In this Beg-a-Thon live show, "Ancient Rome and the False Histories Inspiring Musk & the MAGA World," with guest Dr. Sarah E. Bond, we discuss Sarah's new book, Strike: Labor, Unions, and Resistance in the Roman Empire, and how Elon Musk and everyone in his MAGA orbit appropriate the aesthetics of Rome while understanding almost nothing about the history they're seemingly so infatuated with. Originally livestreamed on YouTube on Wednesday, February 19....
Mar 05, 2025•1 hr 6 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this News Brief, we interview journalist and author Eoin Higgins about his new book, "Owned: How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voices on the Left," discuss the new model of tech billionaire funding, and detail how some of the biggest names in Left media became MAGA-aligned, Tucker-boosting petty, score-settlers.
Feb 12, 2025•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this News Brief we detail how The New York Times, Washington Post, and CNN took a pathological liar with a clear ideological agenda at his word he's worried about "waste" for the sole reason he’s rich and powerful.
Feb 05, 2025•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this News Brief, we detail the Trump's administration's strategy of trying to terrorize migrant communities, why it's not working as planned, how The New York Times is manufacturing a pro-mass deportation consensus and how migrant communities and their allies are fighting back. We are joined by Chris from the humanitarian aid organization No More Deaths.
Jan 29, 2025•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this inauguration coverage recap we detail how elite #resistance to Trump is MIA, how grassroots liberals and leftists are working behind the scenes anyway to fight back and why Trump and the billionaires who back him are now, more than ever, simply Too Big To Fail.
Jan 22, 2025•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast "Clinton seeks common ground with Republicans," reported the Associated Press in 1994. "Obama hosts dinner, urges bipartisanship," announced the AP again, in 2009. "Resist Trump? On Immigration, Top Democrats See Room for Compromise," stated The New York Times in late 2024. For decades, we’ve heard Democratic policymakers extol the virtues of working with Republicans. Through a series of stock terms, e.g. bipartisanship, finding common ground, reaching across the aisle, compromising, they tout t...
Jan 15, 2025•1 hr 12 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this News Brief, we talk to Joyce Ajlouny of the American Friends Service Committee, discuss a recent episode where the New York Times refused to run an AFSC pro-ceasefire ad with the word "genocide" in it, and detail the broader battle within liberalism over labeling the US and Israel's "war" as genocide––and what it would entail if our media did.
Jan 08, 2025•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast "White House frustrated by Israel's onslaught but sees few options," reports the Washington Post. "White House cancels meeting, scolds Netanyahu in protest over video," announces Axios. "Biden Works Against the Clock as Violence Escalates in the Middle East," asserts The New York Times. Since Oct. 7, 2023, we've heard seemingly endlessly that the Biden White House disagrees with the violence in Gaza, but can't do anything to stop it. A number of hindrances frustrate the administration, we're tol...
Dec 11, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Transcript available on Metacast "The Bad Guys Are Winning," wrote Anne Applebaum for The Atlantic in 2021. "The War on History Is a War on Democracy," warned Timothy Snyder in The New York Times, also in 2021. "The GOP has found a Putin-lite to fawn over. That's bad news for democracy," argued Ruth Ben-Ghiat on MSNBC the following year, 2022. Within the last 10 years or so, and especially since the 2016 election of Trump, these authors — Anne Applebaum, Timothy Snyder, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, in addition to several others — have becom...
Dec 04, 2024•1 hr 20 min•Transcript available on Metacast "Salvadoran Ties Bloodshed To a 'Culture of Violence'", reported The New York Times in 1981. "The violence in Lebanon is casual, random, and probably addicting," stated the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in 1985. "Muslim life is cheap, most notably to Muslims," wrote long-time New Republic publisher and editor-in-chief Marty Peretz in 2010. There’s a recurring theme within media coverage of subjugated people in the US and around the world: they’re mindlessly, inherently savage. Whether the subject is ...
Nov 20, 2024•1 hr 16 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this pubic News Brief, we detail the usual scapegoats for party, pundit, and press failure to stem the tide of ascendant fascism.
Nov 13, 2024•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast The PC Police Outlaw Make-Believe." "Meet the Renegades of the Intellectual Dark Web." "The Roots of Campus Hatred." "End DEI." These articles all have something in common: they were written by Bari Weiss. Weiss, the New York Times opinion editor and columnist turned horseshoe theorist media proprietor, has made a name for herself as a victim, and enemy, of that perennial right-wing bogeyman: so-called wokeness. For over a decade now, Weiss has taken to the pages of major news media to complain,...
Oct 30, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Transcript available on Metacast "An inflation conspiracy theory is infecting the Democratic Party," The Washington Post frets. "'Greedflation' is a nonsense idea," The Economist insists. "Harris' plan to stop price gouging could create more problems than it solves," CNN warns. Over the last few years, as the prices of groceries, cars, and other necessities have risen, often dramatically, leading news outlets and influential pundits have claimed that these rising prices are simply a matter of supply and demand. Corporations are...
Oct 16, 2024•1 hr 18 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this News Brief, we discuss the Democratic nominee's overt embrace of conservative policy and politicians and the widespread, unchecked assumption that tracking right has zero electoral trade-offs.
Oct 09, 2024•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast "Calls for Transforming Police Run Into Realities of Governing in Minnesota," cautioned The New York Times in 2020. "Democrats Face Pressure on Crime From a New Front: Their Base," claimed the paper of record again, in 2022. "How Biden’s recent actions on immigration could address a major issue voters have with him," announced PBS NewsHour, republishing the Associated Press, in 2024. There’s a common ethos in Democratic politics: Do what’s popular. In recent years, a certain class of political p...
