Addicted to Intervention
The journalistic mistakes made in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks are being repeated today. The same press corps and commentariat that cheered the earlier aggressions have returned, largely intact.
Murtaza Hussain on Khorasan Group, Vijay Prashad on Narendra Modi
This week on CounterSpin: When the US military attacks on Syria got underway, there was a sudden shift in the coverage: We weren’t just bombing the Islamic State, but something called the Khorasan Group. But who are they and how come no one had ever heard of them before? We’ll talk to reporter Murtaza Hussain of the Intercept about that.
Also this week: Indian prime minister Narendra Modi received a royal welcome when he arrived in the US for a visit on September 26. For a republic, it’s always been a little strange how the US treats foreign heads of states like royalty, but with his controversial past and politics, Modi’s treatment was even more curious than most. We’ll talk with Trinity College history professor Vijay Prashad about Modi’s American reception.
Four Myths About Obama’s War on ISIS
While Barack Obama’s military plan to launch strikes against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) might impress many pundits, there are some serious questions that should be asked–about the threat posed by the Islamic State and about some of the assumptions guiding the debate.
Why Do They Hate Us Back?
U.S. coverage of Islam and Muslim-majority nations is such a carnival of distortion, double standards and bigotry that it’s sometimes hard to believe that journalists inhabit the same planet as the rest of us. This has been especially true as anti-American violence and demonstrations in Libya and other countries have put media fantasies of the […]
Kenyon Farrow on NC Amendment 1, Nada Alwadi on Bahrain
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin051812 Kenyon Farrow and Nada Alwadi @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin051812.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: Before media were saying Obama’s declaration of support for same sex marriage shows how far we’ve come, they were saying how North Carolina’s constitutional amendment banning recognition of those marriages shows how far we have to go. Both can be true, […]
Sharif Abdel Kouddous on Egypt, Hannah Gurman on Fallujah
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin120211 Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Hannah Gurman @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin120211.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: Egypt just finished its first round of elections since the uprising earlier this year by democratic activists. So why aren’t the activists overjoyed? We’ll talk about the state of democracy in Egypt and the way US corporate media are covering […]
Remote-Controlled Reporting on Remote-Controlled War
The New York Times (12/4/09) calls the American drone program “one of Washington’s worst-kept secrets.” This is particularly true for people in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) in Pakistan that border Afghanistan, where the low humming sound which gives them their local name—machay, meaning wasps—is very familiar. Since the drone program in Pakistan began […]
Noam Chomsky on Arab Spring, Monica Novoa on Drop the I Word
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin070811 Noam Chomsky and Monica Novoa @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin070811.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: Where things stand with the Arab Spring and drive for democracy in the region. U.S. interests have always been prioritized over human rights and democratic values; the people-powered uprisings have threatened the status quo and scrambled some of the usual media […]
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 […]
Sharif Abdel Kouddous on Egypt, John Nichols on labor and Wisconsin
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin041511 Sharif Abdel Kouddous and John Nichols @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin041511.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: With the Egyptian military still firmly in power, the Egyptian revolution is still very much a work in progress. The same military that we were once told was a liberal friend of democratic activists, is reportedly continuing policies of torture, […]
Stephen Zunes on Libya, Karen Greenberg on ‘America’s Growing Intolerance’
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin040111 Stephen Zunes and Karen Greenberg @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin040111.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: The U.S.-led NATO bombing of Libya was supposed to last just a few days. It was supposed to just protect Libyan civilians. And, according to the White House, we weren’t supposed to think of it as a war at all—it is […]
Phyllis Bennis on Libya, Graham Rayman on Newburgh Four
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin031111 Phyllis Bennis and Graham Rayman @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin031111.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: Soldiers loyal to Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi continue their assault on rebels, nearly a month into the democratic uprising there. Media are debating how and when and even whether the US should intervene, but how much of their reasoning has anything to […]
Mark Weisbrot on Haiti elections, Vijay Prashad on Egypt and the U.S.
Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: Why did Hillary Clinton jump on a plane to Haiti on January 30th in the middle of a major diplomatic crisis caused by the Egyptian uprising? She was going to Haiti because Washington is worried that U.S. efforts to deliver a Haitian president to its liking are threatened by […]
Adil Shamoo on Egypt, Fawaz Gerges on Muslim Brotherhood
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin020411 Adil Shamoo and Fawaz Gerges @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin020411.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: The massive uprising in Egypt has been covered as a story of violent clashes and an awakening on the so-called ‘Arab Street.’ As we record this program, some pro-Mubarak forces are attacking journalists. Plenty of U.S. coverage focuses on the U.S. […]
Helena Cobban on Tunisia, Wayne Au on teacher testing
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin012111 Helena Cobban and Wayne Au @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin012111.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: Tunisia is hardly ever in the US news, but when demonstrations by a largely secular movement led to the ouster of the country’s long-ruling, American-backed dictator, US elite media took notice. We’ll talk with Helena Cobban of JustWorldNews about what is […]
Does the NY Times Factcheck Op-Eds?
On August 2, the New York Times published an op-ed arguing that Arabs do not care much about Palestinians–and that this is a good thing, especially for Palestinians. But the argument relied on a “poll” of the Arab world that does not exist. The piece, by historian Efraim Karsh, intended to show that the “conventional […]
Sam Husseini on Gaza Freedom March, Dean Baker on WaPo & Fiscal Times
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin010810 Sam Husseini and Dean Baker @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin010810.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: It had the elements of a nightly news story: Protestors, including some Americans, being abused by officials in an Arab country. But this story was a non-starter with U.S. media. We’ll talk to Sam Husseini of the Institute for Public Accuracy, […]
Perilous Journalism in the Persian Gulf
Given that one of the stated goals of George W. Bush’s January 8-16 Mideast trip was to “remind” allies in the Persian Gulf that “Iran is a threat” (New York Times, 1/9/08), it should have at least struck journalists as a strange coincidence when a January 6 encounter between the U.S. Navy and five small […]
Coverage of Syria Airstrike Strikingly Familiar
When an apparent airstrike by Israel against Syria on September 6 was eventually linked to accusations of a secret Syrian nuclear program, the striking thing about the often muddled reporting was how much the credulous reaction to unsubstantiated claims resembled the similarly uncritical reporting about Iraq’s non-existent weapons of mass destruction. When the airstrike was […]
CounterSpin Interview: Ali Abunimah on Gaza
In November 2004, a New York Times article on Palestinian elections (11/14/04) stated, “The post-Arafat era will be the latest test of a quintessentially American article of faith: that elections provide legitimacy even to the frailest institutions.” The “faith” that elites in the press and in government have in such elections is tested when the […]
