CounterSpin

  https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin250704.mp3 Right-click here to download this episode (“Save link as…”).   (photo: Jim Naureckas) This week on CounterSpin: White supremacy, Islamophobia and antisemitism are irreducible dangers in themselves. They are also tools that powerful, wealthy people take up to protect their power and wealth, and to deflect everyone’s attention from who is, actually, day to day, threatening all of our well-being. That brazenness (everything is in peril!)—and that skullduggery (you know who’s the problem? your different-looking neighbor!)—are both in evidence in corporate media’s hellbent, throw-it-all-at-the-wall campaign against democratic socialist New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. We’ll talk about how elite news media are Trojan-horsing their hatred for any ideas that threaten their ill-gotten gains, via very deep, very serious “concerns” about Mamdani as a person, with Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon, longtime political activists, writers and co-founders of the emphatically nonpartisan group RootsAction. https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin250704CohenSolomon.mp3   Plus Janine Jackson takes a quick look at recent press coverage of Gaza massacres. https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin250704Banter.mp3

  https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin250627.mp3 Right-click here to download this episode (“Save link as…”).   Column (6/22/25) This week on CounterSpin: Prosecutors at the 1946 International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg declared: War is essentially an evil thing. Its consequences are not confined to the belligerent states alone, but affect the whole world. To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole. After the Trump administration dropped bombs on Iran last weekend, without congressional approval, the media debate wasn’t about legality, much less humanity. The Wall Street Journal offered a video series on The Massive Ordnance Penetrator, “The 30,000-Pound US Bomb That Could Destroy Iran’s Nuclear Bunkers.” But it’s not just boys excited by toys; the very important Wall Street Journal is “examining military innovation and tactics emerging around the world, breaking down the tech behind the weaponry and its potential impact.” Most big media are consumed right now with whether those bunker busters did their bunker busting or maybe the US needs to buy bigger, better bombs to…do what, exactly? Well, now you’re asking too many questions. Things you should not question? Statements like that of Sen. John Fetterman that Iran is the world’s No. 1 state sponsor of terror. US corporate media in war mode are a force to reckon with. We do some reckoning with media analyst Adam Johnson, co-host of the podcast Citations Needed, Substack author at the Column, and co-author, with In These Times contributing editor Sarah Lazare, of some relevant pieces at InTheseTimes.com. https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin250627Johnson.mp3

  https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin250620.mp3 Right-click here to download this episode (“Save link as…”).   CEPR (3/3/25) This week on CounterSpin: We’ve always heard that racists hate quotas, yet Stephen Miller’s “3000 a day however which way” mandate is terrorizing immigrant communities—brown immigrant communities—around the country. The response from people of conscience can look many ways: linking arms around people in danger, absolutely; vigorously disputing misinformation about immigrants, whether hateful or patronizing, also. But another piece is gaining a deeper, broader understanding of migration. News media could help answer one implied question—“Why is anyone trying to come to the US anyway?”—by grappling with the role of conditions the US has largely created in the places people are driven from. We’ll talk about that largely missing piece from elite media’s immigration coverage with Michael Galant, senior research and outreach associate at the Center for Economic and Policy Research. https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin250620Galant.mp3   Inequality.org (5/29/25) Also on the show: Anyone who pays attention and cares can see that the Trump budget bill is a brazen transfer of resources from those that are trying to meet basic needs to those that can’t remember how many houses they own. But corporate reporting rarely breaks out economic policy in terms of how it affects different people—especially how it affects communities for whom they show no consistent concern. Economic policy is itself racialized, gendered, regionalized, targeted. Humanistic journalism would help us see that. LaToya Parker is a senior researcher at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, and co-author, with Joint Center president Dedrick Asante-Muhammad, of the recent piece “This Federal Budget Will Be a Disaster for Black Workers.” https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin250620Parker.mp3  

