CounterSpin

By Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting

CounterSpin is the weekly radio show of FAIR, the national media watch group.... more

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The podcast currently has 909 episodes available.

Best of CounterSpin

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Number 1: Phyllis Bennis (2021), Matthew Hoh (2021) and Sonali Kolhatkar (2010) on Afghanistan
https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin260821.mp3 Right-click here to download this episode (“Save link as…”). New York Times (8/15/26) This week on CounterSpin: The US news media marked the anniversary of August 2021’s nominal withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan. A New York Times story explained that Taliban flags were “flying high along the streets of Kabul,” but that the deeper truth is that “the Taliban are holding Afghan society in a chokehold that spares no one.” But, the paper alleges, “The Taliban know the world wants a stable Afghanistan—one that isn’t a source of refugees, drugs or terrorism.” I don’t have enough breath to describe the hypocritical fantasizing in that sort of statement. But CounterSpin has hosted numerous reporters, researchers and activists over the course of the decades of devastating US intervention in Afghanistan—which did not, in fact, suddenly and righteously begin in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks. We’ll hear some of those conversations this week. And I will say, there has been some attention rightfully paid to the abandonment of Afghans who, at great danger to themselves, helped US troops, and who are now treated as yet more brown hordes seeking to sneak into the US. But those historical, human rights–based conversations are being overwhelmed by storylines like that from the Times, that talks about Afghanistan’s “fragile peace” being “already at risk,” every bit as though the United States hasn’t played a monumental role in making that peace impossible. And while we’re reimagining history, please recall Dan Rather, on David Letterman on September 17, 2001, describing his definition of his job as journalist: “George Bush is the president, he makes the decisions, and, you know, as just one American, if he wants me to line up, just tell me where.” We’re going to hear from Phyllis Bennis from the Institute for Policy Studies; from Matthew Hoh, senior fellow with the Center for International Policy; and Sonali Kolhatkar, host/producer of Rising Up With Sonali, and author—most recently—of Breaking ICE: Community Defense Against State Terror and MAGA Fascism. And there is much more about Afghanistan on FAIR.org. Phyllis Bennis: https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin260821Bennis.mp3 Matthew Hoh: https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin260821Hoh.mp3 Sonali Kolhatkar: https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin260821Kolhatkar.mp3
August 21, 202628min
Number 2: Abdullah Shihipar on Medicare for All
https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin260828.mp3 Right-click here to download this episode (“Save link as…”). New Republic (8/24/26) This week on CounterSpin: Corporate news media obscure it, almost like it’s their job, but we still understand that laws and policies land on differently situated people differently. I can believe that there are millionaire congressmembers who genuinely cannot imagine pushing through a sickness, or ignoring a health concern, because they can’t afford the doctor visit…people who haven’t even ever waited for an appointment, or struggled to fit it around a work schedule. But that’s the reality of millions of us, most of us. So current corporate media talking about how universal care, or Medicare for All, is, as Forbes magazine puts it, “a brand, not a plan”? Media who elitesplain that “oh, you don’t want to live in Canada, just trust me on that”? They don’t speak for the most of us, who just want to see a doctor, in a regular way, please. But they can speak OVER us. We’ll talk about Medicare for All—and the things you’re likely to read about it—with Abdullah Shihipar, public health researcher and writer, from the Brown University School of Public Health. https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin260828Shihipar.mp3 Plus Janine Jackson takes a quick look at press coverage of press pool censorship and “reverse surgery.” https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin260828Banter.mp3
August 28, 202628min
Number 3: Samer Araabi on Dissent as ‘Terrorism’
https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin260904.mp3 Right-click here to download this episode (“Save link as…”). CCR (7/30/26) This week on CounterSpin: No humor intended: Listening to this show might make you a domestic terrorist. Yes, the Trump White House is trying to make anyone a “terrorist” who speaks out publicly, or co-signs silently, against their plans or policies. That for sure means anyone who signs up on lists in support of outlets like this one, that make such dissent a core concern. At a time where we’re being told that speaking out in criticism of those in power is a crime, we need news media that do more than just narrate that nightmare. But that’s not what we have. The net is widening; which side are you on? Samer Araabi is the associate director of political education and research at the Center for Constitutional Rights. He wrote recently about how Trump is employing “counterterrorism” as an effort to target anyone who dissents at all in the face of the stuff they’re doing. https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin260904Araabi.mp3 Plus Janine Jackson takes a quick look at recent coverage of modern-day lynching, erasure of history and the lethal impact of targeting immigrants. https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin260904Banter.mp3
September 04, 202628min
Number 4: Raina Lipsitz on DSA Politics
https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin260925.mp3 Right-click here to download this episode (“Save link as…”). Verso Books (2022) This week on CounterSpin: Corporate media sell a lot of messages, but perhaps the overarching one is: This is how it is. You can be mad about it; we’ll give you a personal profile, maybe. But, hey, this is just how it is, and how it is: There were 34.5 million people living in poverty in 2025, according to the Census Bureau. The United States has the second-highest poverty rate among major developed nations in the OECD. Wait, you aren’t happy with that? Well, welcome to corporate media’s echo chamber—where you are naive at best. When people try to fight for something better, we get a lot of noise about how that can’t work, won’t work, and you know who else wanted social change? Communists! Socialists! The idea is that we will be frightened off from wanting healthcare because, you know what? Russia! The good news is that ever-increasing numbers of people just aren’t buying what elite media are selling—which is the same old, top-down, racist, “why would you even speak up?” blather that we’ve been listening to for decades. And then the narrating of the nightmare that we’re living through. It’s not that DSA—Democratic Socialists of America—are the answer. But ask yourself: Why won’t corporate media engage the questions they pose? We’ll hear from Raina Lipsitz, author of The Rise of a New Left: How Young Radicals Are Shaping the Future of American Politics, from Verso Books—and author of a range of pieces, including some on socialism, for FAIR.org. https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin260925Lipsitz.mp3 Featured image: Photo by Janine Jackson of anti-Mamdani graffiti in Manhattan’s Chelsea.
September 25, 202628min
Number 5: Russell Mokhiber on Covering Corporate Crime
https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin260918.mp3 Right-click here to download this episode (“Save link as…”). Corporate Crime Reporter (8/3/26) This week on CounterSpin: FAIR, the nonprofit collective that produces CounterSpin, had a T-shirt early on that called for the “separation of press and state.” That’s still meaningful, of course, but it feels a little odd now to talk about media bias without using the word “corporation.” Interrogating the role of profit-driven corporations in today’s journalism is crucial, but it’s important to see it as another part of a deep-going questioning of corporations’ power over our lives in general. We talk this week with a veteran of that work. Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.–based Corporate Crime Reporter, and editor and writer at Capitol Hill Citizen. He joins us this week on CounterSpin. https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin260918Mokhiber.mp3 Plus Janine Jackson takes a quick look at recent press coverage of “Alligator Alcatraz.” https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin260918Banter.mp3
September 18, 202628min