Hi all!
Here's this week's newsletter. We hope you have a great holiday season, a Merry Christmas (if that's your bag), and a Happy New Year. We'll back in January with new episodes, but in the meantime enjoy our curated list of good-ass content.
- Nima, Sophia, Adam, and Florence
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Deval Patrick, Foreclosure Mogul - Zach Carter, <...
2018-12-18 16:40:42 +0000 UTC View Post
The media – local and national, print and TV – love puff pieces designed to make the police look good and generally improve their overall brand with the public. More often than not, these human interest stories are typically fed to local news by the police themselves. This type of pseudo-journalism is most transparent in its most overly saccharin iteration, something we like to call clickbait copaganda.
Stories involving noble patrolmen rescuing cats from car engines, helping litt...
2018-12-12 16:00:27 +0000 UTC View Post
F-22 flyovers, 160-foot flags draped across the playing field, full color guards, camouflage uniforms, The Star-Spangled Banner, God Bless America, Support The Troops Nights, special perks for vets.
What is the origin of the runaway military worship so ingrained in our sports? How did our professional baseball and football leagues become so infused to our military state and what can fans of these sports do to deconstruct and pushback against the forces of jingoism and militar...
2018-12-05 16:13:12 +0000 UTC View PostDearest Patrons,
Since we last wrote, we released a new episode with anthropologist and author Jason Hickel on the constant media trope of pushing phony TEDtalk positivity about humankind's "progress," coupled with lingering colonial racism that blames the global South for not "developing" fast enough. Mostly, t...
2018-12-04 19:34:34 +0000 UTC View Post
In this Patreon News Brief we discuss Amazon-sponsored NPR and their recent Amazon puff piece and the problem with "tech journalism" more broadly, which prioritizes sexed-up tech woo woo over human labor and human beings.
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NPR Infomercial for Its Sponsor Amazon Omits Labor and Environmental Criticisms...
2018-11-29 16:16:45 +0000 UTC View Post
We're told the world is getting better all the time. In January, The New York Times' Nick Kristof explained "Why 2017 Was the Best Year in Human History." The same month, Harvard professor and Bill Gates' favorite optimist Steven Pinker lamented (in a special edition of Time magazine guest edited by - who else? - Bill Gates) the “bad habits of media bring out the worst in human cognition”. By focusing so much on negative things, the theory goes, we are tricked into thinking...
2018-11-28 15:57:08 +0000 UTC View Post
Focus groups have long-been derided by the left, right, and center for watering down culture and reducing creative and political endeavors to dull, show-of-hand reductionism.
But what if focus groups – which first arose from socialist experiments in 1920s Vienna – are not inherently bad? What if they've simply been exploited by the capitalist class and could, potentially, have much to offer a left-wing, democratic vision of the world?
We are joined by author and professo...
2018-11-21 16:13:57 +0000 UTC View PostDearest patrons,
Here's the latest newsletter. We are thankful for each and every one of our listeners and supporters and, as such, wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving, if that's your bag – and if not, have a good week anyway!
- Sophia, Nima, Florence, and Adam
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Camp Fire: 48 funerals and counting… ‘It’s beyond words, really...
2018-11-20 19:16:33 +0000 UTC View Post
In the wake of the 2016 election, many conservatives, liberals, and - unfortunately - even some on the left pointed to Democrats' reliance on so-called "identity politics" to explain Donald Trump's upset victory over Hillary Clinton.
One of the most popular manifestations of this sentiment was the controversy surrounding bathrooms and transgender rights. The general theory was that some unspecified cohort of voters, outraged by the oppressive nature of trans politics, responded by voting...
2018-11-14 15:27:49 +0000 UTC View Post
“Bush didn’t send enough Troops.”
“Trump needs authorization from Congress before launching a war.”
“Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied Palestinian territories are not helpful.”
We hear these liberal objections to war and occupation all the time. On the surface, they sound opposed to injustice—and maybe sometimes are—but what if, more often than not, they nitpick process, protocol, and procedure without ever offering substantive, existential critiques of...
