy Scahill on Iraq killings, Jeff Biggers on coal mining
Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: A dramatic videotape of a 2007 U.S. helicopter attack was published by the website Wikileaks on April 5—prompting waves of coverage across the world, though only sporadic attention from the US corporate press. The attacks killed 12 Iraqis, including 2 journalists working for Reuters. Independent journalist Jeremy Scahill will join us to talk about the media reaction to the chilling video. Also on CounterSpin today: As we record this show, efforts continue to rescue 4 miners believed still trapped by the April 5 explosion that killed 25 in West Virginia, and media are tracking [...]
Feb
25
2010
Fox News--Wing of the GOP?
More like a Republican slugging arm
White House interim communications director Anita Dunn’s characterization of Fox News Channel as “a wing of the Republican Party,” and her announcement that the administration would henceforth treat Fox News as part of the “opposition,” created a media stir. Washington Post columnist (and Fox contributor) Charles Krauthammer announced, “The White House has declared war on Fox News.” Krauthammer’s more centrist colleague, Ruth Marcus (WashingtonPost .com, 10/19/09), wrote that “picking a fight” with Fox News “makes the White House look childish and petty at best, and it has a distinct Nixonian—Agnewesque?—aroma at worst.” As Joe Conason pointed out (Salon, 10/22/09), comparisons [...]
Jan
22
2010
Norman Solomon on Mass. election, Glenn Greenwald on anonymous sources
Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: Corporate media chatter about the Republican Senate victory in Massachusetts reflects participants’ priorities: which means you're unlikely to hear advice offered to Democrats other than that they should act more like Republicans. Is that the takeaway? We'll get another angle from journalist and activist Norman Solomon. Also on the show: Anonymous news sources are a journalistic scourge, abetting some of the worst policies of our times, and allowing the powerful to escape accountability. But are they simply an occasional problem in reporting, or central to the way corporate journalism operates? We'll talk to Salon's [...]
Jan
01
2010
The (In)dispensable Public
Public opinion mainly a prop for corporate press
"Asked to choose between a larger influx of troops to fight Al-Qaeda and the Taliban and train the Afghan military, and a smaller number of new U.S. forces more narrowly focused on training, Americans divide 46 percent for the bigger number, 45 percent for the lower one." —Washington Post (11/18/09), “Poll Finds Guarded Optimism on Obama’s Afghanistan Plan” Opinion poll reporting can be misleading, in this case by presenting a narrow range of options that sidesteps what evidence suggests is the majority view—that U.S. troops should withdraw from Afghanistan. But reporting of opinion polls is misleading in a more fundamental [...]
