CounterSpin – April 20, 2025

CounterSpin

CounterSpin provides a critical examination of the each week’s major news stories, and exposes what the mainstream media may have missed in their own coverage. Produced by the national media watch group FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting).

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CounterSpin

Dara Lind on Criminalizing Immigrants

This week on CounterSpin: We’re learning from Jonah Valdez at the Intercept that the Trump administration is now revoking visas and the immigration status 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 … Continued


CounterSpin

Michael Arria on Gaza Pushback

This week on CounterSpin: Israel has abandoned the ceasefire agreement and restarted its genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza — a war that has destroyed the region and killed tens of thousands of human beings. The ceasefire, as Gaza-based writer Hassan Abo Qamar, among others, reminds us, still allowed Israel to deprive Palestinians in Gaza … Continued


CounterSpin

Nancy Altman on Social Security Attacks

This week on CounterSpin: News site Popular Information alerted us to new Social Security Administration policy effectively requiring tens of thousands of recipients, by the agency’s own estimation, to travel to a field office to verify their ID. An internal memo predicts the shift will create “service disruption,” “operational strain,” and “budget shortfalls” — unsurprising, … Continued


CounterSpin

David Perry on MAGA and Disability / Kehsi Iman Wilson on ADA (2023)

This week on CounterSpin: In early February, when Representative Maxwell Frost tweeted that he and Representative Maxine Waters were denied access to the Department of Education, Elon Musk responded on the platform he owns: “What is this ‘Department of Education’ you keep talking about? I just checked and it doesn’t exist.” That, we understand, was … Continued


CounterSpin

Eric Blanc on Worker-to-Worker Organizing

This week on CounterSpin: A NASA official warned workers to maybe think about not wearing their badges in public, to protect themselves from harassment against people identifiable as federal workers by MAGA randos who feel deputized by Trump and Musk to do whatever it is Trump and Musk suggest. It’s early days of the Trump/Musk … Continued


CounterSpin

Gregory Shupak on Palestine Ethnic Cleansing / Portia Allen-Kyle on Tax Unfairness

This week on CounterSpin: Donald Trump has declared that the U.S. is going to “take over” the Gaza Strip, and the Palestinians who live there will be “permanently” exiled. Asked whether Palestinians would have the right to return to Gaza under his scheme, Trump said “no.” But even those corporate media who aren’t actually endorsing … Continued


CounterSpin

Luke Charles Harris on Critical Race Theory (2021)

This week on CounterSpin: A number of federal agencies rushed to make clear they would be scrubbing activities and events that “celebrate cultural awareness” in an effort to stay on the good side of the weird new White House. Trump and his abettors’ anti-anti-discrimination agenda is as subtle as a sledgehammer. “DEI hire,” for instance, … Continued