For decades, mainstream U.S. news outlets have bent over backwards to appease conservatives and avoid the stigma “liberal media,” but there has been no similar accommodation for progressives, as Jeff Cohen notes about CNN’s handling of the upcoming Democratic debate.
Campaign 2016, Foreign Policy, Human Rights, Obama Administration, Politics, Right Wing, The Bush-43 Administration
Collateral Damage/Stuff Happens
President George W. Bush (and his successor Barack Obama) have lamented “collateral damage” in Afghanistan and Iraq and Jeb Bush shrugs off a domestic mass shooting as “stuff happens” but the tragedies have a common denominator: glorification of war and cultural acceptance of violence,…
What Are the Syrian Options?
Official Washington is in a blind rage over Russia’s military intervention in Syria in support of the Assad regime, but the changed dynamic may offer useful options if U.S. policymakers can just look clearly at the crisis, as ex-CIA official…
Secrecy of Obama’s TPP Trade Deal
The “free trade” advocates managed to jolt the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement back to life and declared success, but now must walk the giant TPP trade deal past the Congress and other legislatures. Michael Winship explains why he thinks the “monster” should…
Campaign 2016, Constitution, Human Rights, Lost History, Obama Administration, Politics, Right Wing, The Bush-43 Administration
The Second Amendment’s Fake History
Exclusive: A numbness followed the latest mass shooting this time at a community college in Oregon. Many Americans were frozen in futility as powerful political forces asserted that the Second Amendment prohibits any gun laws. But that claim is historically false, writes Robert Parry.
Foreign Policy, Human Rights, Intelligence, Lost History, Media, Obama Administration, Politics, Right Wing, Secrecy, The Bush-43 Administration
Obama Boots Syrian Peace Chance
Exclusive: President Obama thinks he can appease the neocons and liberal hawks by talking tough about Syria and Russia but in doing so he is throwing away a promising opportunity to resolve the Syrian conflict, plus he still gets bashed by Official…
Reflections on ‘Deep Poverty’
The Constitution’s Framers set as one of the new government’s priorities providing for the “general Welfare,” but that progressive mandate was soon swept away by slaveholders and industrialists who shaped America into a “me-first” society amazingly tolerant of “deep poverty,” as…
Obama Closes Opening to Iran
Despite prevailing on the Iran nuclear deal, President Obama isn’t following up that victory with a more realistic policy to incorporate Iran into resolving Mideast conflicts. Instead, Obama feels he must placate U.S. hardliners with more tough talk, as ex-CIA analyst Paul R.…
Foreign Policy, Intelligence, Lost History, Media, Obama Administration, Politics, Right Wing, Secrecy
Rupert Murdoch: Propaganda Recruit
Special Report: Journalistic objectivity was never high on Rupert Murdoch’s ethics list, but “secret” records from the 1980s show how far the media magnate went to ingratiate himself with President Reagan by collaborating with U.S. propaganda operations, reports Robert Parry.
Falling Short on Fall Fund Drive
From Editor Robert Parry: We are wrapping up our fall fund drive this week and have barely gotten 40 percent of the way toward our modest goal of $25,000. For this independent news site to survive, we must at least…
Foreign Policy, Human Rights, Intelligence, Lost History, Obama Administration, Secrecy, The Bush-43 Administration
Afghan Doctor Slaughter Pulls Back Curtain
The apparent U.S. slaughter of at least 22 people at an Afghan hospital, including Doctors Without Borders medical staff, is part of the grim reality of indiscriminate death when U.S. Special Forces undertake their secret raids and often toss aside…
Foreign Policy, Human Rights, Lost History, Media, Obama Administration, Right Wing, The Bush-43 Administration
The Hope Behind Putin’s Syria Help
Exclusive: President Obama insists on looking the gift horse of Russian military help for Syria’s embattled government in the mouth. Rather than welcome assistance in blocking a Sunni extremist victory, Obama bends to the neocons and liberal hawks, as ex-CIA analyst…
US Tax Dollars and Ukraine’s Finance Minister
Special Report: Though touted as the face of reform inside Ukraine’s post-coup regime, Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko enriched herself at the expense of a U.S.-taxpayer-financed investment fund and USAID now says it’s missing some of the audit records detailing Jaresko’s…
Obama Tolerates the Warmongers
Exclusive: President Obama is caught between the harsh realities of the Mideast and the fantasy world of Washington’s warmongers, but he prefers to risk a global catastrophe than to stand up to the neocons, the liberal hawks, the Israelis and…
Giving Saudis a Pass on Yemen War
By supporting Saudi Arabia’s war on Yemen, the U.S. is again finding itself on the same side with Al Qaeda in a Mideast conflict, a troubling pattern driven by a compulsion to excuse actions by U.S. “allies” no matter how…
Foreign Policy, Human Rights, Media, Obama Administration, Politics, Right Wing, The Bush-43 Administration
Should US Ally with Al Qaeda in Syria?
Exclusive: The new U.S. “group think” is that Russian President Putin broke his promise to attack only the Islamic State when his warplanes hit other rebel targets in Syria. But Putin never limited which terrorists he’d hit and the targeted…
Selling Access to Pope Francis
As much as Pope Francis criticized hyper-capitalism’s cruelty to the poor and the middle class, it was business as usual for the Catholic Church bureaucracy, selling access to the Pope’s events with front-row seats going to well-heeled benefactors, notes Michael Winship.
More Anti-Russian Bias at the NYT
Exclusive: The anti-Russian bias of the New York Times is hard to miss as it consistently puts Moscow’s actions and intentions in the worst possible light, in stark contrast to the warm glow that usually surrounds military actions by the…
Why Iran Is Aiding Syria
In spinning another propaganda theme, Official Washington is putting out the storyline that Iran is supporting Syria only to appease hardliners in Tehran, but the reality is that top Iranian leaders agree that a victory by the Islamic State or Al Qaeda…
Help Consortiumnews Fight ‘Group Thinks’
From Editor Robert Parry: In our almost 20 years, Consortiumnews has had one preeminent goal: to challenge and correct false narratives because we know how misguided “group thinks” especially in a nation as powerful as the United States can get…