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Calling All CounterPunchers!
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Today's Stories November 13, 2008 Pam Martens November 12, 2008 Johanna Berrigan Steve Conn Patrick Bond Bokar Ture / Alan Farago Dave Lindorff Karl Grossman David Macaray George Wuerthner Susie Day Website of the Day November 11, 2008 James G. Abourezk Allan J. Lichtman Eric Toussaint Ron Jacobs Peter Montague Corporate Crime Reporter Laura Carlsen Col. Dan Smith Morton Skorodin David Michael Green Charles R. Larson Website of the Day November 10, 2008 David Roediger Paul Craig Roberts Peter Lee Corey D. B. Walker Jeff Halper Bill Hatch Andy Worthington Bill Quigley Peter Morici Anthony Olszewski Kim Nicolini Cpt. Paul Watson Website of the Day November 7 / 9, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Vijay Prashad Tariq Ali Jean Bricmont John V. Whitbeck Saul Landau Peter Morici Lawrence Velvel Karyn Strickler Nativo V. Lopez Christopher Fons Alan Farago David Yearsley Christopher Brauchli Samah Sabawi Dave Lindorff Deepak Tripathi Beth Sherouse Patrick Irelan Stephen Martin Richard Rhames J. Murray Lorenzo Wolff Kim Nicolini Poets' Basement Website of the Day
November 6, 2008 Frank J. Menetrez John Chuckman P. Sainath Joshua Frank Edna Canetti John Ross Norman Solomon Fawzia Afzal-Khan Robert Weissman Harvey Wasserman Website of the Day
November 5, 2008 Cockburn / St. Clair Chuck Spinney Ishmael Reed Chris Floyd Binoy Kampmark Michael Donnelly David Macaray Peter Morici Manuel Garcia, Jr. William Willers Website of the Day November 4, 2008 Kathleen Christison James Ridgeway Winslow T. Wheeler Mike Whitney Conn Hallinan Holly M. Barker Ashley Smith Andy Worthington Martha Rosenberg Stephen Martin Doug Lummis Carlos Fierro Website of the Day November 3, 2008 Patrick Cockburn John Kennedy O'Hara Peter Montague Steve Conn Andrew Gebhardt Ron Jacobs Ralph Nader Niranjan Ramakrishnan Uri Avnery Dave Lindorff Fred Gardner DC Larson David Michael Green Val Strange Tuli Kupferberg / Website of the Day
October 31 , 2008 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Douglas Valentine Ismael Hossein-Zadeh Dr. Ignacy Nowopolski Alan Maass William P. O’Connor Patrick Irelan Brian Cloughley Mats Svensson Binoy Kampmark Steve Conn Alan Farago Morton Skorodin Robert Bryce Wajahat Ali David Yearsley Dennis Loo Pam Martens Stephen Martin Richard Rhames Ramzy Baroud Missy Beattie Howard Lisnoff Richard Neville Saul Landau / Kim Nicolini Lorenzo Wolff Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend October 30, 2008 Cockburn / St. Clair Vijay Prashad Paul Craig Roberts Glen Ford Stanley Heller William Loren Katz Joshua Frank James McEnteer Felice Pace Jonathan Cook Reza Fiyouzat Website of the Day
October 29, 2008 Arno J. Mayer Eric Toussaint Matt Gonzalez Steven Conn Jonathan Cook Patrick Bond Ramzi Kysia Douglas Valentine Stephen Martin Margaret Dooley-Sammuli Amee Chew Website of the Day
October 28, 2008 James G. Abourezk Andy Worthington Gary Leupp Paul Craig Roberts Mike Whitney Gregory V. Button Ralph Nader P. Sainath Martha Rosenberg Charles R. Larson Website of the Day October 27, 2008 Michael Hudson Barbara Rose Johnston John Dinges Mike Whitney Mary Lynn Cramer Greenspan's Higher Power Alan Farago David Michael Green Andy Worthington George Wuerthner Niranjan Ramakrishnan Website of the Day October 24 / 26, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Ishmael Reed Mike Whitney Don Santina Scott Boehm Saul Landau Ron Jacobs Binoy Kampmark Linn Washington Jr. Nicole Colson Bernard Chazelle Brian Jones Christopher Brauchli Benjamin Dangl Val Strange Steve Early David Macaray Allison Kilkenny Richard Rhames Jim Bell Kris De Welde Barry Clemson Adam Engel Mark Scaramella Tuli Kupferberg Lorenzo Wolff Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend October 23, 2008 Allan J. Lichtman Todd Chretien John Ross Peter Morici Mats Svensson Marlene Martin Robert Jensen / Margaret Kimberley Deepak Tripathi David Morris Website of the Day October 22, 2008 Brian Cloughley Heather Gray Jeff Birkenstein Ralph Nader DC Larson David Swanson Keeanga-Yamatta Taylor Race and the Election: When the "Real" America Enters the Voting Booth Larry Everest Robert Fantina Martha Rosenberg Stephen Martin Website of the Day October 21, 2008 Vijay Prashad Paul Craig Roberts Corey D. B. Walker Steve Breyman Eric Toussaint Wajahat Ali Robert Weitzel Brendan Cooney Dave Lindorff Marqueece Harris-Dawson / Bob Wing Patrick B. Barr Omar Barghouti Website of the Day October 20, 2008 Michael Hudson Anthony DiMaggio Tariq Ali Uri Avnery Bill Quigley Ben Rosenfeld David Michael Green William S. Lind Chris Genovali Stephen Martin Howard Lisnoff David Yearsley Website of the Day October 17 / 19, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Pam Martens Paul Craig Roberts Mike Whtney Michael D. Yates Suzanne Smith Carl Boggs Ralph Nader Fidel Castro Dave Marsh Saul Landau Jo Guldi Kevin Zeese Larry Everest Steve Early David Macaray Ben Terrall Missy Beattie Don Monkerud Helen Redmond Dan Bacher Wajahat Ali Farzana Versey Vladimir Frolov Kim Nicolini Poets Basement Website of the Day
