CounterSpin

While corporate media talked about "radical Islam," others worked to maintain focus on the victims, with things like a short video from the group Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement, featuring people talking about the killings and other violence they face.

the overuse and abuse of powerful drugs like oxycodone is driving what the Centers for Disease Control says is an epidemic in this country, with some 16,000 overdose deaths from prescription opioids a year. Who's shaping the media story around what looks like a dispute between industry and regulators, in which the public interest —and public health—hang in the balance?

A coup and a corruption scandal, an economic crisis, and an outbreak of a dangerous mosquito-borne virus have not a few people asking how Brazil can possibly host a successful and safe Olympic Games in just...one month from now? Our guest suggests that Brazil's unrest might actually distract from the myriad problems associated with hosting the Games even when they go "smoothly."

New Labor Department rules that mean more people will get overtime pay when they, well, work overtime. Why is that being portrayed as an attempt to "kill American prosperity"?

This week on CounterSpin: In August of last year, El Salvador experienced one murder per hour. With Honduras and Guatemala, it's among the most violent places in the world, which along with economic insecurity and government failures, spurs thousands of people to try and leave. Why is the US stepping up deportation of Central American families, sending them back to circumstances of hardship and danger?

The 1964 New York city murder of Kitty Genovese started as a personal tragedy and a tiny item on a New York Times back page. Within months, it had become an internationally known, emblematic tale about the neighbors, 38 of them, we were told, who reportedly watched Genovese die in the street but did nothing, didn't come to her aid or call the police. But what if the tale we've all heard isn't true?

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), like all such agreements, was being negotiated in secret--until Greenpeace Netherlands released classified documents revealing elements of the deal the EU and the US were moving merrily toward -- now some say the pact may be scuttled.

Exxon knew decades ago that the increase in CO2 from burning fossil fuels posed a global threat. And it acted on that information--with a conscious and vigorous effort to sow uncertainty about climate science and to forestall regulation on its industry.

The friendship between the US and Saudi Arabia faces friction, media said—but not Saudi Arabia's disastrous human rights record or anti-democratic government. Plus: is the situation in Brazil best summed up as "The People vs. The President," as one pundit had it?

We talk about using the Panama Papers to push for real change with investigative economist James Henry, and the dominant Hiroshima "narrative"—lamentable but necessary, ultimately saved more than it killed—with historian Sanho Tree.