Counterspin

THIS WEEK:  Costas Panayotakis reports on the Greece financial crisis and Nusrat Choudhury has information on FBI mapping.  COUNTERSPIN Drawing on an international network of voices, CounterSpin dissects news coverage of a wide range of issues and current events. CounterSpin provides a critical examination of the major stories every week, and exposes what the mainstream media might have missed in their own coverage.

Counterspin.  Sighs of relief as BP’s Gulf well appears to be sealed, and some stories are already headlined “After the Spill”. Marine conservationist Rick Steiner says it’s too early to celebrate and “after” is not the right word.

Pres. Barack Obama has announced his pick for Supreme Court justice-- former Harvard Law School dean and Solicitor General Elena Kagan. And the media debates have begun: about her record, her credentials and her likely impact on the court. We'll sort through some of what you're hearing and what you perhaps aren't hearing in a conversation with Court watchers Glenn Greenwald, of Salon.com and author and law professor Marjorie Cohn.

Arizona's new immigration law has sparked national protests and a renewed political discussion about something usually called 'comprehensive reform. Gabriel Arana from the American Prospect will talk about how media depictions of border crime and violence are related to this new law. Also Dr. Ron Daniels, president of the Institute of the Black World 21st Century, and founder of the Haiti Support Project, talks about the idea of reparations to wronged African-Americans.

Andrew Cockburn, co-producer of the documentary American Casino talks about the realities of the so-called bank regulation proposal. Author Heather Rogers looks at the “green” economy her new book Green Gone Wrong: How Our Economy Is Undermining the Environmental Revolution.

A New York Times report gives the impression that the debate over genetically engineered foods is largely over. We'll hear from Ben Lilliston of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. Also, on the surface, Teach for America sounds like a great idea: sending bright young college grads into needy schools to teach. But there's much more to it than that, as journalist Barbara Miner found.

Dramatic videotape of a 2007 U.S. helicopter attack was published by the website Wikileaks on April 5—prompting waves of coverage across the world, though only sporadic attention from the US corporate press. Independent journalist Jeremy Scahill talks about the media reaction to the chilling video. Also, as the program is recorded, efforts continue to rescue 4 miners believed still trapped by the April 5 explosion that killed 25 in West Virginia, and media are tracking the story. But was it an “accident?” Journalist Jeff Biggers, author of Reckoning at Eagle Creek: The Secret Legacy of Coal in the Heartland, answers that question.

The long debate over health care reform might be, at least in some respects, over. Will conservatives still warn of creeping socialism and the end of American freedom? Sure. We'll talk to Trudy Lieberman from Columbia Journalism Review about what we learned-- and didn't learn-- over the past year. Also on Counterspin: What does the recent exchange of heated language between US and Israeli officials actually translate to in terms of US policy toward the country?

The network camera crews have mostly packed up and gone home, but the political fights over reconstruction and rebuilding in Haiti are only just getting started. University of Texas professor Jemima Pierre was part of a delegation that recently visited Haiti, and she wrote about what she saw for The Nation. Also on the show: Media technology can put more control in consumers' hands over the gathering and sharing of information and entertainment. Megan Tady of the group Free Press talks about some of the most significant media industry battles going on right now that affect what you get to see and hear.

The network camera crews have mostly packed up and gone home, but the political fights over reconstruction and rebuilding in Haiti are only just getting started. University of Texas professor Jemima Pierre was part of a delegation that recently visited Haiti, and she wrote about what she saw for The Nation. Also on the show: Media technology can put more control in consumers' hands over the gathering and sharing of information and entertainment. Megan Tady of the group Free Press talks about some of the most significant media industry battles going on right now that affect what you get to see and hear.

Counterspin

Sikivu Hutchinson looks at the real story on the Tea Party movement and Carl Conetta looks at Pentagon spending.

Journalists are lining up to tout the Tea Party movement's relevance and strength, but show little interest in probing its deep contradictions or finding out what actually makes the activists tick. In her report "Mainstream Media's Tea Party Tryst," Sikivu Hutchinson digs a little deeper. Also, Carl Conetta from the Project on Defense Alternatives will talk about the facts about Obama's military budget and why the corporate media is not talking about it.

The big story inside the news media business is the collapse of the business itself. What are the implications for citizens? What can we do about it? And how concerned should we be about the failures of corporate owners that have done so little to promote good journalism in the first place? Guests Robert McChesney and John Nichols, co-authors of the new book "The Death and Life of American Journalism: the Media Revolution That Will Begin the World Again," explore these topics and more.

The Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 that corporations may not be limited in their spending to influence elections, because they have the same free speech rights as people. Among the many questions raised are not just what this means for elections, but what it means for 'free' speech. We'll hear from Charlie Cray of the Center for Corporate Policy on that story. Plus, some “good” news from Haiti.

Corporate media chatter about the Republican Senate victory in Massachusetts reflects participants’ priorities: which means you're unlikely to hear advice offered to Democrats other than that they should act more like Republicans. Is that the takeaway?