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This week on CounterSpin: Alleged San Bernardino killers Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik did not pledge allegiance to ISIS on social media, the FBI now says, but no matter: The California killings have already added fuel to an upsurge of Islamophobia in US media and politics that in some ways is worse than that seen in the wake of September 11, 2001. One new element is the murky idea of “radicalization.” We’ll talk about that with Arun Kundnani, adjunct professor at NYU and author of, most recently, The Muslims Are Coming! Islamophobia, Extremism and the Domestic War on Terror.
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Also on the show: US media had a lot of worries about the recent elections in Venezuela; allegations of fraud and unfair advantage for the Maduro government were rampant, though the opposition party ended up ahead. Meanwhile, the same sorts of concerns, with greater foundation, were being raised in Haiti, to decidedly less elite media interest. We’ll discuss a Tale of Two Elections with journalist and activist Keane Bhatt.
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As usual, we take a quick look back at the week’s press, including debate questions, Scalia’s racism and the Bernie blackout.
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stupid: when you mention the carter center on Venezuela, why do you not talk about the irregularities it has cited? http://www.cartercenter.org/news/pr/venezuela-052214.html
you’re a bunch of liars. Keane Bhatt has nothing to do with journalism. He’s not a journalist. He has not proof for saying that the media is repeating the talking points of the State Department. He’s a liar.
Arun Kundnani
“People need to realize that terrorism is caused by politics, not religion.”
Not hardly, for vengeance driven terrorism is the violent blowback that is caused by the best money maker known to man, namely the trading of Western explosions and Western war materials for Middle-East oil.
And the illusion that one can never know who will use terrorism as a defense to protect the Middle-East population, surely that is pure fiction. For only those who are the most caring and giving are able to achieve the righteous indignation needed to get the job done.
TO — Viv Sanders
All of mainstream media is owned by the corporate rich, most all politicians in Empire USA are election funded by the same corporate rich and when you say that the propaganda from media and government is not in perfect harmony, beyond a shadow of a doubt you are a liar.
And as you are of the educated upper half of society, the voting majority actually, the greedy half that hoards all the wealth truly, your fiction about a socialist type government that would put half of your wealth back into circulation so that it could trickle down to the lower half, surely, liar, liar your house is on fire.
@Viv Sanders.
Your critique of the article makes the claim that the Carter Center reported “irregularities” with the Venezuelan election that Keane Bhatt avoided any mention of. However a review of the Carter Center report including the page you linked to specifically reveals the error is on your part, not Mr. Bhatt’s. What you referred to as election |irregularities”were in fact nothing more than suggestions regarding how Venezuelans can make future elections more equitable eg. place greater restrictions on the ability of incumbents to use the machinery of government to campaign for themselves or other members of their own political party and to ensure all candidates get access to media outlets, and a few other concerns that could easily be made about the way elections are run up here in *North* America.
And after reading John Ellis’s comments I have to wonder if either one of you actually read and understood what you chose to comment on, or whether you both presumed to *know* what was going to be said by the author based on your own prejudices then went ahead and criticized them based on those faulty assumptions.