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News Brief: Media's Credulous "Labor Shortage" Reporting Helps Lay Groundwork For Repealing Child Labor Laws

In this public News Brief, we detail how uncritical acceptance by centrist––and even liberal––media that the US is seeing an unprecedented "labor shortage" is helping justify repealing child labor protections in roughly a dozen states.

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Show Notes

2023-04-12 14:28:13 +0000 UTC View Post

TONIGHT for Skeptics & Critics: Live Interview w/ Nell McShane Wulfhart @ 8:30 PM ET

Hello, Citations Needed Patrons!

Tonight, Thursday, April 6, at 8:30PM EDT, we'll be hosting a virtual live interview, available to Skeptic- and View Post

News Brief: How Brandon Johnson's Win Upends US Media's Patronizing, Simplistic "Crime" Narratives

In this public News Brief, we break down Johnson's "surprise" win and how it undermines every lazy media trope involving local Democratic politics pushed over the last two years.

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Transcript

For a full transcript of this News Brief, go 2023-04-05 15:45:22 +0000 UTC View Post

For Skeptics & Critics: Live Interview w/ Nell McShane Wulfhart on Thurs. April 6 @ 8:30PM ET

Hello, Citations Needed Patrons!

We're excited to announce that we'll be hosting a virtual live interview, available to Skeptic- and Critic-level supporters, on View Post

Episode 179: From Budget Cuts to Book Bans — The Decades-Long Assault on Public Libraries

"Parents fighting schools to protect their kids are heroes, not book-banners," Fox News tells us. Are Privatized Public Libraries So Bad?" asks CityLab. "Huntsville Public Library could be privatized in aftermath of pride display dispute," reports Houston Public Media.

Fo...

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Episode 178: The Palliative Pop-History of American Social "Progress"

"Our progress has been part of the living history of America," President Jimmy Carter declared in a 1979 speech. "America is a nation of progress, of moving forward," Senator Chuck Grassley stated in 2022 on the Senate floor. "The story of America is a story of progress and resilience, of always ...

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Episode 177: Popular Anti-Union Talking Points and How to Combat Them

"Unions used to make sense but are obsolete in today's economy!" Unions are an "outside force" or "third party." "I'm a strong worker. Unionization will harm me personally and only help the weak and lazy workers." "Unions are rigid, old fashioned hierarchies."

We’ve all no doubt heard the...

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News Brief: Defensiveness and Demagoguery in East Palestine

In this News Brief, we discuss the initial lack of coverage of the devastating February 3rd train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio; the coverage of the lack of coverage; the GOP's "white genocide" exploitation; Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg's defensiveness; and the real human stakes o...

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News Brief: The Battle Over NYT's Lurid, Tabloid Coverage of 'Trans Issues'

In this News Brief, we break down the recent controversy over the open letter sent by 1200+ NYT contributors pushing back on The Times' salacious coverage of "trans issues," and how the Paper of Record's response has proved to be thin skinned, sanctimonious, and hypocritical.

Our guests are...

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News Brief: How Newspapers Aided Genocide in California

In this follow up interview to episodes 172 and 158, we interview UCLA Associate Professor Benjamin Madley about his book "An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe," and discuss how newspapers, tracts, and paperbacks were an essential element in assisting and ...

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Ep 176: How the “Parental Rights” Rallying Cry Has Been a Rightwing Stalking Horse for Over 100 Years

"Surrounded by children, DeSantis signs the 'Parental Rights in Education' bill," ABC13 reports.  "Biden partnered with organization which questioned parents' rights to be notified about their kids' transition" Fox News tells us. "Parental rights isn't a partisan issue. It's what's best for ...

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Ep. 175: Selective Humanitarianism and the US Role in Afghanistan's Post-Occupation Famine

"History will cast a shadow over Biden’s decision to withdraw from Afghanistan," the Washington Post’s David Ignatius warned in April of 2021. "Biden's Betrayal of Afghans Will Live in Infamy," George Packer cautioned in The Atlantic magazine in Aug...

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Episode 174: Your Favorite 1990's "Very Special" Anti-Drug Episode Was Probably Funded by the US Government

On a Very Special Episode of "Home Improvement," Tim and Jill lecture their son about the dangers of marijuana after he’s caught smoking a joint. On a powerful episode of ABC’s "Sports Night," written by Aaron Sorkin, sportscaster Dan Rydell delivers a four-minute monologue on how dope killed...

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News Brief: 'Tough Love' Used to Justify Abusing Children and Surplus Black Population in Alabama

In this News Brief, we talk with Josie Duffy Rice about her new podcast, "Unreformed: The Story of the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children,” incarce...

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Episode 173: How to Sell Police Crackdowns on Homeless People to Liberals

"The city has had 125 daily interactions," New York Mayor Eric Adams tells the Daily News. "We’re working to solve the homelessness crisis, with innovative mental health interventions," San Francisco Mayor London Breed tells reporters. The city needs to "clean up homeless encampments," countles...

