Episode 29: Rania Khalek On Syria And Smear Attacks On Her

In the first half of the show, Rania Khalek shares a bit of what she's seen while reporting in Syria and, for the first time, she publicly addresses the smear attacks on her reputation, which came when she chose to travel with other journalists to a conference in Damascus. Khalek was listed as a speaker, and because the conference primarily advanced a government perspective on the war and she is an easy target, Khalek was attacked, even forced to resign from her editor position at Electronic Intifada. She ended up not attending the conference. Meanwhile, other journalists at the conference spoke and attended but were not attacked by smear artists, who despise Khalek's politics.  During the second half, the show highlights the Dakota Access Pipeline resistance and the police assault on water protectors that occurred one week ago. (Note: The show was recorded on November 25, hours before the Army Corps of Engineers issued an eviction notice to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. So that unfortunately goes unaddressed.)  Khalek and Kevin Gosztola also slam pundits who think Donald Trump is now acting "presidential" and address progressive dishonesty toward Bernie Sanders just about any time he talks about the concepts of race and class and focuses on material conditions for working and middle class people instead of identity.