In this patron-only News Brief, Nima and Adam discuss the media's white glove treatment of war criminal Mohammad bin Salman, the Crown Prince of the Saudi kingdom, as he and his handlers crisscross the United States from K Street to Sunset Boulevard on a 2018-04-04 15:29:46 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi all! Here's this week's newsletter.
Quick production note: we will be off this week but we'll have a patron-only News Brief for all y'all tomorrow.
Thanks as always,
Adam, Florence, and Nima
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NPR Runs IDF Playbook, Spinning Killing of 17 Palestinians - Adam Johnson, FAIR (4/2/18)
NPR ass...
2018-04-03 21:18:06 +0000 UTC View Post
We’ve heard this scare story a million times: A theater group at Wesleyan won’t perform The Vagina Monologues because it’s offensive to trans women! Oberlin is banning classes featuring white authorsI Rich, sheltered college students, increasingly indoctrinated by radical Marxist professors, are asking for safe spaces!
But how much merit is there to the popular trope that college kids are hypersensitive and coddled? Is there really a free speech crisis America...
2018-03-28 16:21:04 +0000 UTC View PostHi all! Thanks again for all your support. Here's this week's newsletter.
Nima, Florence, and Adam
*****
Welcome to the Dick Cheney Administration - Stephen M. Walt, Foreign Policy (3/23/18)
Professor Stephen Walt disproves the notion that recent shifts in Trump administration personnel represent the ascendance of the 'burn...
2018-03-27 21:22:09 +0000 UTC View Post
We’ve seen the headlines hundreds of times: "ISIS plot foiled," "ISIS in Brooklyn," "Woman Stopped At Airport on Way to Join ISIS." These stories strike fear into the hearts of Americans everywhere, especially in the build-up to the war effort against ISIS in Summer 2014.
The terror group was everywhere, recruiting our teenagers and attempting to strike in every major city––seemingly all at once. But what do these headlines mean exactly? What is an "ISIS plot" anyway? What is the gap bet...
2018-03-21 14:56:58 +0000 UTC View PostHi all,
Here's this week's newsletter. Thank you as always!
Florence, Nima, and Adam
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Prisoners Across Florida Went on Strike. Instead of Fair Wages, They Got Solitary. Mike Arria, In These Times (3/19/18)
Hundreds of prisoners went on strike on MLK day--two months later stories o...
2018-03-20 22:20:31 +0000 UTC View Post
In this patron-only News Brief, we catch up on the latest news in Yemen and the Korean peninsula.
'Human Rights Champion' John McCain Silent on Efforts to End War Crimes in Yemen - Adam Johnson, TruthDig (3/15/18)
Fighting against the far right forces of the Republican Party and their auxiliary white supremacist media makes attempts to appropriate notions of nationalism into a liberal mold a compelling short cut for Democrats looking for easy clapbacks and viral RTs. The temptation to promote a kinder, gentler, "woke" patriotism is understandable.
But what is the collateral damage of this approach? From the justifiably horrified response to mass shootings to the jingoistic worship of all things military...
2018-03-14 15:28:05 +0000 UTC View PostHi all,
Hope the weather is warm where you are. Here is this week's newsletter, please enjoy!
-- Adam, Florence, and Nima
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The Rising Ghosts of Labor in the West Virginia Teacher ...
2018-03-13 18:08:09 +0000 UTC View Post
NOTE: If you haven't yet listened to last week's Part I of this episode, please do that first.
The idea that there exists an ongoing effort to achieve a “two-state solution” in Israel and Palestine - often referred to as The Middle East Peace Process™ - is uniformly taken for granted by American media. This "two-state solution" is always at different stages of viabil...
2018-03-07 16:03:25 +0000 UTC View PostHi all,
This week's newsletter below. Thanks as always!
––Florence, Adam, and Nima
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Secret NYPD Files: Officers Can Lie And Brutally Beat People — And Still Keep Their Jobs - Kendall Taggart and Mike Hayes, BuzzFeed News (3/5/18)
Buzzfeed p...
2018-03-06 21:20:08 +0000 UTC View Post
The idea that there exists an ongoing effort to achieve a “two-state solution” in Israel and Palestine - often referred to as The Middle East Peace Process™ - is uniformly taken for granted by American media. This "two-state solution" is always at different stages of viability, yet never quite works out. Presidents fail to achieve it; Palestinian violence makes it "more difficult"; Israeli settlements are "unhelpful" to it.
But how honest is this effort? How are nonstop obituaries ...
2018-02-28 16:23:41 +0000 UTC View PostHi all!
Hope you enjoy this week's newsletter.
–– Nima, Florence, and Adam
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The Right is Trying to Take Down Public Sector Unions. It May Bring Much More Down with it. - Rachel M. Cohen, The Intercept (2/25/18)
The Janus case facing the Supreme Court could wreak unknown havoc on the American left...
2018-02-27 20:04:22 +0000 UTC View Post
Citations Needed is off this week, but we do have a fascinating interview with Hoda Katebi on her now-infamous WGN television segment. In this News Brief, we explore what it means to "sound American," the politics of women's clothing, and why everyone with even a single drop of Iranian blood is expected to be an expert on nuclear energy and international affairs.
Hi all,
Here's this week's newsletter. Enjoy!
-- Florence, Nima, and Adam
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Fifteen years after Iraq war protests, peace is further away than ever - Emily Thornberry, The Guardian (2/15/18)
Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow foreign secretary lays out how British imperialism over the ...
2018-02-20 20:25:47 +0000 UTC View Post
If one were to approach New York Times-reading liberals circa 1990 and tell them about a crime-fighting policy that arbitrarily harassed black and Latino youths who had committed no crime and threw the book at low-level nonviolent offenses, they would be rightfully outraged at the idea. But, if one were to couch this exact policy in pseudoscience promoted by mercenary sociologists and glowingly written up in The Atlantic, these same liberals would not only accept it, they'd be ...