  https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin250613.mp3 Right-click here to download this episode (“Save link as…”).   (Creative Commons photo: Diane Krauthamer) This week on CounterSpin: Media are focused on public protests in LA, but seem less interested in what’s making people angry. That’s in part about the federal government’s stated bid to capture and eject anyone they determine “opposes US foreign policy.” Protesters and witnesses and journalists in LA aren’t being shot at and thrown around and sent to the hospital because they disagree with US policy, we’re told, but because they’re interfering with the federal agents carrying out that policy. See how that works? If you don’t, and it worries you, you’re far from alone. We hear from Chip Gibbons, policy director at Defending Rights and Dissent, about the critical case of Columbia University student activist Mahmoud Khalil, held without warrant in a detention facility in Louisiana since March, for voicing support for Palestinian lives. There’s an important legal development, but how meaningfully Khalil’s case ultimately translates—just like with ICE sweeps around the country—will have to do with us. Other Words (6/4/25) Also on the show: If the problem were to “get rid of” unhoused people, the answer would be to house them. It’s cheaper than jailing people for being homeless, so if it’s those “taxpayer dollars” you care about, this would be plan A. Why isn’t it? We hear from Farrah Hassen, policy analyst, writer and adjunct professor in the Department of Political Science at Cal Poly Pomona. https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin250613Hassen.mp3

  https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin250606.mp3 Right-click here to download this episode (“Save link as…”).   White House photo (5/30/25) of Elon Musk’s farewell press conference with President Donald Trump. This week on CounterSpin: An email we got this week tells us: “The radical left is up in arms about DOGE. Just think about it—DOGE has exposed BILLIONS in wasteful spending, and is rooting out fraud and corruption at every turn. They’re making the government work for the people of this great nation once again, as the founders intended, and that is why the left simply can’t stand DOGE.” The ask is that we fill out a survey that represents “our once-in-a-lifetime chance to slash the bloated, woke and wasteful policies in the federal government. Thank you, and God Bless, Speaker Mike Johnson. (Paid for by the NRCC and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.)” Reports are that Elon Musk is leaving government, going back to make Tesla great again or something. But if that’s true, why did we get this weird, sad email? We’ll talk about how to miss Musk when he won’t go away with Jeff Hauser, executive director of the Revolving Door Project. Transcript: ‘Trump and Musk Are Attacking the Ability of Government to Protect Ordinary People’ https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin250606Hauser.mp3   Lever (5/17/24) Also on the show: The New York Times has its stories on the Boeing “non-prosecution agreement” in the “Business” section, suggesting that whether planes drop out of the sky is mostly a concern for investors. A huge corporation paying money to dodge criminal charges is evidently not a general interest story. And the families and friends of the hundreds of people dead because of Boeing’s admittedly knowing malfeasance? They’re just another county heard from. If you want reporting that calls crimes “crimes,” even if they’re committed by corporations, you need to look outside of corporate media. We’ll hear about Boeing from independent journalist Katya Schwenk. Transcript: ‘The Families Wanted Boeing to Face Real Accountability’ https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin250606Schwenk.mp3   Plus Janine Jackson takes a quick look at recent press coverage of trans youth in sports and gender-affirming care. https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin250606Banter.mp3

  https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin250530.mp3 Right-click here to download this episode (“Save link as…”).   Tom Morello at Occupy Wall Street (CC photo: David Shankbone) This week on CounterSpin: Taylor Swift, Bruce Springsteen, Beyoncé and…Oprah? They’re among the entertainers in Trump’s ALLCAPS sights for, it would seem, endorsing Kamala Harris in the election? And/or maybe saying something unflattering about him or his  actions—which, in his brain, and that of the minions who’ve chosen to share that brain, constitutes an illegal political contribution to his opponents, wherever they may lurk. At a moment when politicians who swore actual oaths are throwing over even the pretense of democracy, or public service—or basic human decency—many of us are looking to artists to be truth-tellers and spirit lifters; to convey, maybe, not so much information as energy: the fearless, collective, forward-looking joy that can sustain a beleaguered people in a threatening time. There’s a deep history of protest music and music as protest, and our guest is very intentionally a part of it. Tom Morello is a guitarist; part of Rage Against The Machine, Audioslave, Prophets of Rage and The Nightwatchman, among many other projects. His music has always been intertwined with his activism and advocacy for social, racial, economic justice; so we talk about the work of artists in Trumpian times with Tom Morello, this week on CounterSpin. Transcript: ‘Dangerous Times Demand Dangerous Music’ https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin250530Morello.mp3   Plus Janine Jackson takes a quick look at recent press coverage of the embassy shootings, a lawmaker’s arrest and commencement protests. https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin250530Banter.mp3

