Chinese Diplomacy Seen as Threat to US ‘Peace,’ ‘Stability’
Beijing’s diplomatic efforts led US media to call for the escalation of what amounts to a new cold war with China.
‘In the Middle East, We Are Hearing a New Set of Excuses to Justify the Same Old Policy’
“His visit will not help peace. It will not help human rights. It will not help US interests in the region.”
States Have No Inherent ‘Right to Exist’—but It’s a Media Fixation on Israel/Palestine
Coverage that asks whether Palestinians and pro-Palestinians acknowledge Israel’s “right to exist” poses an unhelpful question. The far more concrete, constructive and urgent one is: What is a fair arrangement under which all the peoples of historic Palestine can live?
Israel Isn’t Signing ‘Peace’ Deals
“Peace deal” is a misleading label to apply to agreements that help cement a belligerent military alliance against Iran, and allow violence against Palestinians, Libyans and Yemenis to continue.
Hiding the Impact of US Sanctions on Lebanon
That Lebanon is enduring a major financial crisis was made clear; that US sanctions have contributed to the problem was obscured.
NYT Parrots US Propaganda on Hezbollah in Venezuela
The New York Times’ claims of a relationship between Caracas and Hezbollah are entirely unoriginal, having been repeated by corporate journalists and national security pundits without evidence for years.
Thomas Friedman’s Crazy Poor Economics
Aside from the racism of the column’s headline—note that it’s different to say that some individuals in an ethnic group are “crazy rich” than it is to say that a group as a whole is poor because they’re crazy—it’s just empirically wrong to suggest that Middle Eastern countries are poorer as a whole than Asian countries.
‘The Vast Majority of Tipped Workers in America Suffer from Three Times the Poverty Rate of the Rest of the US Workforce’
Janine Jackson interviewed Saru Jayaraman about tipped worker rights for the August 10 episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript. [mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin Saru Jayaraman Interview @http://www.fair.org/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin180810Jayaraman.mp3″] MP3 Link Janine Jackson: Saru Jayaraman is the co-founder and co-director of the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United and director of the Food Labor Research Center at the […]
How Media Spread CIA’s Sectarian, Anti-Iran ‘Mideast Cold War’ Narrative
A new Vox video is the latest addition to a media onslaught that propagates numerous misleading talking points to demonize Iran—just as the US government, under Donald Trump’s vehemently anti-Iran administration, is ratcheting up aggression against that country.
David Ignatius’ 15 Years of Running Spin for Saudi Regime
Last week, in “A Young Prince Is Reimagining Saudi Arabia. Can He Make His Vision Come True?,” Washington Post foreign affairs columnist David Ignatius (4/20/17) wrote what read like a press release for the Saudi regime. What’s more, he’s written the same article several times before.
‘This Is a Country That’s in a Tremendous Crisis’
“It’s important for people, whenever they address news events, to understand that we don’t live in year zero. There’s always a history and a context.”
Zaid Jilani on Trump’s Yemen Raid, Andrew Rosenberg on Science and Resistance
Some media accounts are describing the first raid on Trump’s watch as “botched,” but that’s not the same as questioning it, much less putting it in a broader context of what’s happening in Yemen and what the US is doing there.
ISIS Killed More Americans in Beirut Than in Paris—but Only Their Hometown Papers Noticed
It’s tempting to argue that it’s natural for the US news media to have more concern for Paris because those attacks hit closer to home–except for one thing: More Americans were killed in last week’s Beirut bombings than in Paris — yet only a handful of US papers even bothered to mention them.
Action Alert: NYT Gives a False Pass to US on Cluster Bomb Sales
The New York Times describes the United States as one of the countries that hasn’t signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions “but have abided by its provisions.” This is just wrong, as the United States continues to make and sell cluster bombs.
Inspecting Media’s Claim That Iran Should Trust Inspectors
CBS’s discussion would have been more satisfying if someone had acknowledged the reality that it would be foolish for Iran to accept unlimited inspections at any location on its territory, because the United States has in the past used inspections as a cover for espionage that facilitated military attacks.
Missing From Reports of Yemeni Carnage: Washington’s Responsibility
Reports left out the information that made this particularly relevant to the papers’ mostly American readership: The US government is actively backing the air war in Yemen that killed those civilians.
PETITION: NYT, Washington Post: Provide Sustained Coverage of US-Backed Civilian Deaths in Yemen
Coverage of civilian deaths in Yemen by major US media outlets, like the New York Times and the Washington Post, has been cursory and superficial.
Soundbites April 2015
NYT (Mis)Spells Out Debt Problem for SYRIZA A New York Times report (1/29/15) by Liz Alderman suggested that Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, from the anti-austerity SYRIZA party, doesn’t understand his country’s debt problems: When pressed to describe how Greece would pay for bonds falling due in the coming months without taking the €7 billion […]
Saudi Dictator’s Death Shows NYT as Pawn of Power
The New York Times repeated the White House’s depiction of Saudi Arabian King Abdullah as a peace-loving friend, despite the reality that King Abdullah’s regime flogged dissenters, beheaded perpetrators of “sorcery” and made “frequent exhortations to the US to attack Iran.”
Drone-Strike Feminism
US corporate media outlets have acted as cheerleaders and stenographers, allowing the US government to hijack the deterioration of women’s rights as a selling point for perpetual war.
