Aug
01
2008

Dowd Must Not Read Reviews

Columnist claims critics never called her on her sexism

Maureen Dowd--Photo Credit: Flickr Creative Commons/Dave Robinette

"I've been twisting gender stereotypes around for 24 years," Dowd responded. She said nobody had objected to her use of similar images about men over seven presidential campaigns. . . . "From the time I began writing about politics," Dowd said, "I have always played with gender stereotypes and mined them and twisted them to force the reader to be conscious of how differently we view the sexes." Now, she said, "you are asking me to treat Hillary differently than I've treated the male candidates all these years, with kid gloves." —New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, responding to charges [...]

Jul
11
2008

Robert Dreyfuss on Obama's foreign policy, Amanda Marcotte on 'pregnancy pact' story

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Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: Barack Obama's image as a harbinger of change has many hoping his election will bring change in foreign policy. He certainly differs from George Bush on the need for diplomacy. But what about issues such as the projection of American power and so-called humanitarian intervention? Does Obama's thinking really represent a departure from, say, Bill Clinton's views, or from the bipartisan thinking of the Cold War period? We'll talk to journalist Robert Dreyfuss about his Nation magazine report, "Obama's Evolving Foreign Policy." Also on CounterSpin today, a story that proved too good to be [...]

Jun
01
2008

Misogyny's Greatest Hits

Sexism in Hillary Clinton coverage

Photo Credit: Flickr Creative Commons/rachel_bunting

It may have been the first time an audience heckler yelled “Iron my shirt!” at a United States senator (AP, 1/7/08), as well as the first time a presidential candidate has had a pair of nutcrackers fashioned in her likeness (New York Post, 9/7/07). Sen. Hillary Clinton’s run for the Democratic nomination has been fraught with sexism, exposing an ugly streak within the American press. There were several repeat offenders—MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, the New York Times’ Bill Kristol—but degrading, misogynist and ageist attacks on Clinton spanned from print to radio, from the Web to television. The level to which media [...]

Mar
07
2008

Ali Abunimah on Gaza, Cynthia Pearson on Barbara Seaman

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Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: Israel's re-invasion of the Gaza Strip has left over 100 Palestinians dead, many of them civilians. The coverage of the attack has featured some familiar media themes—the strained and strange euphemisms for the violence, the skewed chronologies of who-started-what, and the impossibility of peaceful negotiations. We'll sort out the current state of affairs with Ali Abunimah of the website Electronic Intifada. Also on CounterSpin today: As a journalist who challenged the medical establishment and the ironclad authority of physicians, Barbara Seaman helped launch the women's healthcare movement. But as she succeeded in affecting one [...]

Jan
25
2008

Glen Ford on Obama-Clinton, Rob Richie on electoral process

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Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: media long ago declared the Democratic race for the White House was a two-person race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. The campaigns have been squaring off in recent days—on some important issues, and some decidedly less so. This has led some pundits to lament that race and gender have been "introduced" into this campaign. We'll hear what Glen Ford of Black Agenda Report has to say about this. Also on CounterSpin today, media election coverage can certainly be dispiriting, leaving you to wonder if this is really democracy in action? But one of [...]

Oct
26
2007

Edwin Park on SCHIP, Lucinda Marshall on breast cancer

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Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: “Why don’t we focus on the poor children?” asked George Bush, who says he vetoed the expansion of the SCHIP children’s health insurance program because it would’ve helped the wrong people. Some outlets adopted that angle, but does it hold up? We’ll hear from Edwin Park of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Also on the show: October is awareness month for both breast cancer and domestic violence. But coverage of the two is very different, with domestic violence getting little coverage and breast cancer getting lots of coverage, though not all of [...]

May
11
2007

Joyce Battle on Iraq media plan, Caryl Rivers on 'Selling Anxiety'

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Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: we often hear that the Iraq War relied on overly optimistic predictions from the Bush White House and its allies about how everyday Iraqis would react to a military invasion. A new report sheds light on one aspect of that pre-war planning—the Pentagon's plans for Iraq's media. What does the report add to what we know about U.S. propaganda efforts in Iraq? We'll speak with Joyce Battle of the National Security Archive. Also on the show: women—are you trying to be Superwoman? failing to be Superwoman? tired of being Superwoman? Any tension women might [...]

Apr
19
2007

Howard Kurtz's Imus Amnesia

Critic forgets requests to shun racist show

The firing of Don Imus by CBS radio and MSNBC provided an opportunity for the many elite journalists who appeared on and supported his show to examine their own roles in enabling his bigotry (FAIR Media Advisory, 4/11/07). But the prospects of an honest self-examination are dim, as illustrated by this exchange on CNN's Reliable Sources (4/15/07) between the show's host, Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz, and Post columnist Tony Kornheiser: KURTZ: But did anyone ever say to you on this -- the things that he would say-- "How can you go on this show when he's making fun [...]

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