Ricardo Salvador on the Food System & Covid-19
There is hope that the spotlight the pandemic is putting on problems in our food system could be the light by which we make changes.
Why It’s Wrong (and Racist) to Blame Covid-19 on Chinese ‘Wet Markets’
What is considered acceptable or “strange” meat is often the result of arbitrary cultural norms, and Chinese food is being stigmatized by racist and propagandistic news coverage following the Covid-19 outbreak.
Mike Elk on Frontline Worker Rights, Joe Emersberger on Pandemic Sanctions
What would it look like to call corporate media’s bluff on their sudden, serious respect for working people who didn’t start being important because there’s a contagious disease going around?
‘Monsanto Has Worked Very Hard to Discredit Me and My Work’
“It’s subterfuge. It’s a fraud upon the public, it’s an intended fraud upon the media, and it’s designed to control the narrative and control the news.”
Corporate Media More Worried About Avocado Toast Than Human Lives
Trump’s border policies display zero regard for human rights, but for several news outlets, as Trump foments xenophobia, what’s at stake is brunch.
Carey Gillam on Monsanto Lawsuit
How much power we will grant profit-driven corporations to determine not just what we’re exposed to, but what we’re permitted to know about it?
To Readers, $X Billion Just Means ‘a Whole Lot of Money’
If reporters made a point of expressing program spending as a share of the federal budget, people would immediately know whether these items are a big deal or small change.
Western Media Fall in Lockstep for Cheap Trump/Rubio Venezuela Aid PR Stunt
Western media outlets uniformly echoed the Trump administration’s simplistic, pre-packaged claim that the Venezuelan government was heartlessly withholding foreign aid.
Alternative Visions Revisited
We think all of our interviews are special, but there are some that seem to strike a chord in listeners—maybe because they engage questions that aren’t often engaged, or encourage alternative visions. We revisit three of those conversations on this week’s show.
Immigration Story Missing Context of Hunger and Freedom
On the separation of immigrant families, many recent news stories tell harrowing and important specific stories, but they mostly don’t get into the structural causes, the deep history.
‘Lots of Things That Impact Our Food System Come From the Farm Bill’
“Our food system looks the way it looks for a lot of reasons, and a lot of those reasons are policy. I don’t think any of us voted to have this unhealthy, environmentally damaging system.”
To Anthony Bourdain, the World Was the Star
Bourdain’s death should be a wake-up call to people from documentary filmmakers to independent media outfits wanting to use the internet in creative ways: There’s a hunger among regular people in the US for the unvarnished realities of the rest of the world, and major media are serving up precious little to feed it.
Tracy Rosenberg on ICE’s Corporate Collaborators, Patty Lovera on the Undercovered Farm Bill
The spotlight on the White House’s inhumane agenda on immigration and immigrants is exposing more than the devastatingly cruel practices in force at the border, but also the numerous big corporate and institutional players that are—often invisibly—enabling that agenda.
Anthony Bourdain: The Last Gasp of CNN’s Original Vision
Anthony Bourdain’s programs were in sharp contrast to corporate media’s typically cliched depiction of other countries, frequently shown as synonymous with their caricatured rulers, with canned images tirelessly repeated.
Newsweek and USA Today Need Standards for Opinion Writers
Please ask Newsweek and USA Today to strengthen their conflict-of-interest standards for opinion writers.
‘This Is Very Much a US/Saudi War on Yemen’
“We’re not asking for intervention. We’re asking for them to stop this intervention, to remove themselves from this conflict.”
Ignoring Washington’s Role in Yemen Carnage, 60 Minutes Paints US as Savior
60 Minutes did not once mention the direct role the United States played in creating, perpetuating and prolonging a crisis that’s left over 10,000 civilians dead.
‘Legislators Criminalize Practices That Led to Wrongdoings Being Exposed’
“If you took a video showing wonderful, happy cows, and how much they loved living in a dairy factory, you’re not going to go to jail under these laws.”
Murtaza Hussain on Iran Deal Sabotage, Chip Gibbons on Agricultural Censorship
How should reporters cover White House maneuvers to depict Iran’s compliance as non-compliance, and make clear what’s at stake?
Reuters vs. UN Cancer Agency: Are Corporate Ties Influencing Science Coverage?
Ever since they classified a widely used herbicide as “probably carcinogenic,” scientists at the UN’s cancer research group have been under attack by the agrichemical industry. One key weapon in industry’s arsenal has been the reporting of Kate Kelland, a veteran Reuters reporter.
