Really freaks me out when i hear “We stand with (insert x country here)” in the exact same way over and over again from these rich freaks. 

We celebrate Bernie's victory in the Iowa Caucus.

TOUR DATES:ALL TICKETS AVAILABLE AT: www.chapotraphouse.com/tour
Las Vegas, NV Feb 18, @ House of Blues
San Diego, CA, Feb 23, @ The Observatory North Park
Sacramento, CA Feb 28 @ Ace of Spades

Chapo Trap House

UNLOCKED: 391 - Bernie Won (2/5/20)

One of the most prized professional norms for journalists, particularly the United States, is the preservation of neutrality in reporting. While the concept of “objectivity” has fallen out of fashion among mainstream reportage in recent years, related concepts that convey a similar idea such as “impartiality” and “neutrality” have come to replace it. In their mission statements and codes of ethics, corporate and government owned outlets routinely proclaim the importance of impartiality and balance, in the sanctified pursuit of fair, unbiased reporting. 

In theory, this can be a healthy idea. Distinguishing between so-called opinion or editorial versus neutral, down-the-middle reporting –“objectivity” or “impartiality” can give the reader a sense that a series of facts are being reported rather than some guy’s opinion. 
The fundamental problem is when this vaguely aspirational genre morphs into an unchecked ideology––an ideology that requires one to think we live in a world where said facts are curated and created outside of long-existing power structures; that those who produce, on an institutional scale, knowledge products via think tanks and academic institutions are without bias. That journalistic institutions, funded by large corporations and billionaires themselves, don’t decide which neutral facts are important and which aren’t. 

“Objectivity” that doesn’t calibrate power asymmetries or attempt to account for its own institutional ideology isn’t a mode of reporting, it’s conservative conditioning that––if not in intent, in effect––does little more than advance prevailing ruling class ideology. Indeed, anyone who’s ever studied marketing or PR or propaganda will tell you the most effective messaging is that which appears unbiased and impartial.

On today’s show, we’ll examine how objectivity came to be a defining principle of Western journalism and how U.S. media’s understanding of impartiality provides an urbane veneer for racism, homophobia, anti-poor policies and other reactionary currents.

We are joined this week by journalist Lewis Raven Wallace, author of The View from Somewhere: Undoing the Myth of Journalistic Objectivity.

Episode 102: The Conservative Sanctimony of Journalistic Impartiality

After over 100 episodes, scores of News Briefs, and almost three years of content production, Citations Needed has finally done it: reduced itself to a listicle. On this News Brief, we examine the top ten worst COVID-19 takes to date (not including the celebrity 'Imagine' video). Proceed with caution.

News Brief: Top 10 Worst Covid Crisis Takes (So Far)

As COVID-19 continues to endanger the health of people throughout the world, it also magnifies a long-existent global humanitarian crisis: The use of sanctions by the United States and other powers as a weapon of war. In Iran, one of the countries most devastated by the contagion, sanctions have strangulated the supply of medical equipment crucial to testing the population and treating those who are infected, inspiring some members of the political establishment to call for sanctions to be eased.

While these pleas are necessary, they’re woefully inadequate and long overdue. Sanctions aren’t just a problem when there’s a pandemic. Iran had been subjected to U.S. and UN-imposed sanctions long before the appearance of the contagion—as had Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea, Iraq, and far too many other countries deemed Official Enemies of the United States and its allies, resulting in economic destabilization, vulnerability to U.S. militarism, starvation, illness, and mass deaths. 
Amid these life-or-death stakes, media and think tanks’ responses to sanctions range from mere handwringing to outright bloodlust. Rather than decisively condemning sanctions as ruthless acts of economic warfare, American media largely perpetuates the narrative that sanctions are a necessity, and often a force for good, in the effort to punish and “change the behavior” of some perceived “rogue” government. Meanwhile, little criticism is offered outside of tepid suggestions that those sanctions should be tweaked. 

On today’s show, we’ll examine how the U.S. levies sanctions to undermine countries opposed to U.S. hegemony, how sanctions are laundered as benign in the media, and how the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the preexisting, decades-long barbarism of U.S. foreign policy. 

We are joined by guests Keyvan Shafiei and Hoda Katebi.

Episode 106: The Sanitization of Sanctions

"Economists' forecasts for GDP growth in 2020 vary widely," says The Economist. "Algeria's GDP growth falls to 0.8% in 2019," one Reuters headline reads. "GDP — the broadest measure of economic activity — grew at an annual rate of just 1.9% during the third quarter," NPR warns. Everywhere we turn for economic news, the Gross Domestic Product, or GDP, is held up as the key proxy for prosperity and sound fiscal policy. 

Since its codification as the new gold standard for measuring prosperity at the Bretton Wood conference in 1944, the GDP has been the most popular metric used by American and British media when measure a nation’s prosperity. The GDP, and its close cousin, the Gross National Product, have not been without its critics for decades, but prying it from its top position as The Most Important Policy Goal has been an impossible task. Despite many labor activists, environmentalists and economists leveling critiques at its myopic, capitalist ideology, the metric has remained central to how the media and lawmakers determine fiscal policy. 

