Journalist/Politician/Corporate Coziness on Display at Snowflake Garden Brunch
Election Focus 2020: The Snowflake Garden Brunch opens a window onto the widespread nature of media/politician corruption.
Witness to a Farce
Throughout the impeachment process, the New York Times has underplayed the danger to democracy, both of Trump’s obstruction of the process and the brazen resolve by Republicans to absolve him no matter what.
News Flash: Billionaires Don’t Like Socialism
Big news, everyone! Billionaires don’t like socialism. In response to a rising progressive tide in the United States, a new genre of stories has emerged in corporate media: rich guys warning against taxing them, or really changing anything about the system at all. Just as the press are keen for you to know that […]
Ending Palestinian Statehood as ‘Path’ to Palestinian Statehood
US media still misleadingly present the US as an honest broker, and presume that the US and Israel have the right to impose ridiculous preconditions before Palestinians are worthy of their own self-determination.
Media on Climate Crisis: Don’t Organize, Mourn
While US media have indeed ramped up their coverage of the climate crisis, they continue to give short shrift to what are arguably the most important factors for determining our future: what specific human practices are responsible for the changing climate, why carbon emissions continue to rise, and what we can and should be doing about it.
Corporate Media Are the Real ‘Sanders Attack Machine’
Election Focus 2020: The real Sanders attack machine isn’t the mythical machine run by Sanders to take down his opponents; it’s run by the establishment Democrats and their media counterparts to take down Sanders.
The New York Times Endorsement Has Often Been a Boost for the Unendorsed
Election Focus 2020: The New York Times has a distinctly poor record of picking winning candidates, often making tragically comical predictions and assertions in its endorsements.
It’s Media—Not Bernie Sanders—That Have an Antisemitism Problem
Election Focus 2020: While media express concern about the use of antisemitic tropes by the left, they seem oblivious that their own discussions of the Sanders campaign might evoke them.
Insurance Lobby Talking Points Don’t Come With Warning Labels
Election Focus 2020: The healthcare industry’s efforts to block all meaningful change in our medical system would not be nearly so successful were corporate media not working in tandem to spread these same lobbyist talking points.
Corporate Media Equate Sanders to Trump—Because for Them, Sanders Is the Bigger Threat
Election Focus 2020: If they were an absurd stretch in 2016, efforts to make a Sanders/Trump equivalence today are even more desperate and disingenuous.
23 Headlines Obscure Biden’s Lies About Cutting Social Security
Election Focus 2020: Headlines from 23 different media outlets covering Sanders’ critique of Biden’s Social Security record obscured crucial facts by making no mention of surely pertinent information.
How Western Left Media Helped Legitimate US Regime Change in Venezuela
Despite nominally opposing Washington’s Venezuela policy and its corporate media gendarmerie, global North progressive media have, like during the recent coup in Bolivia, tended to repeat imperial ideological tropes, casting the Maduro government as authoritarian, corrupt and/or guilty of much worse human rights violations than the US and its allies.
Netflix, Iran and the Documentary as Geopolitical Weapon
Netflix’s Nisman: The Prosecutor, the President and the Spy is an entertainment product that advances US interests through character assassination of a popular left-wing Latin American leader.
The US’s Inalienable Right to Violence
Even when critical of US actions, media commentary on recent US bombings and assassinations in the Middle East is premised on the assumption that the US has the right to use violence (or the threat of it) to assert its will, anytime, anywhere.
The Big Loser in the Iowa Debate? CNN’s Reputation
Election Focus 2020: CNN’s blatant insertion of its own point of view into the presidential debate doesn’t reflect a mere personal dislike of Bernie Sanders, but rather a consistent ideological orientation.
Shining a Spotlight on Anti-Homeless Reporters
The New York Post cannot and will not give up its obsessive, cruel and deranged fascination with shaming homeless people.
Facebook’s Soleimani Ban Flies in Face of First Amendment
If Facebook is removing content because it believes it is required to do so by law, that is government censorship—and forbidden by the Constitution’s guarantee of freedom of the press.
CNN’s Sanders Hit Piece Doesn’t Pass the Smell Test
Election Focus 2020: The timing of this poorly sourced and poorly written story, appearing the day of a crucial candidates’ debate and days before the start of the actual primary season on a network that has been hostile to or dismissive of Sanders for years, is a journalistic outrage.
For Western Press, the Only Coup in Venezuela Is Against Guaidó
The international corporate media have entered crisis mode following the replacement of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó as head of the country’s National Assembly.
From Resistance to Assistance: Little Pushback to Trump’s Iran Assassination
When the president carries out dangerous, aggressive actions, such as the assassination of Iranian general and political leader Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad on January 3, “resistance” turns to assistance from the corporate press.
