Citations Needed, Episode 17: Whitewashing America's Role in Yemen

Over 15,000 civilians dead and almost a million reported cases of cholera. 17 million people unsure of where their next meal will come from, including 7 million on the brink of starvation. Nearly 3 million people internally displaced. Hunger, disease, and bombs. That's what the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the U.S. have wrought on Yemen.

After almost three years of wanton destruction by U.S.-supported Saudi bombing campaigns and, most recently, a total land, air and sea blockade, the vast majority of Americans still haven’t heard much about the dire circumstances facing the people of Yemen. They've heard even less about how the United States is enabling, facilitating, authorizing, aiding and abetting this slaughter.

By and large, the media has almost entirely ignored the decimation of Yemen and its civilian population. When it is touched upon, America's central role in the conflict is often omitted, as is––even more inexplicably––Saudi Arabia's. The violence is routinely referred to as a regional "proxy war" between Gulf monarchies and Iran or Sunnis and Shias, rather than a U.S.-backed massacre.

On this episode, Adam and Nima, joined by Dr. Sheila Carapico and Dr. Greg Shupak, look back at the media’s coverage of this tragedy, why it let Obama off the hook for it, how the typical “cycle of violence” framing is used to obscure U.S. responsibility, and what can be done to lay blame where it belongs moving forward.

[A Patron-Only News Brief on even more recent Yemen coverage was posted on November 22.]

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The Show

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The Guests

Dr. Sheila Carapico is a expert on Yemen. She is a professor of political science and international studies at the University of Richmond, contributing editor of Middle East Report, and has written for many outlets including The Nation and Muftah.

Dr. Greg Shupak is an author and activist who teaches Media Studies at the University of Guelph in Canada.

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Citations Needed is available on iTunes, Soundcloud and LibSyn (here’s the RSS feed). You can also check us out on Twitter and Facebook.

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Want More?

For further reading, show notes, a periodic newsletter, and more exclusive content, please visit our Patreon page and sign up to support the show!

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Citations Needed is a media criticism podcast, hosted by Adam Johnson and Nima Shirazi, political commentators and media analysts working to call bullshit on (usually corporate) media’s ubiquitous reliance on and regurgitation of false and destructive narratives, tropes and stereotypes.

Citations Needed is produced by Florence Barrau-Adams. Our Production Consultant is Josh Kross. The theme is ‘Nonphenomenal Lineage’ by Grandaddy.

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Citations Needed News Brief: 60 Minutes' Yemen Whitewash

In this Patron-only News Brief, Adam and I discuss recent omissions by 60 Minutes and The Washington Post of the U.S. role in bombing Yemen, the broader effort to throw America's responsibility for creating famine and disease into a memory hole, and shifting human rights standards for U.S. and its allies.

[Note: This is a News Brief update on recent Yemen coverage; a full-length episode on the topic is coming soon.]

Head over the our Patreon page and sign up to support the show. You'll get all the exclusive content!

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Citations Needed is a media criticism podcast, hosted by Adam Johnson and Nima Shirazi, political commentators and media analysts working to call bullshit on (usually corporate) media’s ubiquitous reliance on and regurgitation of false and destructive narratives, tropes and stereotypes.


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Citations Needed News Brief: #J20 Trial Update and the Political Definitions of 'Violence'

In this all-access Citations Needed News Brief, Adam and I catch up with the latest from the #J20 trial, how the media shaped coverage early in favor of the state, and the racist roots of criminalizing protest.

We are joined by Sam Adler-Bell, who walks us through his excellent new article in Mask Magazine, “It’s a Police State Mentality” — J20 and the Racist Origins of Criminalizing Protest.



If you like what you hear, please head over the our Patreon page and sign up to support the show. You'll get all the exclusive content!

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Citations Needed is a media criticism podcast, hosted by Adam Johnson and Nima Shirazi, political commentators and media analysts working to call bullshit on (usually corporate) media’s ubiquitous reliance on and regurgitation of false and destructive narratives, tropes and stereotypes.


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Citations Needed, Episode 16: Editorial Boards - Protectors of Establishment Ideology

Donald Trump speaks with Washington Post publisher Fred Ryan, left, as he departs a meeting with the editorial board of The Washington Post. Editorial page editor Fred Hiatt is on the right. (Bonnie Jo Mount/Washington Post)

Editorial boards are the establishment voice from above, handing out decrees of moral and political import behind an anonymous byline. Major papers like The New York Times and The Washington Post have an Official Position™ and it's important that Important People™ hear that position. But of what use is this 19th Century artifact? Whose interest does it serve and why does it even still exist?

On this episode of Citations Needed, we attempt to answer these questions and more with guests Janine Jackson and Jim Naureckas of the always-essential FAIR.org.

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The Show

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The Guests

Janine Jackson is the program director of Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting and producer/host of FAIR’s syndicated weekly radio show CounterSpin. She contributes frequently to FAIR’s newsletter Extra!, and co-edited The FAIR Reader: An Extra! Review of Press and Politics in the ’90s.