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November 13, 2008 Dissident PressWhat Indy Media Heroes Can Teach UsBy JEFF COHEN Independent media outlets that contributed so mightily to the stunning election result are about to be tested as to their “independence.” With Democrats in control, will these outlets be guided by principle or just partisanship? Will they speak truth to power and expose corruption and injustice over the long haul – no matter who’s in charge? U.S. history offers role models. In this era when indy journalists reach mass audiences via blogs, viral video and podcasts, there is much to learn from the originators of dissident journalism. From the start of the Republic, bold entrepreneurs (often sole proprietors like many of today’s bloggers) stood up to censorship, jail and violence to sustain independent outlets that transformed our country. Our Republic’s founding owes much to revolutionary pamphleteers like Tom Paine, who agitated against the King in Common Sense, a pamphlet that sold 150,000 copies when the colonial population was only 2.5 million people. Study any cause that has improved our country since and you’ll find stubbornly independent journalists who challenged injustice in the face of ridicule and scorn from the mainstream media of their day. These journalistic heroes are chronicled in Rodger Streitmatter’s inspiring book, Voices of Revolution: The Dissident Press in America. ** Fifty years after the founding of our country, the development of factory production in Northeastern cities spawned the first labor weeklies – such as Philadelphia’s Mechanic’s Free Press and New York’s Working Man’s Advocate – that invoked the egalitarian spirit of 1776 to demand public schools, no child labor, a shorter (10-hour) workday and abolition of prison time as a penalty for debt. Mainstream dailies denounced such reforms as “fanatical” – but years later they became law. ** In 1831, a printer’s apprentice in Boston named WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON founded The Liberator, an incendiary abolitionist publication that defended slave revolts. “Our fathers spared nothing to free the country from British yoke,” Garrison declared, “and the freedom of the black slaves is as holy a cause as that of the Revolution.” He was jailed, assaulted and nearly lynched. The Georgia legislature offered a bounty to anyone who would kidnap Garrison and haul him to Georgia. The U.S. Postmaster General condoned vigilantes destroying the paper. Garrison reveled in (and reprinted) the denunciations he received from pro-slavery dailies, North and South. But nothing – including poverty – could stop The Liberator for 35 years, until slavery was abolished. ** In 1868, soon after Garrison’s paper ceased, feminists ELIZABETH CADY STANTON and SUSAN B. ANTHONY founded The Revolution to uphold the truth that “all men and women were created equal.” Not just a suffrage publication (“the ballot is not even half the loaf; it is only a crust, a crumb”), it campaigned against job discrimination, sexual harassment and domestic violence. With research documenting lower pay for female teachers nationwide, The Revolution championed equal pay for equal work, a now-popular concept (even if not fully embraced by Sen. John McCain). Like the ethical choices independents face today that undercut financial health, Stanton refused to run the then-ubiquitous ads for quack health elixirs. After the weekly ceased publishing after 30 months, Stanton commented: “I have the joy of knowing that I showed it to be possible to publish an out and out woman’s paper, and taught other women to enter in and reap where I have sown.” ** As The Revolution was ending, even more daring publications sprang up in the 1870s, advocating “free love,” sexual freedom and the right to divorce. Foreshadowing alternative papers of the 1960s and ‘70s, VICTORIA WOODHULL, editor of Woodhull and Claflin’s Weekly, described her “free love” philosophy in 1871: “I have an inalienable, constitutional and natural right to love whom I may, to love as long or short a period as I can, to change that love every day if I please. And with that right neither you nor any law you can frame have any right to interfere.” Not the kind of talk one hears from candidates for president – Woodhull ran in 1872. Her weekly once boasted a circulation of 20,000. Another sexual reform publication, The Word, was launched in 1872 by a rural Massachusetts couple, EZRA AND ANGELA HEYWOOD. It lasted 20 years, likening the husband/wife relationship to master/slave – and advocating for abortion choice and “unconditional repeal of the laws against adultery and fornication.” These publications prompted a Religious Right backlash in the form of crusader Anthony Comstock and his Society for the Suppression of Vice, leading to federal and state anti-obscenity laws against mailing, distributing or receiving “lewd or lascivious” materials – the Comstock laws. Writers like Woodhull and Ezra Heywood did jail time. ** One of the real heroes of independent journalism in our country’s history