2018-11-07 14:24:16 +0000 UTC View PostDearest Patrons,
We know this newsletter is hitting your inboxes later than usual, but--in our defense--we've been standing in line at our local Citations Needed polling place all day.
As always, endless thanks for your continued support for the show and enjoy these articles that caught our attention these past couple weeks.
- Sophia, Adam, Florence, and Nima
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Credit: Daniel Dale
Hard-liner Jair Bolsonaro is Brazil's next president. Here's how the "firebrand ex-army captain plans to change Latin America's largest nation," tweeted The Wall Street Journal. "...
2018-11-01 03:47:53 +0000 UTC View Post
Jake Tapper’s career trajectory is an object lesson in how to succeed in corporate media. The formula generally goes like this: go after the fringes of the left and the right––but mostly the left. Never offend any traditional centers of power. Mug. Constantly mug for the camera. Hitch your brand to “The Troops” And-always, always––attack from the neoconservative right.
As previously discussed in our John McCain News Brief, the issue with John McCain was less so about the man hims...
2018-10-31 15:40:37 +0000 UTC View PostDearest Patrons,
We hope you've been enjoying the new episodes of Citations Needed - we've got plenty more on tap to keep your earbuds warm this winter. But first, we're taking this week off to refuel the tanks and mix as many metaphors as possible.
In the meantime, please share your favorite past episodes with your closest friends and check out this reading list of recent articles that caught our attention these past couple weeks.
Thanks agin for all your support - we cou...
2018-10-23 20:39:18 +0000 UTC View Post
"The suspect fled on foot, police said. Call this number if you have any information." "The incident took place at the 1200 block of Grove." "Police say." "Police sources are telling us." "Suspect is thought to be armed and dangerous."
We’ve all heard this type of Official Copspeak before. The local press dutifully informs us about "suspects" and "gang members" and "burglars." They're infiltrating our neighborhoods, rampaging through our streets, climbing in our windows. The police, of cours...
2018-10-17 15:34:22 +0000 UTC View Post
Trump says he opposed the war in Iraq, but in fact said he supported it in an obscure interview in 2004. McCain was for the tax cuts before he was against them. Republicans say they’re Christians, yet support a philandering liar. Hypocrisy takedowns – which reached peak popularity during the heyday of The Daily Show – have been the bread and butter of liberal discourse for years.
Gawker founder Nick Denton famously said that “Hypocrisy was the only modern sin”––...
2018-10-10 14:31:53 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi all!
Here's this week's newsletter. Please enjoy and be sure to tune in tomorrow as our second season rolls on with a new episode featuring friend-of-the-show Roqayah Chamseddine. We discuss the problem with "hypocrisy" dunks and the popularity of gotcha-ism. It's a banger!
- Sophia, Florence, Nima, and Adam
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2018-10-09 20:28:53 +0000 UTC View Post
"Diversity" is a simultaneously important and buzzword-y term beloved by the media, corporations, real estate agents and elite universities. It’s something to strive for and take pride in, a symbol of inclusion and tolerance.
While diversity is a noble feature – and something all large systems should strive for – it originally was not supposed to be an ends in-and-of-itself. Diversity, in this vein, has morphed under capitalism into a PR industry, supplanting notions of equity, ...
2018-10-03 14:50:09 +0000 UTC View Post
Post-Cold War liberal chauvinism knew no better ideological conduit than the hit NBC series The West Wing. Foreign policy was imperial, staffers were self-satisfied, and Serious Democrats fended off radical leftists and made the Tough Choices needed to run a benevolent superpower.
The West Wing, created and primarily written by Aaron Sorkin, heavily influenced the politics of dozens of high-status Obama-era liberals. By their own admission, we know it had among its supe...
2018-09-26 15:55:42 +0000 UTC View Post
In this Patron-only News Brief we discuss Trump's anti-Iran flunky Nikki Haley and how the media lets her casually lie all the time because of her unearned Adult In The Room status.
2018-09-26 04:00:48 +0000 UTC View PostHi all, the newsletter is back! Thanks as always for your support we're super excited for Season 2. Look out tomorrow for Ep. 51; we're joined by friend of the show Luke Savage and will be discussing the rank ideology of The West Wing.
