Over the course of the past year, the New York Times has provided ample coverage to a series of potential U.S. Senate candidates from New York--none of whom are actually running for office. Meanwhile, a candidate who is in fact challenging incumbent Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand in the September 2010 primary has been all but erased from the picture. That progressive activist Jonathan Tasini is running against Gillibrand, who was appointed to the seat in 2009, is known to Times readers who happened to catch a single January 27, 2010, story by N.R. Kleinfeld, headlined "An Underdog Who Isn't Daunted by [...]
Dec
01
2009
Not So Fast, Filibuster
Quietly changing the rules of democracy
The United States has made a dramatic change in its system of governance—with little debate or even attention paid in corporate media. The change is the vastly increased importance of the filibuster, a parliamentary maneuver that allows a minority of lawmakers—under current Senate rules, 41 out of 100—to indefinitely extend debate and prevent a final vote. Once a curiosity invoked a handful of times during any two-year congressional session, the filibuster became more common starting in the 1970s; in the Clinton administration and early in the George W. Bush years, the Senate had to move to take a vote on [...]
Nov
01
2009
Van Jones Is Happening and You Don't Know Who He Is
Scolding big media for not following Glenn Beck’s lead
After a campaign led by Fox News’ Glenn Beck led to the resignation of White House staffer Van Jones, New York Times managing editor Jill Abramson offered something of an apology for being “a beat behind on this story.” “We should have been paying closer attention,” she wrote in an online Q&A (9/07/09)—even while accurately noting that “Mr. Jones was not a high-ranking official.” Later, in a column by public editor Clark Hoyt (9/26/09) linking the Van Jones story to the Times’ supposed undercoverage of another Glenn Beck obsession—the community organizing group ACORN—Abramson plead guilty to “insufficient tuned-in-ness to the [...]
May
29
2009
Cheney Often Wrong, Seldom Doubted
Giving ex-VP a free ride in torture debate
"Dick Cheney seems to be everywhere," declared ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl (World News, 5/13/09), calling the formerly reclusive former vice president "the most visible Republican in the country these days." Cheney has been hard to miss. Since leaving office in January, in addition to broad coverage of his May 21 speech at the American Enterprise Institute, in recent weeks he has appeared on CBS's Face the Nation (5/10/09), Fox's Your World With Neil Cavuto (5/12/09), Fox's Hannity (4/20/09, 4/21/09) and CNN's State of the Union (3/15/09). Moreover, Cheney's public profile has been amplified by heavy coverage in other media, [...]
May
20
2009
Does the CIA Ever Lie?
Parsing the Pelosi torture controversy
The debate over Bush-era torture tactics like waterboarding has morphed into a full-blown Washington scandal. But the target isn't the Bush administration officials who ordered the torture; instead, the corporate media's focus is on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who claims that she was not fully briefed by the CIA on the use of waterboarding in late 2002. The prevailing assumption in much of the coverage is that the CIA couldn't possibly have misled members of Congress--despite the fact that this has happened repeatedly. The media reaction has been intense. Right-wing pundits and the Fox News Channel are treating the issue [...]
Feb
06
2009
Ken Silverstein on Daschle, Miranda Spencer on breast cancer
Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: "If it weren't for those darn tax problems, Tom Daschle was the perfect choice as Obama's Secretary of Health & Human Services," seems to be the establishment refrain over the rise and fall of the Daschle nomination. "No one knows the healthcare issues, or could do a better job pushing through the promised Obama healthcare plan than the former senator," say many pundits. Ken Silverstein begs to differ. The Washington editor of Harpers and the magazine's Washington Babylon blogger will join us to talk about that. Also on the show: Breast cancer affects huge [...]
Jan
01
2009
Dalliance & Double Standards
Under Hannity’s rules, conservatives’ affairs don’t count
You’re a politician who’s just been exposed for cheating on your spouse. Your political career is over, right? These days, that might depend on your politics—and your relationship with a certain right-wing cable news show. After revelations of an affair with an aide during the 2008 primaries, John Edwards’ career fell off the face of the Earth. The former Democratic presidential hopeful—who’d been talked about as a possible VP pick or as attorney general in an Obama administration—was not only shunned and condemned by Republicans and fellow Democrats alike, he also came in for harsh treatment from media figures. As [...]
