CounterSpin

Paul Offit on RFK Jr. and Measles, Jessica González on Trump’s FCC


Listen Later

 

https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin250404.mp3

Right-click here to download this episode (“Save link as…”).

 

New York Times (11/14/24)

This week on CounterSpin: If “some people believe it” were the criterion, our daily news would be full of respectful consideration of the Earth’s flatness, the relationship of intelligence to the bumps on your head, and how stepping on a crack might break your mother’s back. News media don’t, in fact, use “some people think it’s true” as the threshold for whether a notion gets talked about seriously, gets “balanced” alongside what “data suggest.” It’s about power.

Look no further than Robert Kennedy Jr. When he was just a famously named man about town, we heard about how he dumped a bear carcass in Central Park for fun, believes that children’s gender is shaped by chemicals in the water, and asserts that Covid-19 was “targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people,” while leaving “Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese” immune.

But once you become RFK Jr., secretary of health and human services in a White House whose anger must not be drawn, those previously unacceptable ideas become, as a recent New York Times piece has it, “unorthodox.”

Kennedy’s unorthodox ideas may get us all killed while media whistle. We hear from Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, about that.

https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin250404Offit.mp3

 

Free Press (3/18/25)

Also on the show: For many years, social justice advocates rather discounted the Federal Communications Commission. Unlike the Federal Trade Commission or the Food and Drug Administration, whose actions had visible impacts on your life, the FCC didn’t seem like a player.

That changed over recent years, as we’ve seen the role the federal government plays in regulating the power of media corporations to control the flow of information. As the late, great media scholar Bob McChesney explained, “When the government grants free monopoly rights to TV spectrum…it is not setting the terms of competition; it is picking the winner.”

We’ll talk about the FCC under Trump with Jessica González, co-CEO of the group McChesney co-founded, Free Press.

https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin250404Gonzalez.mp3
...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

CounterSpinBy Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting

  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8

4.8

487 ratings


More shows like CounterSpin

View all
Behind the News with Doug Henwood by Doug Henwood

Behind the News with Doug Henwood

480 Listeners

Democracy Now! Audio by Democracy Now!

Democracy Now! Audio

5,669 Listeners

Democracy Now! Video by Democracy Now!

Democracy Now! Video

1,092 Listeners

Jacobin Radio by Jacobin

Jacobin Radio

1,401 Listeners

Ralph Nader Radio Hour by Ralph Nader

Ralph Nader Radio Hour

1,176 Listeners

The Electronic Intifada Podcast by The Electronic Intifada

The Electronic Intifada Podcast

305 Listeners

The Dig by Daniel Denvir

The Dig

1,497 Listeners

Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff by Democracy at Work - Richard D. Wolff

Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff

1,949 Listeners

Scheer Intelligence by Scheerpost

Scheer Intelligence

388 Listeners

The Nation Podcasts by The Nation Magazine

The Nation Podcasts

393 Listeners

The Intercept Briefing by The Intercept

The Intercept Briefing

6,111 Listeners

Citations Needed by Nima Shirazi and Adam Johnson

Citations Needed

3,866 Listeners

Deconstructed by The Intercept

Deconstructed

4,254 Listeners

Lever Time by The Lever

Lever Time

508 Listeners

The Chris Hedges Report by Chris Hedges

The Chris Hedges Report

218 Listeners