On the morning of January 17 in Spokane, Washington, city workers found a backpack with a bomb that was set to go off along the route of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade. An FBI official (Spokane Spokesman Review, 1/19/11) called the bomb “a viable device that was very lethal and had the potential to inflict multiple casualties.” Another official told the Associated Press (1/19/11), “They haven’t seen anything like this in this country.... This was the worst device, and most intentional device, I’ve ever seen.” On March 9, Kevin Harpham, a white supremacist with past links to the [...]
Apr
29
2011
Andy Worthington on Guantánamo files, Lucinda Marshall on Greg Mortenson
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 [...]
Mar
25
2011
Asli Bali on Libya, Alia Malek on US Muslim prisons
Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: The U.S.'s sudden military involvement in Libya raises many questions that have not been answered by officials who've plunged the country into a war they say is to protect civilians, or even asked by many journalists who have been too busy cheering to ask them. Questions like how certain are we that going war will be better for Libyan civilians than the threat they faced from Libyan dictator Muammar el-Gadhafi? And what solutions short of war were sought? We'll be joined by UCLA law professor Asli Bali. Also on the show: the seemingly unending [...]
Mar
01
2011
No Culture of Vitriol on the Right?
From metaphors to threats to actual bloodshed
During the 2010 campaign, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin published a map on her Facebook page (Associated Press, 3/24/10) with crosshairs targeting 20 Democratic congressional incumbents, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D.-Ariz.), who was later critically injured in the January mass shooting in Tucson. Palin rallied opponents of the healthcare bill with the tweeted slogan (L.A. Times, 3/26/10) “Don’t retreat, instead—RELOAD!” Barack Obama, on the other hand, revved up his base in the 2008 campaign by promising, “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun” (Politico, 6/14/08). So in the debate over political civility in the aftermath [...]
Mar
01
2011
The Uses of September 11
To the right, terror attacks are theirs to exploit—or dismiss—as they like
In August 2010 the story of the “Ground Zero Mosque,” as it was inaccurately labeled by big media, saturated the news. Driving the coverage were conservative pundits and politicians who denounced the proposal for an Islamic cultural center to be built on “hallowed ground”—within a few blocks of the former site of New York City’s World Trade Center (Extra!, 10/10). Treated on Fox News and talk radio as a harbinger of an American caliphate (Beck, 8/23/10) and the imposition of sharia law (Hannity, 8/17/10), the “Ground Zero Mosque” was 2010’s Swift Boat story—a dishonest, demagogic campaign to gin up GOP [...]
Feb
01
2011
When Journalism Becomes 'Terrorism'
The dangerous sport of calling WikiLeaks names
“Let me be very clear,” declared Sen. John Ensign (R.-Nev.), “WikiLeaks is not a whistleblower website and [Julian] Assange is not a journalist.” Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin concurred: “Assange is not a ‘journalist,’ any more than the ‘editor’ of Al-Qaeda’s new English-language magazine Inspire is a ‘journalist,’” she wrote on her Facebook page, adding that the WikiLeaks founder was “an anti-American operative with blood on his hands” who should be “pursued with the same urgency we pursue Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders.” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Meet the Press, 12/5/10) likewise dubbed Assange a “high-tech terrorist”—a designation endorsed by [...]
Jan
14
2011
Chip Berlet on Tucson shootings, Ladd Everitt on gun control
Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: What do we know about alleged Tucson killer Jared Lee Loughner's world view, which has been described as rambling, incoherent and non political in various news media reports? And what of the right-wing backlash attacking anyone who even suggests that vitriolic right-wing rhetoric has gotten out of hand? We'll talk with right watcher Chip Berlet of the Political Research Associates. Also on CounterSpin today: The national debate in the aftermath of the Tucscon shootings is touching on violent rhetoric and mental health services, but some media are sending the message that gun policy isn't [...]
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 [...]
