Click here for the full interview with Ben Smith: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/former-buzzfeed-chief-on-the-end?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and chat live with Katie and Aaron in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.substack.com
Or find us on Locals at http://usefulidiots.locals.com
Join the Absurd Arena live chat with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est at https://usefulidiots.substack.com/chat
Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: BlueAnon Cracks under Russiagate Report https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/blueanon-cracks-under-russiagate?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
The era of corporate media is dying. The future is independent.
Ben Smith, former Buzzfeed chief and New York Times media columnist, is the founder of Semafor, a news site which, unlike corporate rags who pretend otherwise, doesn’t hide the author’s opinion. Check it out here.
Ben joins Useful Idiots to explain the beginnings of the internet age of media that led to Obama’s election, the rise and demise of outlets like Buzzfeed News and Vice, and describes what he sees as the next era. And yes, it includes Useful Idiots.
Watch the full episode where Ben debates Aaron on the Durham Report, which this week showed that the six-year story of collusion between Trump and Russia was a hoax led by corporate media. Buzzfeed, with Ben in charge, was the first outlet to publish the Steele Dossier in 2017. When Aaron challenges him on this, things get heated.
Then, as an ex-Times writer, Ben exposes the biggest clusterf*ck from his years at the paper, a notorious example of choosing traffic over truth. Hear his report in the full interview.
And speaking of Traffic, check out Ben Smith’s new book on media genius, rivalry, and delusion in the billion-dollar race to go viral.
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Former Buzzfeed Chief on the End of a Media Era

Useful Idiots is an informative and irreverent politics podcast with journalist Aaron Maté and podcaster/writer Katie Halper. Episodes feature analysis of the political news of the week and exclusive interviews, with humor, commentary and dissection of why both Republicans and Democrats suck. Join Aaron and Katie as they examine important stories that have slipped through the cracks and what the media got wrong – and laugh about whatever is left to laugh about.

News

Politics

News Commentary

Click here for the full interview with UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/un-rapporteur-accuses-israel-of-sexual?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
For $6 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and bonus content at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com
Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: John Kirby feels "perfectly comfortable" with Israel bombing Rafah https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/john-kirby-feels-perfectly-comfortable?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
“They knew,” repeats Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories. “They knew this would result in killing. They knew this would result in immense physical and mental harm. They knew that by declaring a siege with no food, no water, no fuel, no medicines, people would be destined to die.”
She continues, citing the definition of genocide: “These are conditions calculated to ‘bring about the destruction of a group in whole or part,’ and this is why it's genocide.”
Working at the UN, Francesca Albanese released a groundbreaking report titled Anatomy of a Genocide, which concludes that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating Israel’s commission of genocide has been met.
And Albanese is not alone in her conclusions. The International Court of Justice found plausible grounds for the genocide case against Israel. And the International Criminal Court has sought arrest warrants for Israeli officials over genocide.
“The reason,” Francesca explains, “why Israeli leaders are being investigated and hopefully one day prosecuted by the ICC is because Israel has proven unwilling and unable to comply with international law [related to] war crimes against humanity, genocide, and oppression.”
And the Biden administration is complicit:
“The US administration considers the ‘red line’ as a sort of movable geometry. They keep on pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable, they keep on pushing the red lines further and further in order to justify their lack of action. The current administration is embroiled in this catastrophe in a way that words can’t say but justice can fix.”
Subscribe for the full interview with Francesca Albanese where she responds to the argument that Israel has a right to defend itself, explains how mainstream media has censored her accounts of sexual violence against Palestinian women, and details the threats the ICC has received from Israel over their war crimes inquiry.
00:00 Intro
00:32 The Four Food Groups of News
19:32 Francesca Albanese interview
20:16 Can the ICJ stop Israel?
25:01 Anatomy of a Genocide
27:46 No red lines for John Kirby
34:55 The trick of humanitarian camouflage
40:59 Does Israel have a right to defend itself?
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UN Rapporteur accuses Israel of sexual violence against Palestinian women