But what is the GDP exactly? How did it become the go-to proxy for prosperity in Western media? What are its ideological inputs, and how did post-war notions of colonialism and extractivism helps cement its place in our collective mindset? And what, more importantly, do activists argue we should replace it with? On this episode of Citations Needed we will explore these questions and examine how centralizing Gross Domestic Product––by its very design––obscures climate crisis, labor abuses, racism, drudgery, and a whole host of society's ills. 

We welcome economic anthropologist Dr. Jason Hickel back to the show.

Episode 108: How GDP Fetishism Drives Climate Crisis and Inequality

“Obama lauds small business owners in his State of the Union,” announced The Washington Post. “I have always said that there is nothing more optimistic – perhaps maybe getting married – than starting a small business,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi tells us. “John Kerry would raise taxes on 900,000 small businesses,” insisted a reelection ad for George W. Bush.

Everywhere we turn we are centering the needs of and reminded of the glowing status of the “small business.” They are the bipartisan holiest of holies in our economy – the scrappy little guy that also props up the moral pillars of capitalism – evidence that with a little elbow grease and knowhow anyone can build a business in their image. Small businesses are one of two major vehicles for COVID-19 relief – a wholly uncontroversial good that both parties, all ideologies, everyone!, can agree are worth protecting and prioritizing. 

But what do pundits and politicians mean exactly when they say “small business”? How does our romantic vision of “small business” match up with reality, and how is their plight used as a messaging vanguard to strip away environmental and labor regulations, tort protections, taxes and a host of safeguards against corporate greed?

The rhetoric forces the evocation of a wholesome image of a Mom-and-Pop candy store in Appleton, Wisconsin, in order to push for laws that will ultimately benefit hedge funds, Dupont and Koch Industries, and a murderers row of polluters and worker abusers.

Our guests are Public Citizen's Lisa Gilbert and Street Fight Radio's Bryan Quinby.

Episode 111: How “Small Business” Rhetoric Is Used to Protect Corporate America

Part two of…the Song Machine! We track pop music’s muddled fallout from 9/11 (again), the reign of Max Martin and Dr. Luke, track-and-hook songwriting, Rihanna, Katy Perry, Kesha and the f u t u r e  of pop.

NEW YOUTUBE CHANNEL, please subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-sYl6WVNG_-okzBwm4SiTg

Songs in order:
Kelly Clarkson - A Moment Like This
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps
Kelly Clarkson - Since U Been Gone
Ted Leo - Since U Been Gone/Maps
Rihanna - SOS
Rihanna - Umbrella
Rihanna - What’s My Name
Beyonce - Halo
Kelly Clarkson - Already Gone
Katy Perry - I Kissed a Girl
Flo Rida (FT KESHA) - Right Round
Kesha - Tik Tok
Kesha - Raising Hell
Juice WRLD x Marshmello - Come & Go

And Introducing Podcast

#75 THE SONG MACHINE! pt. 2

Derek (@derek8185338005) joins Charles, Alex, and Dan to discuss the life of "Monster Mash" writer Bobby Pickett, hear about the time Dan auditioned for the Bob Dylan biopic I'm Not There, and take a preliminary peek at Tommy Lee's book Tommyland.

-----
Twitter: twitter.com/fortunekit00
Patreon: www.patreon.com/fortunekit
Spotify (Music): open.spotify.com/artist/63uMzLaI4yxWEA8BzJWw4c
Spotify (Podcast): open.spotify.com/show/5CPv5LSRG0VUC5tEHJJXlB
iTunes: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1468516415

60 - The Great Reset (ft. Derek)

Walt Tremblay (@necrobranson) confesses his sins to a priest (@intellegint).

E1 on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/e1podcast

156 - The Confession of Walt Tremblay

Zero Books publishing manager Doug Lain talks to us about getting censored by the Youtube algorithm bot and how we grapple with free speech as leftists on the internet. We go on to talk about how this plays into the overall ideological movement of socialism, the end of history/end of ideology, and then someone brings up a twitter account that it is illegal to type out loud and we start yappin' about free speech and comics and crap. Enjoy

DOUG LAIN/ZERO BOOKS
https://www.johnhuntpublishing.com/zer0-books/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyoQK-mZXr2ws4C0nXGCH1w
https://douglaslain.substack.com/p/why-did-youtube-censor-us
https://youtu.be/2c5_hVUHp5o
https://www.patreon.com/zerobooks

MERCH
poddamnamerica.bigcartel.com

PATREON
Patreon.com/PODDAMNAMERICA

Howdy I'm the Sherrif of Youtube w/ Doug Lain

Comedian Rufat Agayev joins us for a chill RELAXED episode where we talk about Texas governor Greg Abbott's decision to end the mask mandate, Biden's dodgy moves regarding the minimum wage, Neera Tanden, the OK Boomer girl and more.

RUFAT AGAYEV
@Rafatcamp
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS10XbwUdEgOm8l_pEpYsSw

FULL EPISODE AT
PATREON.COM/PODDAMNAMERICA

(PREVIEW) News Roundup w/ Rufat Agayev

Citations Needed is a podcast about the media, power, PR, and the history of bullshit. It is hosted by Nima Shirazi and Adam Johnson, and produced by Florence Barrau-Adams.

Episode 106: The Sanitization of Sanctions

Citations Needed Podcast

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