  https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin250523.mp3 Right-click here to download this episode (“Save link as…”).   Common Dreams (5/14/25) This week on CounterSpin: On a Sunday night, not when officials do things they’re most proud of, House Republicans passed a plan to give more money to rich people by taking it from the non-rich. Call it what you will, that’s what’s ultimately happening with the plan to cut more than $700 billion from Medicaid in order to “offset,” as elite media have it, the expense of relieving millionaires from contributing to public coffers. Even the feint they’re using—we’re not cutting aid, just forcing recipients to work, like they should—is obvious, age-old and long-disproven, if evidence is what you care about. Thing is, of the millions of people at the sharp end of the plan, most are children, who have no voice corporate media feel obliged to listen to. We’ll nevertheless talk about them with independent journalist Bryce Covert. Transcript: ‘Work Requirements Have Produced the Same Results Over and Over Again’   https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin250523Covert.mp3   Washington Post (5/11/25) Also on the show: You may have seen an editorial in the Washington Post indicating that, despite what you have heard for years, from trans people and from doctors and medical associations that work with trans people, maybe it’s OK for you to still entertain the notion that, weirdly, on this occasion, it’s not science but talkshow hosts who have it right, and trans kids are just actually mentally ill. We’ll talk about that with journalist and trans rights activist Erin Reed, of Erin in the Morning. Transcript: ‘The HHS Report Was Put Out to Give Cover to Oppose Transgender Healthcare’   https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin250523Reed.mp3

  https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin250516.mp3 Right-click here to download this episode (“Save link as…”).   Reuters (5/2/25) This week on CounterSpin: As part of its deadly denial of food, water and medicine to Palestinian people, Israel attacked a civilian aid ship endeavoring to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza, setting it on fire, injuring crewmembers, cutting off communications. The ship was called the Conscience. Millions around the world ask every day what it will take to awaken the conscience of leaders to stop the genocide of Palestinians, instead of trying to silence the outcry. Corporate media are complicit, with please-don’t-think-about-it headlines like NBC News‘ “Aid Groups Describe Dire Conditions in Gaza as Israel Says There Is No Shortage of Aid.” We talk about attacks on aid delivery and media’s role with Mara Kronenfeld, executive director at UNRWA USA (UNRWA being the UN Relief & Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, UNRWA USA being the partner group amplifying and grounding that work). Transcript: ‘I’m Not Seeing the Horror Reflected in Corporate Media’ https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin250516Kronenfeld.mp3   Plus Janine Jackson takes a quick look at press coverage of Gaza’s starvation and the MOVE bombing. https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin250516Banter.mp3  

  https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin250509.mp3 Right-click here to download this episode (“Save link as…”).   $Trump marketing website. This week on CounterSpin: They say ignorance is bliss, but I know that, for myself and others, our lack of knowledge of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency will only hurt us in our response to the effects that the dealings around that stuff are having on our lives. Bartlett Naylor breaks it down for us; he works at Public Citizen, as a financial policy advocate at their project Congress Watch. Transcript: ‘Crypto Is the Biggest Corruption Issue With Trump’ https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin250509Naylor.mp3   Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (photo: Judith Slein) Also on the show: Billionaires don’t need tax cuts; they already have a system designed to appease them. But it’s not enough! Part of the budget bill to give more to those who have everything is an effort to sell off public land for exploitation for fossil fuel companies, who are determined to die taking the last penny from our fingers. Pulling up the covers and waiting for better times isn’t the way; if we stay focused, we can save critical elements of, in this case, unspoiled wild places in this country. Ashley Nunes is public lands policy specialist at the Center for Biological Diversity. We hear from her this week about that. Transcript: ‘This Budget Would Give Polluters the Green Light’ https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin250509Nunes.mp3   Plus Janine Jackson looks back on an interview with the late Robert McChesney. https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin250509Banter.mp3

The Trump White House seeks to denounce and derail multiracial democracy—in part by erasing the history of Black people in this country.