Counterspin (Liberal)

This week on CounterSpin: The one year anniversary of the NAVY Seal raid that killed Osama bin Laden brought us a prime time behind the scenes at the White House account on NBC, leaks from bin Laden intelligence files about his new terror schemes and a tiresome debate over whether Barack Obama could claim credit for the killing-- and if so, how. But there are bigger questions--namely, do the stories that surround the killing of Osama bin Laden add up? Gareth Porter challenges some of the...

This week on CounterSpin: Argentinas move to re-nationalize its oil company, taking it back from the Spanish company Repsol, is not getting good reviews in the corporate press overseas or here at home. The move will hurt and further isolate Argentina, say the critics. Well talk to economist Mark Weisbrot for another view. Also on the show: Campaign season means a flood of political ads intended to influence your vote. The FCC has proposed a measure aimed at making it easier to figure out...

This week on CounterSpin: The Justice Department has sued Apple and five major book publishers for colluding to fix prices e-book prices, in an attempt to undermine competitor Amazon. What should you know about the suit and its broader implications for, say the music and film industries? Well talk to the Consumer Federation of America Mark Cooper. Also on the show: Any community icon's passing leaves a void, but when that person is responsible for arguably the single serious TV program...

This week on CounterSpin: What can we make of a media that seems to thrive on war? Just this week a New York Times news report lamented that the Obama administration was not doing a better job of selling the war in Afghanistan. The Washington Post featured an editorial and a column last week voicing the same regrets. Never mind Afghanistan seems to have little to do with U.S. security or that polls show that majorities of Americans have been sour on the war for years. Today, a special...

This week on CounterSpin: The burning of copies of the Koran by US military in Afghanistan touched off a week of protests, including attacks on US soldiers. While US media have by and large denounced the Koran burning as unacceptably stupid, they still seem to be having trouble placing the current violence within the context of the larger decade-long violence that is the US/NATO occupation. We'll talk to Sonali Kolhatkar of the Afghan's Women Mission and KPFK's Uprising radio show about...

This week on CounterSpin, a special look at race and people of color in U.S. journalism. Told quickly it's a story about under representation and exclusion, of bias... and of breakthroughs. And all along, recognition that the stories news media tell us about the world and one another are a tremendous shaping force on the state of racial and ethnic understanding and the advance of social justice. We'll hear from Joseph Torres of the group Free Press, co-author with Juan Gonzalez of a new book...

This week on CounterSpin: The annual United Nations meeting on climate change is underway. That might be news to you if you rely on television for your information. These international conferences tend to produce stories that dwell on the lack of progress, or the unwillingness of countries like China to do more. Dartmouth environmental studies professor Michael Dorsey is on the scene in Durban, South Africa and he'll join us to talk about what's happeningand what's at stake. Also on...

This week on CounterSpin: The coverage of the recent arrest of a would-be Muslim terrorist ready to carry out attacks here at home had a we've-been-here-before feel. Whatever questions might surround this particular case, most media consumers are by now accustomed to the general presumption that Muslim terrorism is a serious, prevalent danger. University of North Carolina Islam scholar Charles Kurzman argues exactly the opposite in his recent book, The Missing Martyrs: Why There Are So Few...

This week on CounterSpin: The International Atomic Energy Agency published its latest report on Iran on November 8th, but for nearly two weeks beforehand news media were rife with leak-based stories promising the report would be "game changing." What did it actually say, and what of that is to be believed? We'll talk to Cyrus Safdari who is tracking the story at IranAffairs.com. Also on the show this week: As the Occupy movement continues to focus attention on economic inequality, a spate of...

This week on CounterSpin: When Barack Obama ordered armed military advisors to central Africa to help regional officials fight the brutal Lord's Resistance Army and its leader Joseph Kony, few journalists asked why or why now. The fact that the LRA is bad seemed to be enough. But is the move against the LRA part of something bigger happening in US foreign policy with regard to Africa? Well talk to the Institute for Policy Studies' John Feffer about searching for terrorists in Africa. Also on...

This week on CounterSpin: Did the corporate media turn on the Occupy Wall Street protests? When the protests started, the media story was a familiar onethe press ignored them, then derided activists for being leaderless, bongo pounding know-nothings. But then something happened, and suddenly anti-Wall Street activism is leading the nightly newscasts and splashed on the front page. Independent journalist and co-founder of the Occupied Wall Street Journal Arun Gupta will join us to talk about...

This week on CounterSpin: Yes, the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations aren't being covered much in the corporate media. But then when papers like the New York Times come down to take a look, one might wish they hadn't. We'll talk to Allison Kilkenny of Citizen Radio about the quality and quantity of media coverage of Occupy Wall Street. Also on the show: "We all know why the Postal Service is hemorrhaging cash," says the Chicago Tribune. Corporate media are clear on the causes of the Post...

This week on CounterSpin: For a lot of people, the Republican debate on September 9 had one memorable moment: when Texas governor Rick Perry was asked about his state's death penalty record, the audience cheered wildly. Moderator Brian Williams wanted to know if Perry lost sleep worrying whether he'd ever executed an innocent man. Perry said no, and that's where it was left. But what's the record in Texas? We'll ask Texas Tribune reporter Brandi Grissom. Also on CounterSpin today, at this...

This week on CounterSpin: Why have more than 700 people been arrested at the White House in recent days? Don't ask nightly news-- they've so far yet to find anything newsworthy in the largest environmental action in years: a massive protest against the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. We'll get the story TV's missing from Lorne Stockman, Research Director at the group Oil Change International. Also on CounterSpin today, the Center for American Progress has published a new report on...

This week on CounterSpin: 'Next time I tell you someone from Texas should not be elected president of the United States, please pay attention.' That was late columnist Molly Ivins' advice near the end of the George W. Bush era. But lo and behold another Republican governor of Texas is running for president, and from the tone of the coverage so far Rick Perry is some kind of job-creating machine. What else should we know about Rick Perry? Texas columnist and commentator Jim Hightower will...