20 Years After His Death, Gary Webb’s Truth Is Still Dangerous
Twenty years ago this month, former San Jose Mercury News investigative reporter Gary Webb died by apparent suicide after his career was systematically destroyed.
When Nicaragua Took Germany to Court, Media Put Nicaragua in the Dock
Establishment media seemed distracted by the “hypocrisy” of Nicaragua challenging a country whose “legitimacy as a democratic state is unassailable.”
NPR Falsely Claims Its Reporter Is the Only One to Visit Nicaragua
NPR began its report with the demonstrably false claim that Nicaragua has “kept all foreign journalists out for more than a year.”
Nicaragua’s ‘Political Prisoners’ Would Be Criminals by US Standards
The story of the 222 deportees was a further opportunity to present Nicaragua as a country suffering from extreme repression.
For Corporate Media, Sandinistas’ Electoral Success Proves Their Repressiveness
Corporate media are so in thrall to the State Department’s propaganda about Nicaragua that they can’t ask simple questions.
Nicaragua a ‘Dictatorship’ When It Follows US Lead on NGOs
Modest legal steps that would go unnoticed in most countries are—in Nicaragua’s case—clear evidence that it is “inching toward dictatorship.”
Are Nicaraguan Migrants Escaping ‘Repression’—or Economic Sanctions?
News outlets are ignoring the fact that, while numbers of Nicaraguan migrants have risen, so have those from almost everywhere else.
Support the Tropes
Corporate media invoke the language of human rights and humanitarianism to convince those to the left of center to accept, if not support, US actions abroad.
With Nicaragua, Scary Covid Projections Are More Newsworthy Than Hopeful Results
When, as the death toll in other countries grew alarmingly, Nicaragua “flattened the curve” of virus cases more quickly than its neighbors, its apparent success was ignored.
Progressive Media Promoted a False Story of ‘Conflict Beef’ From Nicaragua
Misleading and inaccurate reports about Nicaraguan beef could have drastic consequences for that country when it is already struggling to deal with US sanctions, the pandemic and the aftermath of two damaging hurricanes.
Media Malfunction as Sanders Notes Positive Aspects of Latin American Socialism
Election Focus 2020: News organizations seemed unable to process that a major national political figure could say something positive about a socialist country, leaving these outlets flailing around in absurd ways.
‘Bernie Speaks’—and Politico Hears Deviations From Cold War Orthodoxy
It’s very possible that Bernie Sanders said something “startling” in the 51 episodes of Bernie Speaks–but if he did, Politico didn’t find it. Instead, the publication showed us its own failure to dislodge from the corporate media’s anti-Communist, neo-Cold War worldview.
Distorting Past and Present: Reuters on Nicaragua’s Armed Uprising
In the eyes of Western journalists, elections don’t exist when Washington doesn’t like the results, but US aggression does not mar an election result that the US government applauds.
‘They Put Lethal Weapons Into the Hands of 13-Year-Olds’
“The military is attempting to put as many adolescent fingers around as many triggers as possible. They understand the impact, the psychological lure, of firing a weapon.”
American Made: A Largely True Story With Some Not-So-Fun Lies
American Made depicts Central America as a Cold War battleground, with no mention of the fact that hundreds of thousands of civilians were being murdered by US-backed governments. But bringing up that part of the history would definitely put a feel-bad spin on what was meant to be an entertaining romp with a lovable rogue.
Richard Cohen Can’t Help Race-Baiting, Defending Harassment
It’s unsurprising that Richard Cohen–notorious for his racialized worldview–evokes Latin America as a symbol of disregard for civil liberties. It’s also not surprising that as his example of bad Latin American–style oppression, he picks Nicaragua.
Sanders, Redbaiting and the ‘Denouncing’ Double Standard
Whenever the issue of socialism—or communism, its more fear-inducing cousin—comes up, the press must attempt to compel those who have previously expressed support or sympathy for red politics to “denounce” their prior statements.
Death-Squad Organizer Is NYT’s Source on Ben Carson’s Lack of Foreign Policy Smarts
In its effort to vet one of the leading GOP presidential candidates, Dr. Ben Carson, the New York Times didn’t properly vet its primary source in this vetting, former CIA officer Duane Clarridge—an indicted liar and overseer of Contra death squads in Central America.
How to Drive a Colleague to His Grave and Sleep Easy at Night
Ryan Grim’s new book sheds new light on the establishment media’s 1996 effort to discredit Gary Webb’s Contra crack revelations by talking to some of the key players. They sleep very well, they want you to know.
Gary Webb & Kill the Messenger, Katha Pollitt on Abortion Rights
This week on CounterSpin: The new film Kill the Messenger tells the story of investigative journalist Gary Webb, whose 1996 Dark Alliance series exposed links between drug traffickers and the US-backed Contras in Nicaragua. Prestige outlets like the New York Times devoted serious resources to going after Webb in an attempt to discredit his reporting. We’ll go back to the CounterSpin archives to hear from Webb himself.
Also on the show: You might think you hear enough about abortion in the press. A new book says: We need to talk about abortion differently. PRO: Reclaiming Abortion Rights is the latest from author, poet and Nation columnist Katha Pollitt. We’ll talk with her about reframing that conversation.