2018-02-14 17:32:43 +0000 UTC View PostHi all,
Here's this week's newsletter. Enjoy and look out for tomorrow's episode with Josmar Trujillo on Stop and Frisk and Broken Windows––it's gonna be good!
Best,
Nima, Florence, and Adam
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Women Across the Globe Are Planning to Strike on March 8. Here’s Why - Sarah Jaffe, In These Times (2/...
2018-02-13 23:21:47 +0000 UTC View Post
The term "welfare" is thrown around so casually in political speeches and media coverage we hardly notice it anymore. CNN reports that “GOP will tackle Medicare, Medicaid, welfare in 2018," while The Washington Post insists that “Trump recently called on Congress to move to cut welfare spending after the tax bill.” CBS News tells viewers that “Washington eyes welfare reform."
But what do these outlets and the Republican Party actually mean when they talk about "welfar...
2018-02-07 17:48:50 +0000 UTC View PostHi all,
Here is this week's newsletter. Enjoy!
- Florence, Adam, and Nima
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How to Not Die in America - Molly Osberg, Splinter News (1/31/18)
In this harrowing personal essay, journalist Molly Osberg describes in exc...
2018-02-06 20:00:59 +0000 UTC View Post
Few words elicit such warm feelings as the term "Democracy." Wars are supposedly fought for it, foreign policies are built around it, protecting and advancing it is considered the United States' highest moral order.
Democracy's alleged opposite - broadly called "authoritarianism," "autocracy" or "tyranny” - is cast as the ultimate evil. The stifling, oppressive boot of the state that curtails liberties and must be fought at all costs. This is the world in which we operate and the one where t...
2018-01-31 17:34:21 +0000 UTC View PostHi all, these are some of our favorite articles this week. Remember you can send anything you read and liked to our email at citationsneededcontact@gmail.com and we can add!
Take care,
-- Florence, Adam, and Nima
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Fitness Tracker Data Highlights Sprawling US Military Footprint in Africa - Nick Turse The Intercept 2018-01-30 19:24:12 +0000 UTC View Post
In this Patron-only News Brief we breakdown the brain dead media narrative surrounding Twitter's government-compelled Russian influence email––have you lived in sin?
Update on Twitter’s Review of the 2016 U.S. Election
Here at Citations Needed we enjoy nothing more than ragging on corporate media - indeed, it’s our primary job. But can constant snark and negativity breed cynicism? Recent feedback from some of our listeners has us wondering if the act of media criticism need also make room for some media complimenting, lest we succumb to the forces of defeatism.
In this episode, rather than critiquing the myriad problems with the corporate press, we decided to highlight two smaller media org...
2018-01-24 17:19:25 +0000 UTC View Post
On this News Brief Adam and Nima discuss why it's not a "government shutdown" but a liberal government shutdown––or, more precisely, a backdoor rightwing coup.
Relevant article:
It’s Not a Government Shutdown. It’s a Right-Wing Coup
Adam Johnson | April 28, 2017 | The Nation
2018-01-24 02:19:27 +0000 UTC View PostHi all!
So we set out to do a newsletter last year but had issues maintaining quality so we ceased sending it... but now it’s back! It will go out every Tuesday and will contain, in addition to our own writing, our favorite reading from others throughout the prior week. We will work hard to maintain this and welcome any entries–tell us what you like and we can add. (Feel free to send your own work too, even if it's academic in nature!)
We want to create a community of med...
2018-01-23 22:43:02 +0000 UTC View Post
We’ve all seen these feel good segments on the local news. The adorable and resourceful seven-year-old in California who's been recycling cans since he was three and now has $10,000 saved up for college. The Oklahoma community that chipped in to buy a car for a beloved Walmart greeter so she wouldn't have to walk to work in the bitter cold anymore. The “inspiring teen” who returned to his fast food job soon after being injured in a car accident.
No doubt, these are all heartwarming tales...
2018-01-17 16:24:03 +0000 UTC View Post
The unique threat and vileness of Donald Trump’s presidency can’t be overstated. Since he took office a year ago, he’s increased civilian deaths in Afghanistan by 50%, increased civilian deaths in Syria and Iraq (surpassing Obama’s death toll in just under 7 months), issued dozens of nuclear threats against North Korea, unraveled the Iran deal, bombed Hezbollah, Iranian and SAA positions in Syria, signed a smash and grab tax bill for billionaires, and issued order after order making life...
2018-01-10 18:13:23 +0000 UTC View Post
In this patron-only News Brief, Nima and Adam discuss the different genres of "do something" responses to the Iranian protests. The most popular of which, "Tear up the Iran Deal for freedom or something", is being led by the pro-Israel, far-right Foundation for Defense of Democracies; a group composed of Iraq invasion hold-overs and ex-spooks who are very, sincerely, earnestly concerned about The Iranian People™.
2018-01-05 15:45:10 +0000 UTC View Post
According to one 2014 study, 75% of white Americans don’t have any non-white friends. Put another way, white people’s perception of African Americans and other people of color comes primarily from media representations rather than actual interactions. As such, how communities of color are portrayed in the media – from news and opinion page...
2018-01-03 15:21:16 +0000 UTC View PostA quick note of thanks to our patrons.
We’ve been humbled by the amount of enthusiasm and support we received this year. When we started the podcast in July we never would have guessed how responsive and nice all y'all would be. Since then we've released 21 full-length episodes and 11 news briefs, interviewed 28 guests, and reached thousands of listeners.
We are truly grateful and look forward to taking the show to the next level in terms of scope and depth in 2018––som...
2018-01-01 01:37:58 +0000 UTC View Post