‘How Many Afghans Have to Grow Up Knowing Nothing but War?’
“There is now no question about US accountability; the real question will be whether there will be anyone held accountable for this decision.”
Janine Jackson
‘Poverty Is Not a Lifelong Identity’
“Fox News is one of the leading offenders in terms of advancing narratives and myths and misperceptions that really can end up being the basis for terrible policy, that hurt…everyone but those at the top of the income ladder.”
‘Polluter Interests Have Been Spending Millions on Disinformation Campaigns’
“It’s sad that an issue of this importance, that affects literally all Americans, has gotten so little attention from our mainstream press.”
‘These Are the Crimes That Really Matter’
“The companies may pay the fines, but the shareholders really pay that, and the people who actually committed the crimes at these big banks or corporations, they’re not the ones who are paying the fines. In fact, often, they get raises, or they keep their jobs.”
‘We Could Have All These Drugs Available at Generic Prices’
“We don’t think it makes sense to have the fire department come down to your house when it’s on fire and your family is inside, then negotiate how much you should pay them. And that’s in effect what we’ve done with drugs.”
‘Can We Hold Noncitizens to a Different Standard of Justice?’
“The former 9/11 detainees also really see this as a case to ensure that this kind of suspicionless, baseless religious and racial profiling doesn’t happen again. That it doesn’t go unpunished.”
‘They’re Robbing Kids of Critical Thinking’
“The movement is truly a mass social struggle to redefine the purpose of education: instead of being filling in bubbles, actually critical thinking.”
‘We Need Free Speech Protections Across All of Those Networks’
“We’re talking about very powerful phone and cable companies here…. They’ve deployed their lobbyists to try and get Congress to pass new legislation that would somehow take away the FCC’s authority to protect the open internet.”
‘Military Intervention in the Middle East Started This Crisis in the First Place’
“Claiming that what’s going on now is happening now because of a lack of US military intervention is laughable. I mean, it’s a joke. We have wasted literally trillions of dollars destroying the Middle East so far.”
‘This Deal Affirms the Peaceful Nature of the Iranian Nuclear Program’
“We constantly hear, in nearly every single article that is written about this deal and its potential consequences, that Iran is a bad actor in the region and that it has nefarious activities.”
‘They Were Willing to Pay the Price With Other People’s Bodies’
Janine Jackson interviewed professor Felicia Kornbluh on the legacy of “welfare reform” for the August 28 CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript.
‘Corporate Media Really Want to Be Able to Say the Story Is Over’
CounterSpin interviews with Rosa Brooks, Colette Pichon Battle, A.C. Thompson and Jordan Flaherty on Katrina’s 10 years of media neglect.
‘People With Disabilities Are Telling Their Own Stories’
When 2,000 people gathered on the White House lawn on July 26, 1990, for the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act, it was largest gathering ever of journalists for a disability story—though most of them missed the fact that the White House itself lacked the accessible restrooms mandated by the act. Twenty-five years on, how much has changed?
To LA Times, Meth in Skid Row Victim’s Blood More Important Than Gun in His Flesh
Captured on cellphone video, the incident received attention because we are living in a moment when many people have decided that the state-sanctioned killing of black people by law enforcement is worth our attention—and that’s very uncomfortable for those who want to believe that every police killing must be in some way justified, if we could only see how.
China’s Cyberspying Is ‘on a Scale No One Imagined’—if You Pretend NSA Doesn’t Exist
The New York Times notes that the US has its own “intelligence operations inside China”—but pretends these are purely defensive, referring to “the placement of thousands of implants in Chinese computer networks to warn of impending attacks.”
‘Puerto Rico Is an Artificial Economy’
“Economically, Puerto Rico is almost like a wholly owned subsidiary of the US economy, and various laws inhibit it from making decisions to develop their own economy.”
‘You Can Legally Bribe a Government Official’
“If a politician helps a bank or an oil company, that oil company can’t directly buy them a boat or give them a million-dollar check. But if they wait until that official retires from office…then they can accept a multi-million-dollar payday.”
‘There Is Effectively No Limit on Money in Politics’
Wisconsin Club for Growth and Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, the two groups that Scott Walker is accused of coordinating with and that were parties to this case, are also the dominant spenders on Wisconsin Supreme Court elections.
‘Media Have Been Applying a False Narrative to the Entire Issue’
“How did the US come to the point where it was ready to negotiate a deal on the nuclear program with Iran? And the answer to that is certainly not something that you will learn from reading the news media accounts.”
BP Deal: Path to a ‘Cleaner Gulf’–or Guaranteed Future Disasters?
“BP Deal Will Lead to a Cleaner Gulf” is the headline the New York Times put over an editorial that, in its tone and substance, makes a pretty good illustration of why it almost assuredly won’t.