The first 50 people to click this link get 30% off ONE YEAR of Useful Idiots: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/first50
See the full interview with Antony Loewenstein here: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/how-israel-spies-on-the-world-with?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
The Palestine Laboratory: https://www.versobooks.com/products/2684-the-palestine-laboratory
Not in My Name: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOSMdSYZtMw&ab_channel=ABCNewsIn-depth
For $6 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and bonus content at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com
Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Blinken's Neo N*zi Pizza Party https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/blinkens-neo-nzi-pizza-party?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
“Israel makes a killing from the occupation,” says journalist Antony Loewenstein in his new book The Palestine Laboratory, which uncovers how Israel has profited off the terror it reigns over Palestinians.
“Israel's military uses the occupied Palestinian territories as a testing ground for weaponry and surveillance technology that they then export around the world to despots and democracies.”
And with this scheme, he explains, Israel is able to genocide three birds with one stone.
First, most obviously, they achieve their goal of control and carnage in Palestine, making the territory unlivable for the indigenous people in an effort to take the land. Second, Israel’s military industrial complex is vastly enriched from the sale of weapons and tech. And third, Israel’s weaponry allows them to to commit mass terror in Gaza:
“After 1967, there were many nations that publicly opposed what Israel was doing, but the insurance policy is that Israel has been selling weapons and surveillance tech to so many countries for so long that those nations were less likely to criticize Israel where it matters, like the UN.”
And the vast extent of this insurance policy is likely greater than we realize.
“No one even knows, by the way, how many countries Israel has sold weapons to. I calculate anywhere between 125 and 145 nations, which is the majority of nations on the planet, have bought some form of Israeli weapons, surveillance tech, or repressive technology.”
But since October 7, Antony explains, Israel’s grip over the world is slipping. Subscribe to hear the full interview in which Antony explains why “Israel is a house of cards,” how companies like Google and Amazon “are directly complicit in potential war crimes,” and why Israel’s potential war on Hezbollah “would make what's happening in Gaza seem like kindergarten.”
00:00 Intro
00:49 ICC wants to arrest Israel: The Four Food Groups of News
20:31 Antony Loewenstein interview
21:38 How Israel exports the technology of occupation
24:24 Israel's insurance policy
28:25 The Palestine laboratory
32:49 Israeli surveillance of Gaza
36:57 How the US uses IDF tactics to silence protesters
43:10 Google and Amazon war crimes?
49:26 What is Israel's goal?
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How Israel Spies on the World – with Antony Loewenstein

The first 50 people to click this link get 30% off ONE YEAR of Useful Idiots: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/first50
See the full interview with Susan Abulhawa here: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/palestinian-writer-breaks-down-at?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
See Katie’s mashup of politicians’ and corporate media’s hypocrisy on Zionist violence here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDOlPim1wc0&rco=1&ab_channel=KatieHalper
For $6 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and bonus content at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com
Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: GOP brags Trump hates Palestinians more than Biden does https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/gop-brags-trump-hates-palestinians?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
“I really have never seen anything like this, in Palestine or anywhere else in the world.”
Palestinian-American writer and human rights activist Susan Abulhawa has been to Gaza twice since October 7th. Her harrowing experience is hard to hear, but so important to listen to.
“The inhumanity is hard to fathom,” she says as she describes images far worse than what we’ve been told so far about Gaza. “It is a constant state of terror.”
We had Susan on to pull back the curtain of censorship held over Palestine, and she reveals the horrifying truth: zip ties tied tight for children’s hands, a heat wave turning tents into ovens, an epidemic of flies, mosquitos, and scorpions, grandparents who have lost their entire families, and a story of a house cat wounded and orphaned from his family, barely able to survive.
And as the US continues to fund this terror, Susan gives a stark warning: “If we allow this to continue without any accountability or serious consequences, then there will be no more limits for what these fascists will do. And it won’t stop with Gaza.”
But this week after a just-for-show shipments pause, Biden sent another $1 billion of weapons to Israel. So we asked Susan about the 2024 election and the question that keeps coming up: But won’t Trump be worse?
Susan responds: “I don’t know what’s worse than what Biden’s done. What can possibly be worse than genocide? What is worse than besieging two and a half million people in a tiny, densely-populated place and then bombing the hell out of them? Watching for seven months a live-streamed genocide and sending billions upon billions every month to this monstrosity to continue this genocide. What could possibly be worse?”
Subscribe to hear the full interview with Susan Abulhawa about academic censorship, the policing of pro-Palestine speech, and why she was canceled for her comments about Zelensky.
This episode is very hard to hear, but Susan explains that we cannot become desensitized to the horrors our governments are creating. Listen to and share Susan’s reporting. We appreciate your support of Useful Idiots and independent media.
Subscribe to watch the full episode here:
00:00 Intro + Special Offer
01:14 The Four Food Groups of News
19:44 Susan Abulhawa interview
20:43 What's happening in Gaza?
27:43 Susan's harrowing footage at Gaza's mass graves
36:35 The children of Gaza
41:27 Rescuing an orphaned cat
46:04 Will Trump be worse than Biden?
49:32 Canceled over Ukraine
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Palestinian Writer Breaks Down At Gaza’s Mass Graves

