The News Dissector

Media Censorship TodayMickey Huff. editor of PROJECT CENSORED, editor of CENSORED 2014 (Seven Stories Press)Robert Scheer, author and journalist, editor of Truth Dig, Former Editor of The Los Angeles Times and Rampart Magazine

News Dissector - 10/17/13

Noreena Hertz. a professor at Amsterdam and University of Cambridge. Her new book iS EYES WIDE OPEN: How To Make Smart Decisions in A Confusing World...She is a brilliant economic forecaster and author ofThe Debt Threat. Google Her for More BackgroundCARTER ALAN. FORMER WBCN DJ AND AUTHOR OF THE BOOKRADIO FREE BOSTON---ON WBCN ON THE RISE AND FALL OF WBCN (AND ROCK RADIO).Blaring the Cream anthem "I Feel Free," WBCN went on the air in March 1968 as an experiment in free-form rock on the fledgling FM radio band. It broadcast its final song, Pink Floyd's "Shine On You Crazy Diamond," in August 2009. In between, WBCN became the musical, cultural, and political voice of the young people of Boston and New England, sustaining a vibrant local music scene that launched such artists as the J. Geils Band, Aerosmith, James Taylor, Boston, the Cars, and the Dropkick Murphys, as well as paving the way for Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, U2, and many others. Along the way, WBCN both pioneered and defined progressive rock radio, the dominant format for a generation of listeners. Brilliantly told by Carter Alan--and featuring the voices of station insiders and the artists they loved--Radio Free Boston is the story of a city; of artistic freedom, of music and politics and identity; and of the cultural, technological, and financial forces that killed rock radio.

The News Dissector - 09/19/13

The theme of this episode is: Impact of Obama Policy on Syria and 40th Anniversary of coup in ChileFeaturing guests Chase Madar and Steven Volk.

News Dissector - 09/05/13

The Coming War On SyriaWilliam Bowles, Journalist and Political Analyst In London.James A Paul, Syria Specialist.March On Washington ImpactKevin Powell, writer, teacher, organizer of March on Washington Event in NY Wed Night.Kevinpowell.net

New Dissector - 08/22/13

News Dissector - 08/15/13

News Dissector - 08/08/13

News Dissector - 08/01/13

With Featured Guest: Nobel Peace Prize Winner Mairead Maguire from Northern Ireland. Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire, who has done peace work based in Northern Ireland for decades and who has just returned from a visit to Syria, is protesting the policies of G8 leaders. Back in her native Northern Ireland, Maguire recently returned from leading a peace delegation to Syria. She wrote after the trip: "An appeal to end all violence and for Syrians to be left alone from outside interference was made by all those we met during our visit to Syria. ... During our visit we went to refugee camps, affected communities, met religious leaders, combatants, government representatives, opposition delegations and many others, perpetrators and victims, in Lebanon and Syria. ... "The Syrian State and its population are under a proxy war led by foreign countries and directly financed and backed mainly by Qatar which has imposed its views on the Arab League. Turkey, a part of the Lebanese opposition and some of the Jordan authorities offer a safe haven to a diversity of jihadist groups, each with its own agenda, recruited from many countries. Bands of jihadists armed and financed from foreign countries invade Syria through Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon's porous frontiers in an effort to destabilize Syria." We are also joined by Alice Slater, the nuclear weapons campaigner, to comment on Obama's Nuclear weapons proposal yesterday. Then, we discuss the lawsuit Filed Against NYPD for Spying on Muslims, with Deepa Kumar. AP reports this afternoon: "The New York Police Department's widespread spying programs directed at Muslims have undermined free worship by innocent people and should be declared unconstitutional, religious leaders and civil rights advocates said Tuesday after the filing of a federal lawsuit." "'Our mosque should be an open, religious, a spiritual sanctuary, but NYPD spying has turned it into a place of suspicion and censorship,' Hamid Hassan Raza, an imam named as a plaintiff, told a rally outside police headquarters shortly after the suit was filed in federal court in Manhattan." See New York Civil Liberties Union news release: "Rights Groups File Lawsuit Challenging NYPD’s Muslim Surveillance Program as Unconstitutional." Kumar is author of Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire. She said today: "When the Associated Press first broke the story about the extent of the NYPD spying program in 2011 and 2012, it was roundly denounced as religious and racial profiling, with some mayors and university presidents in the northeast even calling the practice 'un-American.' Yet, little has been done to dismantle this program. The lawsuit brought against the NYPD needs the support of ordinary Americans who have been horrified by the NSA's mass surveillance and spying program. Muslim Americans have been living under a nightmarish reality since the events of 9/11. They have faced arrests, indefinite detention, torture, deportation and surveillance. No human being should be treated this way through the logic of 'guilt by association.' This spying program -- as well as the wholesale demonization of Muslims -- must stop."

Fred Branfman's writing has been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Republic, and other publications. He is the author of several books on the Indochina War.

The News Dissector - 06/06/13

The News Dissector - 05/30/13