DERRICK JENSEN – It’s easy enough, some sixty years after the fact, for us to cluck our tongues at the cowardice and stupidity of those who went along with McCarthyism.
Tag: McCarthyism
Urgent to Progressives: Stop Fueling the Anti-Russia Frenzy
NORMAN SOLOMON – Many big factors affect any presidential race, and the Russian government may have tried to be one of them for the 2016 election—though it’s hardly the slam dunk that agencies like the CIA and U.S. mass media are now claiming. But in any event, this month it has become routine for a lot of progressive organizations and individuals to descend into a dangerous mode of partisan flackery — with troubling consequences.
Media Complicity Is Key to Blacklisting Websites
NORMAN SOLOMON – We still don’t have any sort of apology or retraction from the Washington Post for promoting “The List” — the highly dangerous blacklist that got a huge boost from the newspaper’s fawning coverage on November 24. The project of smearing 200 websites with one broad brush wouldn’t have gotten far without the avid complicity of high-profile media outlets, starting with the Post. In media and government, the journalists and officials who enable blacklisting are cravenly siding with conformity instead of democracy.
Why We Need Media Critics Who Are Fiercely Independent
NORMAN SOLOMON – The most renowned media critics are usually superficial and craven. That’s because — as one of the greatest in the 20th century, George Seldes, put it — “the most sacred cow of the press is the press itself.” No institutions are more image-conscious than big media outlets. The people running them know the crucial importance of spin, and they’ll be damned if they’re going to promote media criticism that undermines their own pretenses.
FBI Left Damning Document at Site of Peace Group Raid
BILL SOREM – A press conference at the offices of the Anti-War Committee office last week revealed an interesting remnant of the FBI raids on peace activists in Minneapolis and Chicago on September 24, 2010. They left a copy of the FBI SWAT team operational plan and the set of questions that was to be asked of the targets if any had agreed to talk to the FBI agents.