Igor Volsky on Ending Gun Violence, Robert Dreyfuss on Iraq War
Many are simply fed up with the idea that change is too hard. Will media conversation shift to keep up with them?
WaPo Curates the Memory of George Shultz
Assessments that judge George Shultz to be one of “the good guys,” with a commitment to things like freedom, human dignity and humanity, necessarily gloss over his role in both the Iraq War and the Iran/Contra scandal.
Steady Hand Joe
Election Focus 2020: Despite Democratic candidate Joe Biden’s prominent role in leading the US into the disastrous Iraq War, and his recent stream of lies and equivocations about why he supported it and when he began to reverse his position, many pundits continue to uncritically paint Biden as “mature” or a “steady hand” on foreign policy.
Film Official Secrets Is Tip of Mammoth Iceberg
Katharine Gun’s revelations showed before the invasion that people on the inside, whose livelihood depends on following the party line, were willing to risk jail time to expose the lies and threats.
Defining Endless War Down
Some in the press pounced on Beto O’Rourke’s description of an Iraq war that is “27 years and counting.”
‘They Had Already Decided They Wanted to Invade Iraq’
Corporate media’s role in the run-up to—and the ongoing aftermath of—the war on Iraq.
Robert Dreyfuss and Diana Duarte on the Media’s Role in Iraq War
Corporate media’s role in the lead up to and the ongoing aftermath of the war on Iraq.
Shock and Awe Celebrates Reporters Who Got It Right
Shock and Awe delivers an effective valorization of aggressive, adversarial journalism that should inspire young reporters, and a powerful condemnation of one of the darkest moments in the history of journalism.
‘Iraqi Public Opinion Is Crystallizing Into Anger and Resistance’
“Assaults on residential areas with AC-130 gunships cannot possibly be designed to minimize civilian casualties.”
Rahul Mahajan on Fallujah, Omar Farah on DHS’s ‘Race Paper’
In April 2004, CounterSpin spoke with journalist Rahul Mahajan, just returned from Fallujah. We replay that interview to mark the 15th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.
Another Warmonger Rewarded for Being Wrong on Iraq War
Max Boot’s hiring by the Washington Post goes to show, again, that the most certain way to move up in the media pundit universe is to consistently echo US national security orthodoxy—without pause or regret.
Extra! November 2017 Soundbites
Ignoring the Fantasies That Kill Real People… Here’s What Forgetting History Looks Like… Disclosure: I Get Paid to Fool WaPo Readers About Climate… Freebooter Turns Freelancer… And by ‘Dethroning,’ We Mean One-10th as Popular… Trump’s Problem Is That New York Doesn’t Understand Media… Questions That Don’t Require Asking
NYT Laments ‘Forever Wars’ Its Editorials Helped Create
Corporate media have a long history of lamenting wars they themselves helped sell the American public, but it’s rare so many wars and so much hypocrisy are distilled into one editorial.
Conspiracies Pushed by Atlantic’s Editor Excluded From Atlantic’s Denunciation of Conspiracy Theories
Which “conspiracy theories” the media decide to care about and which they don’t is largely a function of who is advancing those conspiracy theories, and whose interests they serve.
Corporate Media Largely Silent on Trump’s Civilian Death Toll in Iraq
The expulsion of ISIS from Mosul by the US-led coalition received coverage, but the US role in killing civilians was uniformly ignored.
What’s Wrong With This Picture? Fawning Praise of Bush’s Veteran Art Ignores Iraqi Victims
In all of the fawning press coverage of George W. Bush’s paintings of US veterans, one thing has been notably absent: Bush’s Iraqi victims.
The Essential Pundit Take: ‘Trump Became President’ by Bombing Syria
Note the assurance with which Zakaria insists that a military attack on a sovereign state, unauthorized by the United Nations and unjustifiable in terms of self-defense, signifies a new respect on Trump’s part for “global norms” and “international rules.”
‘There Are No Signs That Iraq Can Be Bombed Into Stability’
“I’m really surprised by this media hype around the attack on Mosul, because I’m not sure what kind of collective amnesia do we expect to have as a nation, to believe that there is something new happening.”
Raed Jarrar on Mosul Bombing, Evan Greer on Internet Privacy
More than 200 Iraqi civilians killed by a US airstrike in Mosul. But while media express concern, the idea that the deaths were a lamentable part of a nevertheless valiant effort to liberate the city from terrorists’ grip is not being questioned.
Media Spin Headlines to Downplay US Responsibility for Mosul Massacre
The Washington Post reports that a recent airstrike in Mosul “was potentially one of the worst US-led civilian bombings in 25 years.” Yet leading news networks went out of their way to craft some of the most euphemistic headlines imaginable.
