The Press in the Age of Trump w/ Ken Silverstein of Washington Babylon

On this edition of Parallax Views, we get a "State of the Media" address from the veteran muckraking journalist Ken Silverstein of Washington Babylon. Ken has a lot of criticism for the approach of the press in the era of Trump, even though he himself has a great deal of contempt for Donald Trump and the way the current sitting President has attacked journalists over the course of the past four years. Before getting into that, however, Ken gives a background on how he became involved in journalism and his mentor Alexander Cockburn of Counterpunch fame (although it should be noted that Ken founded Counterpunch prior to Cockburn's involvement).

From there we delve into:

- Ken's thoughts on social media; the uproars over Matt Taibbi's recent op-eds; thoughts on what's been called "cancel culture"

- Is there a lack of accountability in journalism?; the strange story of an Iranian who was asked to become a spy for the U.S.; the Democratic Party's movem right especially since the Bill Clinton Presidency and Rahm Emanuel's comments about 2020 being the "Year of the Biden Republican"; Ken's thoughts on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and "The Squad"

- "The Trouble With Jeffrey: On Trump, The Atlantic, Goldberg and Cannon Fodder", Ken's recent piece on Jeffrey Goldberg's Atlantic piece alleging, vis-à-vis anonymous sources, alleging Trump's disrespect of troops at a cemetery; Ken's issues with Goldberg's piece and that fact that John Bolton did not corroborate the story; Goldberg's argument for why the sources needed to be anonymous; Goldberg's history of neocon warmongering during the Bush Administration and the Iraq War

- The Donald Trump/Stormy Daniel affair and the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky; the focus should be on power imbalances and hush money not the sex with porn stars

- Trump's fights with the media and vice versa; Trump being seen as "authentic"; the media's strange focus on matters such as Trump's eating habits

- Has the press coverage of Trump been reckless at times?; Ken's thoughts on the Russiagate story

- Ken's controversial take on the death of Jeffrey Epstein as outlined in his piece "The Jeffrey Epstein Non-Conspiracy Theory"; Ken clarifies that he does think there's questions about the Epstein case but questions the conspiracy narrative around his death

This Episode Brought to You By:

The War State:
The Cold War Origins of the Military-Industrial Complex and the Power Elite, 1945-1963
by
Michael Swanson
of
The Wall Street Window