Oct 02, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast “Citizens to Aid Police in New Program,” reported the Los Angeles Times in 1975. “Community Policing: Law Enforcement Returns to Its Roots,” declared the Chicago Tribune in 1994. “Obama Calls for Changes in Policing After Task Force Report,” announced The New York Times in 2015. Periodically, US officials propose some type of police “reform,” usually after a period of widespread protest against ongoing racist police violence. Police, we’re told, will improve their own performance and relationshi...
Sep 25, 2024•1 hr 21 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this public News Brief, we examine rightwing media's shameful incitement campaign against Haitian migrants and J.D. Vance's smarmy, grating rhetorical tactic of blaming nameless "constituents" for his stoking of a hate mob.
Sep 19, 2024•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this public News Brief, we recap the ready-made talking points used to smear DNC Gaza protests, detail why they don't add up, and discuss how the best way to avoid the appearance of party infighting is for VP Harris to Simply Do The Right Thing. This News Brief is based on an article published today in In These Times.
Aug 17, 2024•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast "Western World Observes Press Freedom Day," gloated the United Press International newswire back in 1961. "Trump v. CNN: lawsuit becomes test case on press freedom," declared The Guardian in November 2018. "The 10 Best and Worst Countries for Press Freedom," says US News and World report in 2022. For decades, elite US media and government institutions have touted the sacred notion of freedom of the press. Our media, so we’re told, have the legally enshrined latitude and responsibility to critici...
Aug 14, 2024•2 hr 32 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this public News Brief, we discuss a new, detailed media survey by Zach Siegel that shows how news outlets mindlessly parrot police "accidental fentanyl overdoes" misinformation.
Aug 07, 2024•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this public News Brief we analyze the new Democratic nominee's "shift in tone" and whether more sophisticated Empathy-Speak and continued appeals to bogus "ceasefire negotiations" signifies a meaningful break from Biden.
Aug 02, 2024•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast "Legalize and Regulate Sports Betting," NBA Commissioner Adam Silver wrote in The New York Times in 2014. "NFL Betting Promos & Bonuses | Top NFL Betting Sites & Offers for Week 9 NFL Odds & More," USA Today offered readers in 2023. "Bookmakers break down NBA, NHL playoffs, big bets," reads a June 2024 Fox Sports headline. It's not an exaggeration to state that, since its legalization in 2018, sports betting and other forms of sports gambling have all but taken over American sports media. Increa...
Jul 31, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this live show from July 16 2024, we are joined by Citations Needed Senior Olympics Correspondent Jules Boykoff of The Nation to discuss unrest in France over the upcoming Olympic games, increased athlete activism and unionization, and the fewer and fewer marks willing to buy the IOC's bill of goods.
Jul 24, 2024•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast "How Railroaders Are Killed; Train Crews Grow Careless," read a 1906 syndicated article. "There is a kind of personality who is accident-prone," reported the Kansas City Star in 1944. Amazon's safety programs are "designed to keep its nearly one million warehouse workers worldwide fit and limber," The Seattle Times claimed in 2021. For well over a century, it’s been standard practice for corporations, and the media more generally– echoing these "information campaigns" – to skirt, defy, or preven...
Jul 10, 2024•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast “Choose the product best suited for baby,” Nestlé urged in a 1970s baby formula ad. “What size is your carbon footprint?” wondered oil giant BP in 2003. “Texting, music listening put distracted pedestrians at risk,” USA Today announced in 2012. These headlines and ad copy all offer a glimpse into a longstanding strategy among corporations: place the burdens of safety, health, and wellbeing on individuals, in order to deflect responsibility and regulation. Whether in the areas of transportation, ...
Jul 03, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Transcript available on Metacast On this public News Brief, we are joined by author and historian Jeff Schuhrke to discuss labor's response to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, the history of union support for (and opposition to) U.S.-led war and imperialism, and his upcoming book, Blue-Collar Empire: The Untold Story of US Labor's Global Anticommunist Crusade.
Jun 19, 2024•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast On this Citations Needed Live Show, recorded virtually on May 23, 2024, Adam and Nima discuss recent coverage of the campus protests over the ongoing genocide in Gaza, from the media's habit of pathologizing Zoomers to Biden's condescending implication they're just a foaming hate mob. We were joined by guests Layla Saliba and Jonathan Ben-Menachem.
Jun 12, 2024•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast "Susan Rice examines U.S. foreign policy strategy with The Post's David Ignatius," read the title of a 2016 Washington Post Live conversation. "Key player in war on climate change? The Pentagon," CNN insisted in 2020. "Democrats Need To Learn How To Get Excited About the Center-Left," The Messenger proclaimed in 2023. These posts were all facilitated, sponsored, or authored by a member of a Democratic-aligned, corporate U.S. think tank. Whether the Center for American Progress, Center for a New ...
Jun 05, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Transcript available on Metacast “David Plouffe's advice for 2020,” Axios shared in 2019. “James Carville: 'Stupid wokeness' is a national problem for Democrats,” CNN reported in 2021. “Robert Gibbs, former White House Press Secretary under President Obama, discusses the debt ceiling deal and the latest job numbers,” MSNBC announced in 2023. On a regular basis, news media clue us into the latest prescriptions from so-called Democratic strategists: people who’ve served as advisers, cabinet members, or other high-ranking position...
May 29, 2024•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast “Here's why creating single-payer health care in America is so hard,” explained Harold Pollack in Vox in 2016. “The benefits of climate action…are diffuse and hard to pin down,” shrugged a Foreign Affairs article in 2020. “A nuanced view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” presented Aliza Pilichowski in The Jerusalem Post in 2023. Each of the above is an example of something that can be called "Nuance Trolling": The insistence that some major beneficial development like single-payer healthcare...
May 15, 2024•1 hr 20 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
