Citations Needed Newsletter 12.2.17

Hi all, 

So, every other Saturday we’re going to start sharing a newsletter with our favorite writing over the past two weeks. Usually about the media but not always; sometimes by us but mostly it’ll be by others. If you see any good articles or videos (or even academic work) you think our supporters would like feel free to email them to citationsneededcontact@gmail.com, and we’ll share them in this newsletter. Hopefully, once the podcast becomes a bit more full time we can do every week. 

Readings we liked this week:

I Guess I’m About to Do a Highly Immoral Thing: On The Vietnam War  

Richard Beck | N+1 Magazine –– Excellent breakdown of some of the political blind spots and sleights-of-hand Ken Burns uses to ameliorate America’s guilty conscience over destroying Vietnam. 

James O’Keefe’s Credibility Is On Trial As DOJ Seeks Felony Convictions For Trump Protesters 

Ryan Reilly | Huffington Post –– Reilly doing great work showing how thin the US government's case is against the #J20 defendants and how much it's relying on rightwing huckster James O'Keefe. The DOJ didn’t want to disclose O'Keefe's Project Veritas shot undercover video, redacted the video to conceal the Project Veritas operative’s identity, and tried to keep the jury from hearing about James O’Keefe’s prior conviction for fraud.

‘Operation Bambi’: How and Why NBC Kicked Ann Curry Off Today (2013)

Joe Coscarelli | New York Magazine –– Flashback to that time Matt Lauer pushed out his co-host Ann Curry in the scummiest way possible. 

What we know about America’s elite forces now operating in 33 African countries

Nick Turse | Vice –– The always essential Nick Turse writes about the scope of US imperialism in Africa.

Is Trump Going to Lie Our Way Into War With Iran? 

Mehdi Hasan | New York Times –– About as subversive as you’re going to get in The Times, Hasan lays out the transparent attempts by the Trump administration to lay the groundwork for war with Iran. He did, however, leave out this angle:

Trump Administration Plays Media Like Fiddle on Iran/HBO Hacking Story

Adam Johnson | FAIR –– Adam tracks the CIA leaks to FDD Hasan covers in The Times but also notes DOJ lawyers leaked to The Washington Post President Trump is pressuring the department to find cases against Iranians and Iranian nationals to help build support for sanctions and any potential military attack. A fact the media almost entirely ignored when reporting on the case. 

Tom Friedman Is Still Optimistic

Isaac Chotiner | Slate –– A fairly tame pushback interview with Thomas Friedman on the Saudi Arabia press release he wrote and, understandably, got tons of shit for. Worth reading just for the editor’s note that corrects Friedman’s dubious claim that the “internationally recognized President of Yemen” was elected. (He was the only candidate on the ballot).

NYT’s Obit for Ed Herman Requires a Correction 

Jim Naureckas | FAIR –– In what has to be one of the greatest ironies in media criticism history, The New York Times had to correct a massive error in their obituary of Manufacturing Consent co-author Dr. Ed Herman. 

Backlash Against Russian ‘Fake News’ Is Shutting Down Debate for Real

Robin Andersen | FAIR –– An essential look at how the panic over fake news is hurting leftist publications by Fordham University media professor Robin Andersen. This, incidentally, is our upcoming topic for next week’s show. 

Sports Tax Scams Laid the Groundwork for Amazon Bidding Madness

David Zirin | The Nation –– Citations Needed gets named dropped here as Zirin makes the case that the formula Amazon is using in their race-to-the-bottom exploitation of cities began with sports owners and stadiums. Not coincidentally, he will be the guest on an upcoming episode, so look forward to that. 

David Talbot is a legend, donate to his medical GoFundMe if you can here. 

That’s all for this newsletter folks. Thanks as always for your support and be sure to check out next week's episode coming out Wednesday with the incomparable Chris Hedges who will discuss the pernicious effects of the "fake news" scare on dissident media. You can read his piece on that here. 

Have a good weekend,

Nima, Florence, and Adam.