CounterSpin

  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. 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. 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. 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

  https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin250502.mp3 Right-click here to download this episode (“Save link as…”).   Ruby Bridges challenged US segregation in 1960. This week on CounterSpin: You can say someone ‘supports the rights’ of people of color to vote, or to have our experience and history recognized—as though that were a passive descriptor; she ‘supports the rights’ of people of color to be seen and heard. The website of the Kairos Democracy Project has a quote from John Lewis, reminding us: “Democracy is not a state. It is an act.” Tanya Clay House is board chair at Kairos and a longtime advocate for the multiracial democracy that the Trump White House seeks to denounce and derail—in part by erasing the history of Black people in this country. As part of that, she’s part of an ongoing project called Freedom to Learn and its present campaign, called #HandsOffOurHistory. We hear from Tanya Clay House about that work this week. Transcript: ‘Black History Is American History’ https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin250502House.mp3   Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin Also on the show:  Corporate news media evince lofty principles about the First Amendment, but when people actually use it, the response is more telling. When USA Today covered activism in Seattle around the WTO, it reported: “Little noticed by the public, the upcoming World Trade Organization summit has energized protesters around the world.” You see how that works: If you’re the little-noticing “public,” you’re cool; but if you band together with other people and speak out, well, now you’re a “protester,” and that’s different—and marginal. Whatever they say in their Martin Luther King Day editorials, elite media’s day-to-day message is: “Normal people don’t protest.” In 2025, there’s an ominous addendum: “Or else.” Danaka Katovich is co-director of the feminist grassroots anti-war organization CODEPINK, currently but not for the first time at the sharp end of state efforts to silence activists and activism. We hear from her this week. Transcript: ‘Our Position on Palestine Is Not Fringe’ https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin250502Katovich.mp3  

  https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin250418.mp3 Right-click here to download this episode (“Save link as…”).   The Nation (3/27/25) This week on CounterSpin: CBS News on April 14 said: We’re following new violence in the Middle East. Israeli strikes hit a major hospital in northern Gaza. At least 21 people were reportedly killed. The emergency room is badly damaged. Israel accused Hamas of using the hospital to hide its fighters. Meanwhile, Houthi militants in Yemen said they fired two ballistic missiles at Israel. The Israeli military initially said two missiles were launched and one was intercepted, but later said only one missile had been fired. There’s information in there, if you can parse it; but the takeaway for most will be that framing: “violence in the Middle East,” which suggests that whatever happened today is just the latest round in a perennial battle between warring parties, where you and I have no role except that of sad bystander. When it comes to Yemen, elite media’s repeated reference to “Iran-backed Houthi rebels” not only obscures the current fighting’s political origins and recent timeline, it erases the Yemeni people, who are paying the price both for the fighting and for the distortions around it, from political elites and their media amplifiers. We get some grounding from Khury Petersen-Smith; he’s the Michael Ratner Middle East fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. Transcript: ‘Yemen Has Been a Place the US Has Seen Fit to Bomb With Little Public Discussion’ https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin250418Petersen-Smith.mp3   Plus Janine Jackson takes a look back at some recent press coverage of fossil fuel companies and climate change. https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin250418Banter.mp3

  https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin250411.mp3 Right-click here to download this episode (“Save link as…”).   Intercept (4/8/25) This week on CounterSpin: We’re learning from Jonah Valdez at the Intercept that the Trump administration is now revoking visas and immigration statuses of hundreds of international students under the Student Exchange and Visitor Program—not just those active in pro-Palestinian advocacy, or those with criminal records of any sort. It is, says one immigration attorney, “a concerted effort to go after people who are from countries and religions that the Trump administration wants to get out of the country.” It is disheartening to see a report like one in Newsweek, about how Trump “loves the idea” of sending US citizens to prisons outside of US jurisdiction, that feels it has to start by explaining “Why It Matters.” But things as they are, we have to be grateful for what straight reporting we get—at a time when some outlets are signing on to shut up if it buys them a moment of peace, which it won’t—and a moment in which staying informed, paying attention, learning what’s happening and how we can stop it, is what we have to work with. Dara Lind is senior fellow at the American Immigration Council. She joins us this week on the show. Transcript: ‘They’re Doing Their Best to Turn People Who Have Not Committed Any Crime Into Criminals’ https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin250411Lind.mp3   Plus Janine Jackson takes a quick look back at coverage of the Hands Off! protests. https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin250411Banter.mp3

  https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin250404.mp3 Right-click here to download this episode (“Save link as…”).   New York Times (11/14/24) This week on CounterSpin: If “some people believe it” were the criterion, our daily news would be full of respectful consideration of the Earth’s flatness, the relationship of intelligence to the bumps on your head, and how stepping on a crack might break your mother’s back. News media don’t, in fact, use “some people think it’s true” as the threshold for whether a notion gets talked about seriously, gets “balanced” alongside what “data suggest.” It’s about power. Look no further than Robert Kennedy Jr. When he was just a famously named man about town, we heard about how he dumped a bear carcass in Central Park for fun, believes that children’s gender is shaped by chemicals in the water, and asserts that Covid-19 was “targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people,” while leaving “Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese” immune. But once you become RFK Jr., secretary of health and human services in a White House whose anger must not be drawn, those previously unacceptable ideas become, as a recent New York Times piece has it, “unorthodox.” Kennedy’s unorthodox ideas may get us all killed while media whistle. We hear from Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, about that. Transcript: ‘The Great Educator, Sadly, Is Going to Be These Viruses’ https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin250404Offit.mp3   Free Press (3/18/25) Also on the show: For many years, social justice advocates rather discounted the Federal Communications Commission. Unlike the Federal Trade Commission or the Food and Drug Administration, whose actions had visible impacts on your life, the FCC didn’t seem like a player. That changed over recent years, as we’ve seen the role the federal government plays in regulating the power of media corporations to control the flow of information. As the late, great media scholar Bob McChesney explained, “When the government grants free monopoly rights to TV spectrum…it is not setting the terms of competition; it is picking the winner.” We’ll talk about the FCC under Trump with Jessica González, co-CEO of the group McChesney co-founded, Free Press. Transcript: ‘This Is an All-Out War on the First Amendment’ https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin250404Gonzalez.mp3

Pretending protest isn’t happening is aiding and abetting the work of the silencers; it’s telling lies about who we are and what we can do.