was IDA B. WELLS, pamphleteer and founder of the anti-lynching movement in the 1890s. Born a slave, she edited the Memphis Free Press, distributed in several Southern states. To stop white newsstand proprietors from tricking illiterate blacks who asked for – but did not receive – the Free Press, she cleverly started printing it on pink paper. Wells moved to New York from Memphis after a mob destroyed her newspaper office. As an investigative journalist, she established in case after case the total innocence of victims of lynching – usually accused of rape. She advocated boycotts against racist white businesses (“the white man’s dollar is his god”), black migration from cities and towns where lynching was condoned, and ultimately self-defense against white vigilantes: “A Winchester rifle should have a place of honor in every black home.” Wells was denounced by racist Southern and Northern dailies, including the New York Times, which called her a “slanderous and nasty-minded mulatress.” Her efforts led to state anti-lynching laws; she helped found the NAACP. ** Perhaps the biggest publication in the history of independent American journalism was the Appeal to Reason, a socialist weekly based in rural Kansas that reached a nationwide paid circulation of 750,000 in 1912 (equivalent to 2.4 million today). Like computer geeks who came to blogging, J.A. WAYLAND came to publishing as a printer’s apprentice. Like website operators who prefer anonymity, Wayland used an alias so he could cover socialist and labor gatherings without fanfare. Like websites that use “citizen journalists” to extend their reach, the Appeal recruited thousands of volunteer correspondents (to complement its 100-person staff). Editor FRED WARREN also recruited well-known writers like Jack London and Helen Keller. Labor organizer Mary “Mother” Jones did investigative reporting on unsafe working conditions, novelist Upton Sinclair wrote the inside reports on Chicago’s meatpacking plants that would soon become a bestselling book, The Jungle, and socialist leader Eugene Debs threatened an insurrection if mine union leaders were convicted in a frame-up in Idaho. A 1908 bill in Congress that would deny discounted second-class mail privileges to publications deemed “radical” was killed beneath a deluge of protests from Appeal readers in every state. But years of federal and postal harassment, a failed assassination attempt and personal smears in mainstream publications took their toll on Wayland, who ultimately committed suicide in a state of depression. His democratic socialist utopia never materialized; reforms like union rights, labor laws and social security did. These stories are deftly told in Streitmatter’s Voices of Revolution – as are those of other indy media heroes: ** ROBERT S. ABBOTT built the largest black paper in the country in the early 1900s, the Chicago Defender, to a circulation of 230,000 – much of it circulated hand-to-hand in the Deep South. The Defender’s relentless coverage of violent outrages in the South, coupled with glowing accounts of opportunities for blacks in the North, was a key force in the “Great Migration” of African Americans to Chicago and northern cities. Today, independent media rely on viral Internet; Abbott cultivated thousands of black sleeping-car porters – he advocated for them in print, and they transported his paper by the bundles from Chicago to cities and towns throughout the South. ** MARGARET SANGER was a well-off woman whose Woman Rebel magazine (and later Birth Control Review) advocated for working women and their right to choose not to conceive. Her mother had 11 children, plus seven miscarriages. “A woman’s body belongs to herself alone,” wrote Sanger. “It does not belong to the United States of America.” She originated the phrase “birth control.” For advocating it in print, she was jailed and briefly exiled under the Comstock laws. She went on to launch Planned Parenthood. One journalistic maverick not discussed in Streitmatter’s book is GEORGE SELDES, a longtime mainstream foreign correspondent who launched the first and largest media criticism newsletter in U.S. history, In Fact, in 1940. It reached a circulation of 170,000 by 1947, before federal harassment and anti-Communist hysteria caused its demise in 1950. In Fact exposed the fascist sympathies of U.S. media moguls like William Randolph Hearst; 70 years ago, Seldes exposed the ongoing cover-up of tobacco’s health dangers in media outlets awash in cigarette ads. “The most sacred cow of the press,” said Seldes, “is the press itself.” * * * Today’s independent journalists have much to learn from their ancestors – including I.F. Stone’s Weekly and Ramparts magazine (circulation 250,000) that criticized the Vietnam War as Democratic presidents expanded it. And from the underground press of the 1960s – and gay and women’s media that emerged in the 1970s. A few lessons: Take advantage of mainstream silence: With their tenacious focus on slavery and lynching, William Lloyd Garrison and Ida B. Wells took aim at moral outrages that most mainstream journalism treated with quietude or platitudes. It’s