Jim Naureckas is the editor of FAIR.org, the website of Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting. Since 1990, he has edited Extra!, FAIR’s print publication, now a monthly newsletter. He is the co-author of Way Things Aren’t: Rush Limbaugh’s Reign of Error, and co-editor of The FAIR Reader: An Extra! Review of Press and Politics in the ’90s. You can follow him on Twitter at @JNaureckas.

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Citations Needed is available on iTunes, Soundcloud and LibSyn (here’s the RSS feed). You can also check us out on Twitter and Facebook.

***

Want More?

For further reading, show notes, a periodic newsletter, and more exclusive content, please visit our Patreon page and sign up to support the show!

***

Citations Needed is a media criticism podcast, hosted by Adam Johnson and Nima Shirazi, political commentators and media analysts working to call bullshit on (usually corporate) media’s ubiquitous reliance on and regurgitation of false and destructive narratives, tropes and stereotypes.

Citations Needed is produced by Florence Barrau-Adams. Our Production Consultant is Josh Kross. The theme is ‘Nonphenomenal Lineage’ by Grandaddy.

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Citations Needed News Brief: A Prince, a Purge & the Media's GoT Obsession

On the latest Patrons-Only Citations Needed News Brief, Adam and I discuss the Game of Thrones-obsessed media's hand-wringing over––and promotion of––Saudi Arabia's latest bloodbath.

If you want to check it out, head over the our Patreon page and sign up to support the show. You'll get all the exclusive content!

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Citations Needed is a media criticism podcast, hosted by Adam Johnson and Nima Shirazi, political commentators and media analysts working to call bullshit on (usually corporate) media’s ubiquitous reliance on and regurgitation of false and destructive narratives, tropes and stereotypes.


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Citations Needed, Episode 15: The Real Estate Page as Colonial Dispatch

Real Estate sections of local papers and magazines feature mostly fun, breezy profiles of the super rich buying up apartments, buildings, and houses or remodeling the ones they already own. Harmless escapist fun? Maybe. But how we write about real estate often reveals casually racist and colonial attitudes that are rarely, if ever, examined.

Gentrification of American cities is often, if not always, accompanied by telling language. Newly-arrived, often wealthy, residents in neighborhoods long populated by primarily Black and brown families are routinely referred to as "urban pioneers." These "settlers" are said to bravely venture into the "concrete jungle" - discovering and taming the "diverse," "funky," and "rough" and (guess what?) affordable "frontiers" that have been all too neglected by the savage natives.

In this episode, we talk about why the way we talk about the real estate business matters and how the white civilizing mission seems never to have gone away.

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The Show

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The Guest

Aaron Miguel Cantú writes for the Santa Fe Reporter. He is a senior editor for The New Inquiry and has contributed to VICE, The Intercept, The Nation, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, Al Jazeera, and elsewhere.

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Citations Needed is available on iTunes, Soundcloud and LibSyn (here’s the RSS feed). You can also check us out on Twitter and Facebook.

***

Want More?

For further reading, show notes, a periodic newsletter, and more exclusive content, please visit our Patreon page and sign up to support the show!

***

Citations Needed is a media criticism podcast, hosted by Adam Johnson and Nima Shirazi, political commentators and media analysts working to call bullshit on (usually corporate) media’s ubiquitous reliance on and regurgitation of false and destructive narratives, tropes and stereotypes.

Citations Needed is produced by Florence Barrau-Adams. Our Production Consultant is Josh Kross. The theme is ‘Nonphenomenal Lineage’ by Grandaddy.

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Citations Needed, Episode 14: The Iran Deal Protection Racket

We are told time and again from Republicans and nominal liberals alike that Iran desperately wants to acquire nuclear weapons, was "racing toward the bomb" before the implementation of the multilateral Iran Deal - officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and was merely months away from holding the world hostage with a nuclear arsenal before being stopped by diplomacy, aided by "crippling sanctions." The core axioms of this narrative are never really challenged, even by those viewed as progressive on foreign policy.

But how correct are these assumptions? Why does the media keep saying Iran has a "nuclear weapons program" when it doesn't? Will the nonstop back and forth over Iran's "nuclear ambitions" ever cease?

Using both Nima and Adam's own analyses, we attempt to answer these questions and more as we take a deep dive into the Iran Deal protection racket.

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The Show

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Citations Needed is available on iTunes, Soundcloud and LibSyn (here’s the RSS feed). You can also check us out on Twitter and Facebook.

***

Want More?

For further reading, show notes, a periodic newsletter, and more exclusive content, please visit our Patreon page and sign up to support the show!

***

Citations Needed is a media criticism podcast, hosted by Adam Johnson and Nima Shirazi, political commentators and media analysts working to call bullshit on (usually corporate) media’s ubiquitous reliance on and regurgitation of false and destructive narratives, tropes and stereotypes.

Citations Needed is produced by Florence Barrau-Adams. Our Production Consultant is Josh Kross. The theme is ‘Nonphenomenal Lineage’ by Grandaddy.

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