Host Kevin Gosztola discusses the role of Western prestige media organizations in the mass starvation and death that the world is witnessing now in Gaza. In particular, as with families and their children, the last remaining Palestinian and Arab journalists are at risk of dying due to lack of food, water, medical care, etc. Headlines include a whistleblower revelation related to the Jeffrey Epstein files and extreme government secrecy as well as the release of 240,000 the Martin Luther King Jr. ...
Jul 28, 2025•36 min•Ep. 19
Host Kevin Gosztola talks with Los Angeles-based journalist Tina-Desiree Berg about ICE and the threat they pose to freedom of the press. Tina-Desiree and other journalists recently won an injunction in a lawsuit against the LAPD. A federal court ordered the police to stop shooting them with rubber bullets, tear gas, and other projectiles. Headlines for the week include the FBI using lie detector tests to identify disloyal personnel and death threats over political cartoon force cancellation of ...
Jul 13, 2025•45 min•Ep. 18
Host Kevin Gosztola speaks with George Maschke, a former U.S. Army interrogator and reserve intelligence officer, about the Trump administration's reliance on lie detector tests to enforce secrecy. Maschke is the co-founder of AntiPolygraph.org, and he was falsely accused of being a spy after the FBI subjected him to a polygraph exam. Headlines include Spanish language journalist Mario Guevara outrageously remaining in ICE detention and the Trump administration attacking the legacy media that co...
Jun 28, 2025•46 min•Ep. 17
Chip Gibbons, policy director for Defending Rights and Dissent, joins host Kevin Gosztola for to further discuss the case against CIA analyst Asif Rahman, who was sentenced to three years and a month in prison. Gibbons reported on the sentencing for The Dissenter. Headlines for this edition include a Boeing whistleblower warning of Dreamliner problems prior to the Air India crash that killed 241 people and San Francisco police detaining two student journalists covering ICE protests—twice....
Jun 16, 2025•48 min•Ep. 16
Host Kevin Gosztola discusses the FBI sting operation that led to the arrest of a Defense Intelligence Agency employee, who allegedly agreed to trade state secrets for citizenship in Germany because he opposes President Donald Trump's agenda. Headlines for this edition include an Australia appeals court rejecting Australia war crimes whistleblower's David McBride challenge to his prison sentence and the Nevada Supreme Court effectively ruling that police may not sue Nevada residents over records...
Jun 04, 2025•35 min•Ep. 15
Host Kevin Gosztola is joined by Andy Lee Roth, a Project Censored editor at large, for a conversation about Big Tech algorithms and how they determine what content we see. Andy goes on to share the work he has been doing on algorithmic literacy for the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri. Headlines include Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard firing intelligence officials for releasing a bombshell memo and a police whistleblower in Nashville, Tennessee, facing...
May 21, 2025•57 min•Ep. 14
Host Kevin Gosztola marks President Donald Trump's first 100 days in his second term. He is joined by two guests from the Freedom of the Press Foundation —Seth Stern, the advocacy director, and Lauren Harper, the Daniel Ellsberg chair on government secrecy. Seth assesses the daily attacks on press freedom that occurred, and Lauren describes several alarming developments related to the public's access to government information. They both discuss what is being done to fight back and how they feel ...
Apr 29, 2025•57 min•Ep. 13
Host Kevin Gosztola highlights the case of Tesla whistleblower Cristina Balan. She recently won an appeal against Tesla and the company's CEO Elon Musk. This victory in her legal battle could lead to a trial where Musk testifies in court. Headlines include Israeli military strike killing Palestinian photojournalist Fatima Hassouna and a U.S. judge signaling that he's open to the Trump White House excluding not just the Associated Press but all newswire services from the White House press pool....
Apr 23, 2025•25 min•Ep. 12
Host Kevin Gosztola highlights the crisis that is growing as offices that are supposed to fulfill Freedom of Information Act requests are dismantled or significantly impaired. He features a few clips from a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on FOIA reform that was held on April 8. Headlines include Israeli military forces attacking a media tent in Gaza and the Homeland Security Department administering lie detector tests as part of a clampdown on alleged leaks....
