FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: There are many legitimate concerns about Pakistan, but our guest, historian Manan Ahmed, says the U.S. media discussion of recent developments there, portraying Pakistan as a country “on the brink,” border on hysteria. We’ll talk to Manan Ahmed about the hype, and about what he thinks the media should […]
The wars that have wracked the Democratic Republic of the Congo since 1996, killing well over 5 million people (International Rescue Committee, 1/08) in what may be the deadliest conflict since World War II, are officially over. A peace agreement was signed in 2002, and general elections were held in 2006. But conflict and the […]
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin032709 Riki Ott and Harvey Wasserman @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin032709.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: Disaster anniversaries are readymade news hooks for media always in search of one. March sees 20 years since the Exxon Valdez spilled at least 11 million gallons (and likely much more) of oil in Prince William Sound, Alaska. It’s also been […]
Click here to download pdf. Any evenhanded comparison of the Colombian and Venezuelan governments’ human rights records would have to note that, though Venezuela’s record is far from perfect, that country is by every measure a safer place than Colombia to live, vote, organize unions and political groups, speak out against the government or practice […]
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin011609 Phyllis Bennis and Charles Kaiser @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin011609.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: Listeners have likely seen some horrific and affecting images from Gaza, where the death toll has exceeded an estimated 1,000 overwhelmingly Palestinian people as, as the New York Times had it, “the Israeli military operation continued apace.” We’ll hear from author […]
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin010909 Ali Abunimah and AC Thompson @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin010909.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: The carnage in Gaza has provoked international outrage among many journalists outside the U.S., but journalists in the U.S. are largely holding on to a storyline that says that Israel is merely defending itself after Hamas broke a ceasefire. We’ll talk […]
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin101008 David Cay Johnston and Isabel MacDonald and Steve Rendall @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin101008.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: The bailout story turns again as Congress passes the White House’s bailout bill. Will reporters give up questioning the plan entirely now that it has that holy grail of “bipartisan support”? We’ll hear from one journalist who’s […]
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin100308 Phyllis Bennis and Wendy Weiser @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin100308.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: There’s been a lot of discussion about who won or lost the September 26th presidential debate, but little discussion of how it served the voters. What was and wasn’t talked about in a debate that focused largely on war and military […]
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin092608 Earth Jane Melzer and Sarah Anderson @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin092608.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: Lose your house, lose your vote? A report from a new investigative journalism outfit says that Michigan Republican Party officials are planning to use a list of foreclosed homes to challenge voters on Election Day—targeting a largely poor, African-American pool […]
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin091908 James Galbraith and Forrest Hylton @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin091908.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: Unlike tendentious media debates about government aid to the poor, journalists greeted bail outs of major financial corporations with almost universal approval. We’ll talk to economist James Galbraith of the University of Texas about what the news means for regulatory policy […]
As America heads toward a critical presidential election, “free trade” advocate Robert Reich, who as Bill Clinton’s labor secretary in 1993 fought hard for passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), glumly admitted that the constituency for “free trade” has severely eroded. “I’m still a free trader, although I will tell you . […]
Appearing on MSNBC Live (6/2/08), New York Times columnist David Brooks said that though Barack Obama’s presidential candidacy represented a “big historic movement,” the candidate may lack the common touch: The magic is not felt by a lot of people. It’s not felt, obviously, by a lot of less educated people, downscale people. They just […]
When Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-Maliki called for a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troop (Der Spiegel, 7/19/08), U.S. corporate media coverage of his statement displayed a remarkable condescension. The New York Times‘ Steven Lee Myers (7/10/08) suggested that al-Maliki didn’t mean what he was saying and was just doing what Iraqi politicians […]
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin082208 Thomas Frank @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin082208.mp3″] Download MP3 Conservative mismanagement of government is no mistake but the concerted effort of a movement that seeks to further the interests of big business and destroy government’s ability to oversee or regulate those interests. That’s the theme of best-selling author and Wall Street Journal columnist Thomas Frank’s new book, […]
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin081508 Helena Cobban and Iyanna Jones @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin081508.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: “Russia bad, Georgia good” is the theme of much U.S. coverage of recent hostilities between those two countries and their battles over the breakaway Georgian territory known as South Ossetia. We’ll be joined by Helena Cobban of the website Just World […]
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin080108 Juan Cole and Todd Tucker @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin080108.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: The media debate on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars seems to rest on the assumption that the troop surge in Iraq has “worked,” and more troops in Afghanistan would help turn that conflict in the favor of U.S. and NATO forces. […]
[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin070408 Glenn Greenwald and Ariana Huffington @https://eadn-wc04-3257648.nxedge.io/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin070408.mp3″] Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: a special conversation with two authors who have been producing some of the sharpest criticism of the political and media establishment during the Bush years. Arianna Huffington is founder of the Huffington Post website and author of numerous books. Her most […]
Michael Dorsey, Professor of global environmental policy at Dartmouth College, joins to discuss the cap and trade legislation currently being debated in the U.S. Senate. Also this week: Al-Jazeera English and the U.S. television market, with reporter Ken Picard.
Weeks after the New York Times (4/20/08) broke the story that the Pentagon had been feeding talking points to TV military analysts, the broadcast TV networks have remained conspicuously silent about the issue. According to the Times, the Pentagon recruited over 75 retired generals to act as “message force multipliers” in support of the Iraq […]
This week on CounterSpin: Journalist Pepe Escobar joins to discuss the latest UN report on Iran’s nuclear program. Also on the program: The growing influence of Christian televangelists, with author Sarah Posner.
