Anonymous Sources Are Newsworthy—When They Talk to NYT, Not Seymour Hersh
The response of the nation’s major news organizations to two stories about the Nord Stream sabotage couldn’t have been more different.
Major US Outlets Found Hersh’s Nord Stream Scoop Too Hot to Handle
By every journalistic standard, the extensive international coverage given to Hersh’s story should have made it big news in the US.
‘The Cry Is “Lumumba Lives”—His Ideas, His Principles’
“The same forces that were at play in the ’60s to remove Lumumba are at play today in terms of keeping the Congolese from advancing.”
US Media’s Intellectual No-Fly-Zone on US Culpability in Nord Stream Attack
Commentators almost universally fingering Russia as the culprit in the pipeline sabotage, despite the lack of a plausible motive.
CIA’s Work With Filmmakers Puts All Media Workers at Risk
The CIA assisting or posing as filmmakers, journalists and other creative roles—a practice the Agency reserves the right to partake in to this day—puts actual filmmakers, journalists and other creators at risk overseas.
SoundBites June 2013
Concealing a Spy Who Hid Torture; Misremembering Thatcher; PBS’s Debate on Social Security
SoundBites March 2013
If It Weren’t for Those Meddling Iranians “This demonstrates the ever pernicious Iranian meddling in other countries in the region.” —unnamed U.S. official complaining to Reuters (1/28/13) about Iran allegedly sending arms to Yemen, where the U.S. is conducting a secret drone war Extreme Weather, Unexplained NBC Nightly News (1/13/13) asked a serious question, […]
Drone Kill List: Not News?
The New York Times‘ lengthy report (5/29/12) on Barack Obama’s drone “kill list” should provoke serious questions: Is such a program legal? How does it square with Obama’s criticism of the Bush administration’s “war on terror” policies? Is the White House covering up the killing of civilians by labeling them “militants”? Why is the United […]
Scott Horton on Obama’s “Kill List,” Yousaf Butt on Iran negotiations
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin060112 Scott Horton and Yousaf Butt @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin060112.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: The New York Times story on how the White House chooses targets and executes assassinations provided a lot of new information, but it also left some pressing questions unanswered. We’ll be joined by Scott Horton, attorney and Harpers web columnist, to […]
Faiza Patel on NYPD surveillance, Rena Steinzor on regulatory reforms
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin082611 Faiza Patel and Rena Steinzor @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin082611.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: An Associated Press report about how the New York City Police Department is working with the CIA to carry out domestic spying operations on minorities in cities across the U.S., is making some waves, and raising questions about ethnic and racial […]
Matthew Alexander on torture, Tyson Slocum on gas prices
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin050611 Matthew Alexander and Tyson Slocum @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin050611.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: The killing of Osama bin Laden has delivered plenty of media themes: Can the U.S. trust Pakistan? What does this mean for Al Qaeda? And, predictably enough, did Bush-era torture help find the al Qaeda leader? Torture advocates’ insistence that this […]
Andy Worthington on Guantánamo files, Lucinda Marshall on Greg Mortenson
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin Andy Worthington Lucinda Marshall @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin042911.mp3″] 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 […]
Covering for the Company in Pakistan?
When President Barack Obama stood before a room of journalists on February 15 and demanded that Pakistan release “our diplomat” Raymond Davis from a Lahore prison where he faced double murder charges, and when he lectured the Islamabad government on its “obligation” to adhere to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961, there were […]
Newsweek Defends Drones
Newsweek‘s February 21 assessment of the CIA’s drone assassination program in Pakistan is a largely uncritical defense of the White House policy, with little space for critics who argue the killings are illegal, counterproductive and exact a heavy toll on innocent civilians. Newsweek presents the piece as an exclusive look at the targeting decisions involved […]
Clarence Lusane on Juan Williams, Chris Rogers on Pakistan
Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: The firing of Juan Williams from NPR might seem like an inside media story; it’s become more as Williams, who was let go after saying people in “Muslim garb” on planes make him nervous, has become something of a cause celebre for the right. We’ll talk about what it […]
Pratap Chatterjee on Task Force 373, Timothy Karr on net neutrality
Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: The WikiLeaks Afghan War Diaries prompted waves of media coverage, though much of that amounted to “move on, there’s nothing to see here.” But digging into the documents might reveal more about the Afghan War than we knew—like the existence of something called Task Force 373, set up to […]
James Zogby on Gaza, Scott Horton on Guantànamo
Download MP3 On May 31st the Israeli military attacked a flotilla of boats full of civilians attempting to deliver humanitarian supplies to the Gaza strip, and to call attention to the impact of Israel’s blockade. At least 9 and as many as 16 activists were killed—we don’t know in part due to Israel’s tight control […]
Jeremy Scahill on Iraq killings, Jeff Biggers on coal mining
Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: A dramatic videotape of a 2007 U.S. helicopter attack was published by the website Wikileaks on April 5—prompting waves of coverage across the world, though only sporadic attention from the US corporate press. The attacks killed 12 Iraqis, including 2 journalists working for Reuters. Independent journalist Jeremy Scahill will […]
Alfred McCoy on Afghanistan, Richard Kim on The Mad Tea Party
Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: The DEA made a high profile announcement of massive seizures of opium in Afghanistan, reminding us of the centrality of opium production to the country’s economy. But most stories on the occupation and on Afghan ‘hearts and minds’ include marginal mention of the narcotic. How would really understanding the […]
Lockerbie in the Propaganda System
When Abdelbasset Al-Megrahi, after serving 10 years of a life sentence for allegedly blowing up the Pan Am 103 airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, was granted compassionate release due to terminal illness, the ensuing controversy was loud and indignant. Al-Megrahi, a former Libyan intelligence officer, returned home to what was angrily described in U.S. […]
