6:30 PM Pacific Time: Sundays
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. Combines lively discussion and thoughtful critique. Produced by the national media watch group FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting).
This week on CounterSpin: international trade is on the agenda in Washington, with the White House pushing for Congress to vote on the CentralAmerican Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA. The trade pact is getting next to no mainstream media attention, even though the political fight over it is heating up. We’ll talk to Karen Hansen-Kuhn … Continued
Dean Baker on Social Security, Rory O’Connor on CPB This week on CounterSpin: The debate over Social Security privatization will be heating up again now that George W. Bush is endorsing a specific proposal. Are the media sorting out the truth about Bush’s push for so-called progressive indexation? Does the math really show that Bush … Continued
Christy Harvey on Senate Filibuster, Ross Gelbspan on Climate Change This week on CounterSpin: Senate rules are suddenly big news, as Republicans charge that Democrats are unfairly—and perhaps unconstitutionally—blocking the White House’s judicial nominees. With all the claims and counter-claims, are reporters sorting out the facts? We’ll ask Christy Harvey of the Center for American … Continued
Sam Zia-Zarifi on Marla Ruzicka & Jeff Chester on CPB This week on CounterSpin: Marla Ruzicka, whose mission was documenting and securing compensation for civilian victims of U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, was honored in the U.S. press this week after she was killed by a car bomb in Baghdad. But will the same … Continued
David Swanson on Bankruptcy Bill, Sarah Posner Low-Power Radio As we record this week’s show, the House is voting on bankruptcy legislation that’s been under discussion for week. Our guest says despite the quantity of coverage, the public still may be confused about what the changes would actually do — and not do — and … Continued
Emily Whitfield on Torture Memos, John Prados on Intelligence Commission This week on CounterSpin: New memos about the Bush administration’s torture and interrogation policies in Iraq have come to light. There’s big news here, but you wouldn’t know it by the media’s indifference to the story. What is actually in these new torture documents? And … Continued
Bob McChesney on FCC and Indecency, Daniel Ellsberg on Whistleblowers This week on Counterspin: the FCC is on an anti-indecency crusade that’s already led to broadcasters self-censoring such controversial things as a nude lithograph on Antiques Roadshow. Who’s fighting back? And what happened to all those other issues of media reform we were talking about … Continued
Norman Solomon on Iraq and withdrawal, Katha Pollitt on op-ed diversity This week on CounterSpin: the two-year anniversary of the Iraq war came and went with relatively little media fanfare. What’s the state of the Iraq debate? And what ideas are unmentionable in mainstream media circles? We’ll ask FAIR associate and syndicated columnist Norman Solomon. … Continued
Mark Jones on "forgotten crises," Jack Shaheen on Arabs on TV This week on CounterSpin: Humanitarian catastrophes claim millions of lives every year– from brutal civil wars to disease and famine. Which stories make the headlines, and which are all but ignored by the press? We’ll talk with Mark Jones of Reuters Alertnet about these … Continued
Sure, Million Dollar Baby is just a movie, but given how rarely the media spotlight ever makes it around to people with disabilities, the movie is bound to shape public opinion and understanding. So the questions provoked by the film would seem to deserve more thoughtful, and inclusive, journalistic treatment than they’ve thus far received. … Continued
