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.
Bloomberg’s Armsmaker-Funded Columnist Wants You to Know: Military Spending Is Woke
You may not know it, but bloated Pentagon budgets are actually “progressive.” Or so says a recent opinion piece in Bloomberg News.
Exposure of Another Pro-War Lie Doesn’t Make Media More Skeptical of Pro-War Claims
The outlets that vigorously pushed the false story will not extend any new skepticism toward the official sources that sold it to them. Nor will they offer any new respect—or platform—to the people who questioned the claim…not weeks later, but in real time.
Phyllis Bennis on Afghanistan Armistice?
Corporate media generally judge the potential for cessation of violence by how it affects US interests; we look at Afghanistan through a different lens.
Our Poor, Defenseless Military Industrial Complex
When Donald Trump took to Twitter to describe the $716 billion Pentagon budget as “crazy,” the prospect of a cut to the military elicited a storm of condemnation across the media landscape.
‘The Pentagon Has Steadfastly Stonewalled Against Making Its Budget Auditable’
“The goal is to paralyze Congress and paralyze the media, not to be able to ask questions about the Pentagon budget, because you can’t understand it.”
Dave Lindorff on Pentagon Fraud
It’s not just hard, but impossible, to find out how much the Pentagon spends and on what. Elite media reception of new research in that arena suggests they’d just as soon keep the whole thing under wraps—while reserving their right to entertain complaints about food stamps, however.
Factcheck False Equivalence
Precisely because of President Trump’s unprecedented propensity to lie, there can be a latent urge among factcheckers to find similar examples of dishonesty among the left, to provide some semblance of “fairness.” And, at times, these efforts can devolve into obtuse, bad-faith examples of nitpicking and false equivalence.
Trump Admin Follows Corporate Media Playbook for War With Iran
When everyone decides that war is the only other possibility, it starts to look like an inevitability. But even when they aren’t overtly stoking war fever against Iran, corporate media prime the militaristic pump in more subtle yet equally disturbing ways.
‘Maverick’ Media Use McCain Funeral to Shore Up US Imperialism
Elite media insist they’re engaged in challenging the imperious presidency of Donald Trump. But their support for US imperialism itself remains vigorous, as coverage of the funeral of Sen. John McCain showed clearly.
‘We Would Be Opening the Heavens to War’
“Consider the consequences of a shooting war: Battle platforms are hit, and radioactivity from these nuclear reactors rains down on Earth.”
The Sanctification of NATO
Claims that US President Donald Trump is undermining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) by criticizing some of its members and having a cordial meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin have sent establishment media into a frenzy to sanctify NATO as a force for peace and democracy.
CNN’s Iran Fearmongering Would Make More Sense Coming Directly From Pentagon
Hours after Trump pulled out of the Iran deal, CNN’s Barbara Starr rushed to publish an anonymously sourced and transparently propagandistic press release for the Trump administration and Pentagon. Wouldn’t it be easier if Starr just skipped the middleman and worked at the DoD directly?
‘The US Is Not at All Interested in the Welfare of the Syrian People’
“Enforcing international law or protecting people from horrific chemical weapons is not something that is really an actual, sincere concern of the foreign policy establishment.”
Media Support US Violence Against Syria, but Long for More
Corporate media outlets were glad that the US, France and Britain bombed Syria in violation of international law, but lamented what they see as a dearth of US violence in the country.
Greg Shupak on Syrian Airstrikes
As corporate media talk about Syria, where a recent airstrike by the US, legality be damned, is meant to represent the US doing the right thing in the world, are the principles supposedly guiding US intervention in Syria really principles—in the sense of being universally applied?
Out of 26 Major Editorials on Trump’s Syria Strikes, Zero Opposed
A survey by FAIR of the top 100 papers in the US by circulation found not a single editorial board opposed to Trump’s April 13 airstrikes on Syria. Twenty supported the strikes, while six were ambiguous as to whether or not the bombing was advisable. The remaining 74 issued no opinion about Trump’s latest escalation of the Syrian war.
Major Papers Urge Trump to Kill Syrians, Risk World War III
President Donald Trump is threatening to escalate the Syrian war–and major liberal media outlets are writing that Trump should attack Syria further.
‘The Doves Are Hawks and the Hawks Are Super-Hawks’
“This collection of perjurers and war criminals, because they’re critical of Trump, they’re put forward on MSNBC and CNN…as some sort of heroes that are going to save the republic.”
Karen Hobert Flynn on Census & Citizenship, Jeff Cohen on Cable News Hawks
The administration that has announced and acted on its intention to root out, harass and deport black and brown non-citizens wants to add the question “Are you a US citizen?” to the census. The list of problems with that is long.
