This week on CounterSpin: Dick Cheney and his staff are notoriously eccentric and obsessively secretive. This is why journalists have a hard time reporting on how Cheney exercises his extraordinary power within the Bush administration. However, freelance journalist Robert Dreyfuss reports on how Cheney’s office operates in the latest edition of American Prospect magazine. Dreyfuss will join us to talk about his article, “Vice Squad.”

Also this week: a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv turned media attention back to Israel and Palestine—and many of the same assumptions that plague media coverage on a routine basis were evident. We’ll talk about some of the broader tendencies with Patrick O’Connor from Palestine Media Watch.

This program was produced by Counterspin on April 27, 2006.

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This week on CounterSpin: With the resounding margin of 410 to 8, the House of Representatives passed a resolution in late July endorsing Israel’s continuing attacks on Lebanon and the Gaza Strip; but our guest explains that that overwhelming bipartisan majority endorsed some other things as well, including the meaninglessness of international law and potential military action against Iran and Syria. Professor and author Stephen Zunes will discuss that and other under-explored aspects of this evolving crisis.

Also on the show: Understanding the language we use to talk about politics is essential to understanding media coverage of politics. Buzzwords like ‘values’ mean something very specific, usually defined to the advantage of conservatives. UC Berkeley linguist Geoff Nunberg explains in his new book Talking Right that this is no accident, but part of a concerted effort by the right to define the language of politics. He’ll join us to talk about it, and about what the media does to help.

This program was produced by Counterspin on August 10, 2006.

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Israel’s attack on Lebanon has left more than 330 dead, 1,000 wounded and half a million displaced; and Hezbollah’s attacks on northern Israel have killed 29 Israelis and left more than 30 injured. Meanwhile the U.S. press has chosen sides and is largely running interference for Israel’s disproportionate response to an aggressive action by Hezbollah. Today in a special extended interview about Lebanon, Israel and the media, we’ll talk to Lebanese-born American scholar Fawaz Gerges, professor of international studies at Sarah Lawrence college and the author of Journey of the Jihadists.

This program was produced by Counterspin on July 27, 2006.

For more information, visit:
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This week on CounterSpin: As reports from Iraq become increasingly dire, U.S. policy makers and their media enablers are looking everywhere but at themselves for someone to blame. A Nation columnist and New York correspondent for London’s Guardian newspaper writes about the finger pointing in his latest Guardian column, “They Lied Their Way Into Iraq. Now They are Trying to Lie Their Way Out.” Gary Younge will join us to talk about Iraq and the political endgame.

Also on CounterSpin today, politicians and pundits tend to agree that solving the Israel-Palestine conflict would go a long way towards achieving peace in the broader Middle East. But that’s more or less where the agreement ends. A new book by activist and frequent CounterSpin guest Ali Abunimah suggests a new path, one that is almost never discussed in the mainstream media. He will join us to talk about his new book One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse.

This program was produced by Counterspin on December 7, 2006.

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This week on CounterSpin: The depiction of torture on primetime TV has reportedly increased since 2001; this is particularly so in scenes where supposed “good guys” are the torturers. But as TV dramas and policy discussions portraying torture in a positive light are on the rise, so too are myths about torture’s effectiveness and regrettable necessity. We’ll talk to University of Wisconsin history Professor Alfred McCoy, the author of A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation, From the Cold War to the War on Terror.

Also on the show: Was Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s recent trip to the Middle East a success? It’d be easy to be confused by the media coverage: stories headlined “Rice’s talks with Olmert, Abbas accomplish little,” battled with those announcing “Rice declares Olmert-Abbas meeting a success.” We’ll ask Ali Abunimah author of the new book One State: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse to help decode the story.

This program was produced by Counterspin.

For more information, visit:
fair.org
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