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(image: Financial Express)
This week on CounterSpin: In January of 2017, the country was still reeling—as indeed we continue to reel—from the election of Donald Trump. Corporate news media were full of allegations of Russian hacking—of the election and, at one point we were told, the electrical grid in Vermont. Barack Obama signed off on something called the Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act, the point of which was to aim communications at people overseas to “countermessage” the ideas of “terrorists”—as defined, of course, by the state. And a website launched, purporting to serve as a “watchlist” on professors deemed guilty of advancing leftist propaganda in the classroom. The feeling in the air led CounterSpin to speak with Ellen Schrecker, retired professor of American history at Yeshiva University and the author of a number of books, including Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America and No Ivory Tower: McCarthyism in the Universities.
It’s just over a year later and corporate news media are, well, full of allegations of Russian hacking, the Democratic National Committee is suing the Russian government over emails, along the way declaring that WikiLeaks—and, by extension, any outlet that publishes misappropriated documents, like the Pentagon Papers or Donald Trump’s tax returns—should be prosecuted for “economic espionage.” The New York Times warned readers recently that “Russia has amped up its arsenal” in cyber and nuclear threats, but the “US has done little in response”—the US, where the military budget was just increased by $80 billion, an increase that dwarfs the entire Russian military budget of $47 million. Never mind, says the paper of record, Russia might at any moment strike our “banks, utilities, stock markets and communications networks.”
We revisit our conversation with historian Ellen Schrecker, and its reminder that while not everything old is new again, we have been down this road before.
Transcript: ‘A Result of McCarthyism Is a Much Narrower Range of Political Ideas’
The military budget of the US is worth bringing up constantly. Consider the last 17 years during which we’ve probably spent, as an estimate, $10 TRILLION dollars on military and intelligence:
if we believe what we’re told, since 2001 we’ve had a mega terror attack, we’ve gone to war on false intelligence (and were then unable to “win” or even bring a semblance of order) to one country and had similar results in another. And to cap it off, we’re told that our great adversary hand-picked the US president.
It really makes you wonder what we’ve been paying for at all… until you realize that the US military is the world’s most profitable government boondoggle that makes that “bridge to nowhere” seem like money well spent.
Thank you Fair and the Counterspin crew for all you do for us. The McCarthyism mentioned in this program and the rebroadcasting today May 7th, 2018 was important for me to hear. I did not know there was ANY antiwar sentiment at that time. The committed opposition has no problem with consensus. However, us progressives, we are all over the place arguing. We are good-hearts always in turmoil and never lined up as the first line of defense. We must strive to do better and support what is right and not what is easy. I am not an educator…however, I try to educate. Facts are worthless to minds that are made up. However, if you can show people or explain to them how they got from point A to point B…..they are wise enough to grasp the legitimacy and embrace the details of how they got where they are. Once you have opened minds to the reality of their lives, there is no going back for them. The mainstream media must be held accountable if this country falls. I do not think it is hyperbole to say that your work in informing is beyond gold.
Barbara Hensley
Camarillo, CA