Apr 16, 2025•41 min•Ep. 11
In this edition of "The Dissenter Weekly," host Kevin Gosztola focuses on the unbelievable claim put forward by Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg that whistleblower retaliation at Boeing is entirely a thing of the past. Headlines include the disbanding of public records teams at the Health and Human Services Department and a watchdog group warning EPA employees not to use the newly installed free WiFi.
Apr 09, 2025•28 min•Ep. 10
Host Kevin Gosztola focuses on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents abducting Tufts University PhD student Rumeysa Ozturk in Massachusetts and how standing up for Ozturk is important to freedom of the press. Headlines include several positive developments, like the state of Idaho signing a journalism shield bill into law and the United States Supreme Court refusing to hear an anti-press lawsuit brought by Las Vegas casino tycoon Steve Wynn.
Apr 02, 2025•32 min•Ep. 9
While we're only 50 days into President Donald Trump's second term, we've already seen how the administration is expanding secrecy beyond what was observed under Biden—and even Trump's first term. Lauren Harper, the Freedom of the Press Foundation's Daniel Ellsberg Chair on Government Secrecy, joined the "Dissenter Weekly" to discuss this topic. [Posted on March 17 for paid subscribers.]
Mar 19, 2025•42 min•Ep. 8
In this edition of the "Dissenter Weekly," host Kevin Gosztola focuses on the Fox News network's push for leak prosecutions against media sources at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Homeland Security Department (DHS). The network is furious that details about ICE raids are being shared with the press before agents conduct the raids, and even went so far as to suggest that some reporters have crossed the line and deserve criminal charges.
Mar 12, 2025•37 min•Ep. 7
In this special edition of the "Dissenter Weekly," host Kevin Gosztola talks with Mickey Huff and Andy Lee Roth of Project Censored about how President Donald Trump's administration has weaponized distrust toward the news media establishment to further attacks on the press.
Mar 05, 2025•1 hr•Ep. 6
For this edition of "The Dissenter Weekly," host Kevin Gosztola outlines the battle that President Donald Trump is waging over the head of the Office of Special Counsel (OSC). Trump fired OSC chief Hampton Dellinger, and Dellinger sued. A United States district court and appeals court temporarily allowed Dellinger to return to the position while the matter was litigated. But this past week Trump turned to the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a temporary restraining order and broaden the executive ...
Feb 24, 2025•27 min•Ep. 5
Host Kevin Gosztola focuses on a proposed bill [ PDF ] in the state of Hawaii that would effectively establish a star chamber for journalists. Now, the legislation calls it an "ethics review board," but let's be clear—it would arbitrarily penalize journalists when they do not follow the rules for "responsible journalism."
Feb 17, 2025•27 min•Ep. 4
Chip Gibbons, the policy director for Defending Rights and Dissent, joins host Kevin Gosztola to further discuss the Espionage Act prosecution against CIA analyst Asif Rahman. Rahman pled guilty to violating the Espionage Act in January. For The Dissenter, Chip reported on several strange details in the plea agreement, and he outlines some of the questions that are still unanswered....
Feb 17, 2025•33 min•Ep. 3
Host Kevin Gosztola responds to some key moments that occurred during the Senate confirmation hearings for Director of National Intelligence nominee Tulsi Gabbard and FBI Director nominee Kash Patel.
Feb 17, 2025•36 min•Ep. 2
Kevin focuses on what Reporters Without Borders described as the "unprecedented scope of threats" posed by President Donald Trump's administration. He discusses what The Dissenter Newsletter will be tracking closely and comments on establishment media organizations, which have already yielded to Trump. (Note: The Dissenter Weekly is a project of The Dissenter Newsletter.)
Feb 17, 2025•40 min•Ep. 1