Click here for the full interview with Said Arikat: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/israel-is-a-gangster-state-says-palestinian?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
For $6 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and bonus content at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com
Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Billionaire tech bro calls protesters an "infection inside our society" https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/billionaire-tech-bro-calls-protesters?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Palestinian journalist Said Arikat may have the hardest job in the world: every day he walks into the State Department briefing room to ask serious questions about the United States’ support of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, only to be met with the smirking grin of Joker-cosplayer Matthew Miller.
Arikat is one of the last legitimate journalists working in Washington, and his pressure on warmongers like Miller, John Kirby, and the Biden administration is essential in holding their feet to the fire, especially at a time when the Pulitzer-Prize-winning New York Times is working around the clock to cover up their complicity.
So from inside Washington establishment politics, Said shares his thoughts on the US’s plans for more war and the way the Biden admin enables the “gangster state” of Israel.
“This is really an army that is indoctrinated in criminality to kill the Palestinians, to show them they’re not human, to torture them. Shame on the Europeans, shame on the Americans, they’re the ones that should be held in contempt for allowing such a huge crime to take place under their eyes.”
Said, as is sadly the case with all of our Palestinian guests, also has personal stories of family members killed by Israel. Which is why it is so important for him and the rest of us to continue to stand up against the genocide.
But more and more people are seeing through Israel’s lies, which has Israel worried: “They are panicking because Americans can’t be fooled and blackmailed by AIPAC for much longer.”
Subscribe for the full interview with Said Arikat on the power of the college encampments, the House’s racist antisemitism bill, Israel’s attack on Rafah, and the Biden administration’s meaningless “pause” on weapons that will have no impact on Israel’s plans.
00:00 Intro
00:33 The Four Food Groups of News
21:31 Said Arikat interview
22:19 Israel shuts down Al Jazeera
24:35 Invasion of Rafah
26:12 Hamas agrees to ceasefire
27:55 Said vs Matthew Miller
35:01 Jake Tapper's ridiculous take
39:05 Biden and Johnson exploit the Holocaust
50:23 College protests and antisemitism bill
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“Israel is a Gangster State” says Palestinian DC-based Journalist

Click here for the full interview with Dr. Jill Stein and Jason Call: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/jill-stein-on-getting-assaulted-by?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
For $6 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and bonus content at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com
Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Pervy Prof is Horny for Genocide https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/pervy-prof-is-horny-for-genocide?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
In a disturbing assault caught on camera, Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein was attacked and arrested by police at Washington University in St. Louis. She, along with her campaign manager Jason Call and hundreds of others, were arrested for peacefully protesting Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
As they held their ground, cops attacked Dr. Stein with a bike and pinned Jason to the ground. They recount the aggressive story in this week’s interview.
This campus beatdown is the latest in a long line of fascist attacks at colleges around the country, with students and professors hospitalized as US leadership looks on. President Biden, NYC Mayor Eric Adams, corporate media journalists, and countless members of congress have condoned or even encouraged these police attacks, giving them the green light to escalate their violent methods.
And Dr. Stein has a theory for why:
“The red flags are flying all over the place that they really are losing their stranglehold,” she says of the global empire. “It’s a scary moment because the bear has been cornered and knows that it’s under attack. The empire is striking back in every way that it can because its days are numbered.”
The growing protests around the country are a sign that things are changing and people are committed to that change. “It’s a very distressing and disturbing moment but it’s important to also recognize that behind that is this power of a different world rising up.”
Subscribe to watch the full interview with Dr. Jill Stein and Jason Call where we analyze Mayor Adams’ claim that professional protesters are taking over Columbia, debunk CNN’s propaganda that the wife of a terrorist has joined the students, and explain why it is actually the Zionist counter-protesters who are spreading dangerous antisemitism.
And for a full recap of corporate media’s dishonest bias against student protesters, including a sickening speech from CNN’s Dana Bash and a weird rant from NYU Professor Scott Galloway, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Pervy Prof is Horny for Genocide.
00:00 Intro
01:03 The Four Food Groups of News
22:27 Dr. Jill Stein and Jason Call interview
23:51 Assaulted by cops (video)
34:10 Professor attacked (video)
36:04 Why is the US breaking up protests?
39:11 Politicians fuel the fire
41:41 Congress passes $95 billion for war
47:11 Dems make ballot access impossible
51:22 Eric Adams demonizes students
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Former Buzzfeed Chief on the End of a Media Era

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