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Ep. 172 - The Foundational Myth Machine: Indigenous Peoples of North America and Hollywood

Soldiers from the US Cavalry defeat the Plains Indians, securing new territory for their burgeoning empire. A group of settlers fends off an armed Indigenous tribe on horseback in their intrepid effort to conquer new lands....

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News Brief: Biden, Congressional Dems Partner with GOP, Media to Help Discipline Rail Labor

In this News Brief, we are joined by the Real News Network's Mel Buer and Max Alvarez to discuss the media campaign to obscure Biden and Congressional Dems selling out rail workers.

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Guests

Mel Buer (2022-11-30 20:41:12 +0000 UTC View Post

News Brief: Law & Order's Boring Anti-Bail Reform Diatribe

Five days before the midterm elections, the long-running NBC staple removed all subtly and character work and explicitly lobbied against bail reform in a ham-fisted, boring slog of an episode. With guest Juwan J. Holmes.

Our guest is Juwan J. Holmes, a Brooklyn-born journal...

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Episode 171: The Vacuity of "Radical Libs Forced Voters Into the Arms of the Right" Discourse

"How The Left Created Trump," revealed Rob Hoffman in Politico in November 2016. "Blame liberals for the rise of Donald Trump," insisted S.E. Cupp in The Chicago Tribune the year before. "How the left enabled fascism," explained David Winner in The New Statesman...

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Episode 170: The Shallow, Audience-Flattering Appeal of the ‘Neither Right Nor Left’ Guy

"Clinton Says He's Not Leaning Left but Taking a New 'Third Way,'" reported The New York Times in 1992. "It's not left. It’s not right. It’s forward!" proclaimed former presidential candidate Andrew Yang during a 2019 Democratic debate. "Neither left nor right," reads the slogan of far-right ...

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Citations Needed Midterm Reaction Patreon LiveStream tonight!

Hi Patrons! 

Join Nima and Adam tonight, Tuesday, November 8 on a Patreon livestream from 10 to 11pm EST as we react to the real time media spin of tonight's midterm election.

We will assemble the worst self-serving ass covering, most phoned-in left-punching, sli...

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Episode 169: How the Right Ventriloquizes "The Working Man" to Push Pro-Corporate Policy and Gut Welfare

"Yes, undocumented immigrants take jobs from Americans. Here’s the proof," an opinion piece in The Washington Post tells us. "Save our truckers, not affluent students seeking a free ride," pleads longtime Republican consultant Douglas MacKinnon in The Hill. "Biden's Student Debt Cancel...

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News Brief: Fentanyl In Our Halloween Candy and Liberal Messaging Failures of the Overdose Crisis

In this Halloween-themed News Brief, we debunk the idea drug dealers are handing out fentanyl candy to our children. But we also examine why these copaganda panics are able to take hold: namely the failure of liberals to provide an alternative, non-carceral vision for how to handle the very real ...

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Congratulations to...

Dear Citations Needed supporters,

We have to start off by thanking you all again. We are so grateful to you - the relatively small, yet incredibly mighty, segment of our listeners who support the show financially - for making it possible for us to produce this show. We will never take any o...

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A Citations Needed Live Show Beg-a-Thon: The Politics of Star Trek + Pro Wrestling

In this Live Show Beg-a-Thon, recorded 10/20, we discuss the morality politics of Star Trek and Pro Wrestling with guests are Robert Greene II and Brandi Collins-Dexter.

For our Patreon supporters, we'll announce the winners of our swag giveaway later today, Wednesday, October 26. Keep ...

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Thank you for your support! Now you're in the running for free stuff!

Dear Patrons,

Citations Needed is now in its sixth season. Over the past five years, we've dropped 170 episodes and over 125 news briefs. We've been joined by hundreds of amazing guests. We've done live shows, AMAs, newsletters and special interviews. Our small team does all the research, w...

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Youtube Live event tomorrow, Thursday 10-20-22

Hey everyone! 

Please join us for a livestream tomorrow, THURSDAY EVENING at 8:30pm ET.   

We'll be taking on two major pop culture phenomena (Adam and Nima's favorites!): first STAR TREK w/ guest@RobGr...

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News Brief: DC Media's "Fare Evasion" Meltdown

In this public News Brief, we discuss local TV news, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal's breathless coverage of so-called "fare evasion" and how our media decides which theft to care about and which to ignore.

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News Brief: Young Turks' Misleading Anti-Bail Reform Demagoguery

In this News Brief, we discuss the nominally progressive news network's lies and omissions when covering efforts to reduce the US's unprecedented jail and prison population.

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Show Notes

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Ep. 168: How Faux Folksy "Real World" Advice is Employed to Limit Political Possibility and Punch Left

"Increasing Numbers of US Students Look for a ‘Real’ World," read a 1965 headline from the magazine Moderator. "Academics: Get Real!," the Harvard Business Review implored in 2009. "‘Defund the police’ runs into reality," the Washington Post warned in 2021. "As ...

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