Washington keeps condemning Iran's government and making thinly veiled threats. But in Iran, many people are in the midst of challenging the country's rulers, in the streets and at the ballot box. The June 17 election for president could be a turning point or a hollow...
From Watergate to Downing Street
You wouldn't know it from the media focus on Deep Throat last week, but the lies that Richard Nixon told about the Watergate break-in were part of his standard duplicity for the Vietnam War. It wasn't just that the Nixon administration engaged in secret illegal...
War Made Easy: From Vietnam to Iraq
On February 27, 1968, I sat in a small room on Capitol Hill. Around a long table, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was in session, taking testimony from an administration official. Most of all, I remember a man with a push-broom moustache and a voice like...
Media Silence on Memorial Day
Memorial Day weekend brings media rituals. Old Glory flutters on television and newsprint. Grave ceremonies and oratory pay homage to the fallen. Many officials and pundits speak of remembering the dead. But for all the talk of war and remembrance, no time is more...
The Media and the Madness Of Militarism
Media activism has achieved a lot. But I don't believe there's anything to be satisfied with considering the present-day realities of corporate media and the warfare state. War has become a constant of U.S. foreign policy, and media flackery for the warmakers...
Little Reporting on Paranoia in High Places
Journalists often refer to the Bush administration's foreign policy as "unilateral" and "preemptive." Liberal pundits like to complain that a "go-it-alone" approach has isolated the United States from former allies. But the standard...
America’s Ready for Withdrawal but Are Progressives?
President Bush just told reporters that he has no intention of setting any timetable for withdrawal. "Our troops will come home when Iraq is capable of defending herself," he said. Powerful pundits keep telling us that a swift pullout of U.S. troops would be...
MoveOn.org Makes Peace With War
Sadly, it has come to this. Two years after the invasion of Iraq, the online powerhouse MoveOn.org which built most of its member base with a strong antiwar message is not pushing for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. With a network of more than 3...
The Media on Iraq:
Too Much Stenography, Not Enough Curiosity
Curiosity may occasionally kill a cat. But lack of curiosity is apt to terminate journalism with extreme prejudice. "We will not set an artificial timetable for leaving Iraq, because that would embolden the terrorists and make them believe they can wait us out,"...
Time to Talk Withdrawal
The latest polls show that most Americans are critical of the war in Iraq. But the option of swiftly withdrawing all U.S. troops from that country gets little media attention. So far this year, many news outlets have lapsed into conjecture on what George W. Bush has...


