Moderate Rebels

Moderate Rebels episode 15 – Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton are joined by veteran Middle East reporter Patrick Cockburn to discuss the war in Syria. We analyze key cities and battles in the conflict, including Afrin, Eastern Ghouta, Idlib, Aleppo, and Raqqa, along with Mosul and other areas in neighboring Iraq.

Cockburn says the Western media reporting on Syria is the worst he has ever seen. We address the extreme pro-opposition bias in the press corps and dispel prevalent myths and talking points.

Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton report on Vice Media's transformation into a mouthpiece for American foreign policy. With filmmaker Robbie Martin, we look at "A World in Disarray," a documentary film VICE co-produced with Council on Foreign Relations President Richard Haass, which glorifies US imperialism and brings together notorious neoconservatives and neoliberals.

We also analyze VICE's propaganda on Venezuela and its whitewashing of US-backed neo-Nazis in Ukraine.

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Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton are joined by filmmaker Robbie Martin to discuss how VICE transformed from a nihilistic hipster magazine into a media empire that propagandizes on behalf of the US empire, dutifully promoting hawkish American foreign policy with an edgy aesthetic.

We address the hundreds of millions of dollars of investment Vice Media received from corporate media conglomerates, along with the coterie of regime change trolls who emerged from VICE.

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Moderate Rebels episode 12 - Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton discuss the protests in Iran with Mazda Majidi. We analyze the reasons behind them, including neoliberal economic policies, internal political contradictions, and US sanctions.

This episode details the Reformist and Principlist factions and looks at reactionary opposition forces like the MEK and pro-shah monarchists. We address attempts by foreign powers to exploit the unrest for regime change, and hypocrisy of US, Israeli, and Saudi rhetoric.

Moderate Rebels episode 11 - Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton are joined by journalist Ali Abunimah to discuss Trump's recognition of illegally occupied Jerusalem as the supposed capital of Israel. We also address the situation on the ground in Palestine, and the complicity of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan, and Egypt.

We highlight Israelgate: the actual scandal featuring Jared Kushner and Russia. And Ali likewise stresses the importance of independent media in this increasingly restricted political climate.

Moderate Rebels episode 10 - Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton are joined by Indian activist Shehla Rashid Shora. Shehla discusses the growing influence of Hindutva, the far-right Hindu nationalist movement, under the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP, and the Nazi-inspired RSS. We analyze the alliance between the US, India, and Israel and the global anti-Muslim "war on terror". And we address Palestine, Kashmir, how neoliberal capitalism has fueled the far right, and the specter of fascism.

Moderate Rebels episode 9 - Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton are joined by Columbia University Professor Joseph Massad, a leading expert on Israel-Palestine and Arab politics and intellectual history. Massad details the long history of collaboration between anti-Semites and Zionists. We discuss how Zionism was promoted by Western imperialist governments as a bulwark against socialism, communism, and other leftist movements, and how far-right racist movements look to the Israeli ethnostate as a model today.

Moderate Rebels episode 8 - Ben Norton and Max Blumenthal discuss how the narrative of Russian "hacking" of US politics has gone off the deep end, with supposedly serious news reports on how the Kremlin purportedly used puppy memes and Pokemon to undermine American democracy.

We are joined by journalist Aaron Maté to discuss the madness.

This episode also features an ad for an upcoming documentary film series, "Russia's Plot to Make America Racist."

Moderate Rebels episode 7 - Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton discuss Donald Trump's genocidal threats against North Korea and the anti-war protests in the South against the THAAD system and presence of 28,000 US troops.

Max reports on the ground from South Korea capital Seoul, where he interviews activists from People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy. They detail how the US militarized the Korean peninsula, the damage this militarization does to Korean society, and prospects for peace with the DPRK.

Moderate Rebels episode 6 - Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton discuss North Korea, the Trump administration's genocidal threats, the bloody history of the "forgotten" Korean War, and how the US has militarized South Korea.

Blumenthal reports on-the-ground in Seoul, where he interviews labor organizer Wol-san Liem on anti-war activism, THAAD protests, government repression, and the potential for peace and reunification in the Korean peninsula.