Slashing Climate, Weather and Ocean Research to Pay for 32 Hours of Iran War
While cuts to NOAA would substantially harm the agency’s work, the proposed “savings” of $1.6 billion is equivalent to the costs of 1.3 days of the war on Iran.
‘The World Is Only Going to Get Darker if People Get Away With This’:
CounterSpin interview with Chip Gibbons on holding Trump accountable
“War of aggression, UN charter, Nuremberg precedent: These are not foreign things being imposed on the US. These are part of our domestic legal system.”
‘Trying to Pull the Strings on a Prosecutor’s Judgment Is a Serious Problem’:
CounterSpin interview with Shayana Kadidal on Guantánamo plea deal
“They’ve taken the most significant criminal trial of the century, the 9/11 case, and put it into a system where everything is being invented from scratch.”
Attacks on ICC Show ‘Condemning Hamas’ Is Really About Absolving Israel
By condemning both Hamas and Israel leaders for illegal acts of violence, the ICC is delegitimizing Israel, editorialists say.
Why Is There More Media Talk About Using Nuclear Weapons Than About Banning Them?
It’s of critical importance—indeed, existential importance—to the world: the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. And a coalition of peace organizations in the United States is charging that media are acting like the treaty “does not exist.” The Nuclear Ban Treaty Collaborative is waging a campaign to encourage press coverage of the treaty, which, […]
Jailing of a British Blogger Should Worry Journalists on Both Sides of the Atlantic
As a British blogger, Murray is simply not protected by the First Amendment… US media should pay more attention.
Press Sees NYC Primary Win as Yet Another Reason for Dems to Move Right
The press sees Eric Adams’ primary win as yet another indication that the Democratic Party must stick to moderate ideas.
NYT: Okinawans’ ‘True Views’ Aren’t What They Say
One recent poll found 84 percent opposition on Okinawa to a new US base. And yet the New York Times tells readers that it knows better.
Bizarre Record of Fox’s Rape-to-Be-Expected Pundit
Liz Trotta, a Fox News contributor and former Washington Times editor, drew attention this week (2/12/12) when she suggested that women serving in the U.S. military should expect to be sexually assaulted by their male counterparts: But while all of this is going on, just a few weeks ago, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta commented on […]
The Way to Voters’ Hearts Is Proposing What They Don’t Want
You often see pundits making suggestions to political candidates like David Brooks makes in his New York Times column today (1/10/12): If Romney is to thrive, he really needs to go on an integrity tour. He needs to show how his outer pronouncements flow directly from his inner core. He needs to trust that voters […]
Professor Gingrich Still Wowing NYT
His campaign might fading, but Newt Gingrich is still wowing the New York Times (2/10/12). Reporter Trip Gabriel writes: Mr. Gingrich is well known as the candidate of big ideas, hatched from a deep knowledge of politics and policy. But he is less recognized for his warehouse of everyday facts, the kind of small-bore knowledge […]
LAT: Where’s the Drone Deaths Coverage?
A Los Angeles Times editorial (2/7/12) begins: When the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism released a report Sunday claiming that U.S. drone strikes have killed dozens of civilian rescuers and mourners in Pakistan, the American media scarcely noticed. It’s a good point.The Bureau‘s report got remarkably little media attention. A New York Times story (which […]
Meet the Press Turns to Billionaire Mayor as ‘Independent Voice’
On the one hand, NBC‘s Meet the Press gives us Republican Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (2/5/12): DAVID GREGORY: Governor Daniels, one of the things you hear from the campaign trail, Mitt Romney said it just the other day, is that the recovery should have been so much stronger. You know, it’s very difficult to prove […]
Iran and the Threat of Not Having Future Wars
The conventional understanding you get from the media is that Israel is worried that a nuclear-armed Iran would pose a serious threat to the country’s existence. Is that really what’s happening, though? Another interpretation is that Iran might want nuclear weapons not to launch any such an attack but to prevent an attack on its […]
‘Bard of the 1 Percent’ Sings the Same Tune
New York Times columnist David Brooks, who’s been called the “bard of the 1 percent” for his writings in defense of the economic elite, is at it again–telling people not to worry about the concentration of wealth at the very top of the income scale. Brooks writes in his January 31 column that the claim […]
Gingrich Refuses to Face the Fact That Voters Don’t Matter
From Amanda Terkel in the Huffington Post (2/1/12): Newt Gingrich Florida Primary Results 2012: The Candidate Who Refuses to Operate Within Reality …From the beginning to the end of Gingrich’s election night party, the campaign and its supporters seemed to be operating outside of realities, denying the importance of this large state’s primary contest and […]
Loose Lips Sink Drones
Barack Obama did something yesterday that government leaders tend not to do: He talked about the CIA drone war in Pakistan. This admission–which, it should be pointed out, happened in a Google-sponsored Q & A with the public, not a session with reporters–made it into the papers. The New York Times (1/31/12) flagged civilian deaths […]
NBC’s Curry on What ‘Everyone’ Knows About Iran
During an interview with Zbigniew Brzezinski (1/25/12), NBC‘s Today host Ann Curry said this: Well, one of the key topics that we have been hearing a lot about is all of this concern about Iran. You know what’s been happening, the concerns, the tensions in the Straits of Hormuz, the concerns about Iran’s rise in […]
When Experts’ Bitter Medicine Is Really Snake Oil
Niall Ferguson is undoubtedly an expert. As the bio on his Newsweek column points out, he’s “a professor of history at Harvard University. He is also a senior research fellow at Jesus College, Oxford University, and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.” His latest column (1/23/12) is about the need to sell the public […]
The Japanese Nuclear Establishment vs. the Two-Thirds ‘Minority’
There’s a news article in the Washington Post today (1/26/12) that really captures that paper’s view of the way the world works, and how it ought to work. Headlined “After Earthquake, Japan Can’t Agree on the Future of Nuclear Power,” Chico Harlan’s piece begins: The hulking system that once guided Japan’s pro-nuclear-power stance worked just […]