- Florence, Nima, and Adam
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30 Issues: Rent Laws - The Brian Lehrer Show, WNYC (9/22/18)
In the thi...
2018-09-25 22:17:24 +0000 UTC View Post
With recent primary election wins by candidates like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, James Thompson, Julia Salazar and others, the terms “socialist” and “democratic socialist” are everywhere. Media outlets across the political spectrum - from The Washington Post and Business Insider to NPR and MSNBC to Jacobin - have rushed to publish explainer articles, demystifying the tenets of socialism and its variations for a mass American audience.
But one thi...
2018-09-19 15:15:55 +0000 UTC View Post
In the mid-1990s there was a rhetorical and cultural shift on the issue of abortion, namely the result of anti-abortion activists successfully introducing the term "partial birth abortion" into both the media and cultural lexicon.
Major Democrats conceded the language, along with the moral high ground, to the extremist right-wing. They hammered home the message that abortion should be "safe, legal, and rare" - signaling that abortion was something to be ashamed of, a barely tolerable ...
2018-09-12 14:55:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Welcome to Citations Needed, Season Two.
From the shame-inducing “safe, legal and rare” framing of the 1990's to normalizing efforts like the #ShoutYourAbortion campaign and an uptick in abortion plot lines in mainstream television, dialogue surrounding abortion has shifted in recent years from one of apologism and soft-pedaling to a more frank, straightforward approach. These efforts, largely animated by Republican attacks on reproductive health since the Tea Party wave of 2010, ...
2018-09-05 15:23:30 +0000 UTC View Post
John McCain has died. The glowing paeans to his humanity, integrity and "straight talk" are already flooding the airwaves and internet tubes.
In this News Brief, we discuss the media's nearly ubiquitous hagiographic treatment of a man who spent his career advocating for constant war, protecting corporate interests and routinely siding with the most powerful against the most vulnerable.
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Since there's been America, there have been American war crimes, and since there have been American war crimes, there's been a parallel cottage industry of hacks, shills and propagandists willing to not only apologize for, deny and downplay these crimes, but actually spin them as benevolent charity.
While Karl Rove mastered the art of taking a politician's weakness and projecting it onto one’s opponent, the American political and media class has mastered the art of taking the most blat...
2018-08-08 16:03:39 +0000 UTC View PostHi all -
Here is this week’s newsletter, hope you enjoy!
And also, a quick production note: Citations Needed will be wrapping up Season 1 with tomorrow’s episode and will return with new shows on Wednesday, September 5th. We couldn’t have gotten through the first year without your support, which is very much appreciated. We're super excited for Season 2 and hope you are too.
Thanks again,
Nima, Florence, and Adam
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2018-08-07 22:26:40 +0000 UTC View Post
Russia, as we all know, has sinister “oligarchs” whereas in the United States, we are told, we have “philanthropists,” “job creators,” and “titans of industry” who earn their wealth through hard work, moxie, and guile. Aside from a few cartoonishly evil billionaires – like the Walton family, Peter Thiel, and the Koch brothers – the average American has a warm and fuzzy feeling about the super wealthy.
The most notable of these Benevolent Billionaires is Bill Gates, wh...
2018-08-01 16:17:55 +0000 UTC View Post
Russia, as we all know, has sinister “oligarchs” whereas in the United States, we are told, we have “philanthropists,” “job creators,” and “titans of industry” who earn their wealth through hard work, moxie, and guile. Aside from a few cartoonishly evil billionaires – like the Walton family, Peter Thiel, and the Koch brothers – the average American has a warm and fuzzy feeling about the super wealthy.
The most notable of these Benevolent Billionaires is Bill Gates, wh...
2018-07-25 14:35:24 +0000 UTC View PostHi all,
Here’s this week’s newsletter. Thanks for your support as always!
- Nima, Adam, Florence
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NYPD Detective With a Shady Past Helped Lock Up a Pot Dealer For Federal Conspiracy - George Joseph, The Appeal (7/24/18)
A Bronx NYPD cop, known as “assman” ...
2018-07-25 00:32:16 +0000 UTC View Post