no accident that a socialist weekly and not the New York Times assigned Upton Sinclair to expose working conditions in meat-packing, leading to The Jungle bestseller. Nor is it an accident today that Jeremy Scahill’s independent reporting on U.S. mercenaries in Iraq became the Blackwater bestseller – while corporate media slept. As Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! urges: “Go to where the silence is and say something.” Take advantage of crisis: From the labor weeklies of the 1830s to the anti-establishment media of the late 1960s, independent outlets have boomed in eras of social upheaval and system failure of the type we’re experiencing now. Crisis brings audience; larger and emergent communities become reachable. When Team Bush promoted the Iraq invasion through obvious lies and distortions, the corporate media system faced a journalistic crisis . . . and failed – turning large numbers of independent-minded citizens into mainstream media exiles hungering for alternatives. Take advantage of new technologies: Independent media have historically blossomed with new technologies and formats. The advent of offset printing and FM radio, for example, were key to 1960s counter-culture media. But nothing compares to today’s communications revolution, with new technologies slashing the costs of production and the Internet transforming media distribution – giving independents and startups a real chance to compete and thrive. Defend press freedom and media reform: Major steps forward for dissident media have often brought reactions from status quo forces – sometimes violent suppression, sometimes more subtle responses like threats to their mailing rights. Last year, small magazines faced a big postal rate hike, a plan devised by the Time Warner conglomerate. Bonafide bloggers have often been denied press access. To flourish, independent media need enhanced public, community and minority broadcasting; non-profit and public access to cable and satellite TV; and Net Neutrality, preventing Internet providers like Comcast and Time Warner from privileging certain websites while discriminating against others. Activate your base: Without distribution help from train porters, the Chicago Defender could not have reached its Southern Black Belt readership. Without an army of volunteer correspondents, the Appeal to Reason could not have had its nationwide clout. Today, blogger Josh Marshall relies on the involvement and research of his Talking Points Memo readership in exposing scandals like U.S. Attorneygate that brought down an Attorney General. The video distribution success of Robert Greenwald’s Brave New Films/Brave New Foundation relies on partnering with Netroots groups and activists. More than ever in our Internet era, the success of independent media depends on active communities – “the people formerly known as the audience.” Stay stubbornly independent: This is the ultimate lesson. The waves of social progress that have reformed our country would not have happened had independent journalists gone silent or soft because of an election result or a change of parties in power. Jeff Cohen is the founding director of the Park Center for Independent Media at Ithaca College. He founded the media watch group FAIR in 1986.
New in the Print Edition of CounterPunch For his 20-year stretch as Fed chairman, they all fawned on him – presidents, Congress, the press. Only a handful of left economists said he was pushing the economy over the cliff. Now Greenspan admits it in a humiliating confession. As the world’s financial structure tumbles in ruins, guess what? “I found a flaw in the model… To the extent that I figure out where it happened and why, I will change my views.” Read Frederic Claremont’s savage assessment of the fool who has plunged millions into misery. Also in our new issue: Bill Hatch on the story of one foreclosure; Kristian Williams on police torture in Chicago. Only in CounterPunch newsletter! Get your copy today by subscribing online or calling 1-800-840-3683 Contributions to CounterPunch are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! CounterPunch books and gear make great presents. Order CounterPunch By Email For Only $35 a Year !
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New in the CP Print Edition! For his 20-year stretch as Fed chairman, they all fawned on him – presidents, Congress, the press. Only a handful of left economists said he was pushing the economy over the cliff. Now Greenspan admits it in a humiliating confession. As the world’s financial structure tumbles in ruins, guess what? “I found a flaw in the model… To the extent that I figure out where it happened and why, I will change my views.” Read Frederic Claremont’s savage assessment of the fool who has plunged millions into misery. Also in our new issue: Bill Hatch on the story of one foreclosure; and Kristian Williams on police torture in Chicago. Only in CounterPunch newsletter! Get your copy today by subscribing online or calling 1-800-840-3683 Now Available from CounterPunch Books! Waiting for Lightning
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