Counterpunch

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A US biweekly political magazine that since 2018 has moved sharply to the official narrative.

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Website.png http://www.counterpunch.org   SourcewatchRdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
Started: 1994

Constitutes: media,  gatekeeper

Counterpunch (CP) is a US focused biweekly political magazine. During 2018, it underwent a substantial purge of writers and a narrowing on several editorial lines, now aligning strongly with dominant US/NATO narratives on subjects such as Russia, deep politics and the regime change operation in Syria.

History

Started in 1994 by Alexander Cockburn,Ken Silverstein and Jeffrey St. Clair, it was for several decades one of the main outlets for independent leftist thought, with a relative openness to some deep state subjects, like the assassination of Martin Luther King and the CIA-Contra cocaine smuggling operation.

2018 Purge

Noticeably starting around mid 2018, the magazine underwent a drastic purging of writers. Contributors who had been with them for decades found themselves refused publishing, and when asking for an explanation or discussion, received no answer.[1]

The writers purged included Andre Vltchek, Ann Garrison, C.J. Hopkins, Diana Johnstone, Israel Shamir, Mike Whitney As Edward Curtin, one of the purged writers, noted, "Others, smelling an odd odor, have walked away."[2]

Campaign against Caitlin Johnstone

In July 2017, CounterPunch ran a whole series of articles with vituperate attacks on independent antiwar journalist Caitlin Johnstone. When Johnstone discussed on her blog how to create a broad single-issue antiwar movement and mentioned the possibility of an alliance with people nominally on the right in politics, specifically mentioning Michael Cernovich as a random example, she was pounced upon by Counterpunch[3]. Over the next few months, CP published almost a dozen articles with a weirdly overreacting aggressive tone against Johnstone[4][5]. Even when Johnstone conceded Cernovich was a bad example, the attacks continued.

Reporting

On December 20, 2002, Sean Carter for CounterPunch wrote an article on The Bush Rape Story about Margie Schoedinger's lawsuit. In contrast to the majority of early reporting on the story, it was still online as of 2019. Carter wrote that "anyone with a computer and a modem can verify the story by downloading court documents. However, the accuracy of the story does not seem to be enough for the media. Apparently, this story does not meet its threshold of “responsible journalism.”"[6]

'Alice Donovan'

In 2016, the Washington Post presented claims[7] from anonymous US intelligence sources that Counterpunch had published an article by an alleged “Russian troll” named Alice Donovan, and four more pieces by "her" the following year.

When Washington Post broached the subject again in late 2017, the CP editors investigated, concluding that CP had "published five stories by Donovan. One was apolitical. Four could be considered critiques of US foreign policy during the Trump administration. None mentioned Hillary Clinton, Vladimir Putin, the 2016 elections, Wikileaks or Julian Assange."[8] Alice Donovan was seemingly a false name or pseudonym, but the claimed Russian connection remained tenuously proved. Someone under the name Alice Donovan had also published a handful rather bland pieces on Inside Syria Media, generally positive to the Syrian government.

This incident happened during the CIA's Russiagate psychological operation and the first phase in the war against independent media, with false news as the angle. Given the blandness of Donovan's articles, it is not unreasonable to assume the incident was a setup by an agent provocateur[9] connected to the US secret services. This has been a standard FBI technique time and again for a century.


 

Documents sourced from Counterpunch

TitleTypeSubject(s)Publication dateAuthor(s)Description
Document:A Death Sentence for GreecearticleGreece
IMF
Eurozone
13 February 2012Mike WhitneyAn analysis and deconstruction of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Greek government and its creditors which secured Greek parliamentary approval amid scenes of unprecedented protests by the Greek population on 11 February 2012.
Document:A Perfect ConspiracyarticleTerrorism Industry
7-7
22 July 2005Trowbridge Ford
Document:After Mossad Targeted Soleimani, Trump Pulled the TriggerArticleMossad
Benjamin Netanyahu
Donald Trump
Ruhollah Khomeini
Qassem Soleimani
3 January 2020Jefferson MorleyDonald Trump has now fulfilled the wishes of Mossad. After proclaiming his intention to end America’s “stupid endless wars,” the president has effectively declared war on the largest country in the region in solidarity with Israel, the most unpopular country in the Middle East.
Document:Britain Bans Press TVarticleCensorship
Press TV
22 January 2012Ashfin RattansiThe story of the banning of Press TV from the UK Sky Platform channel 515 that you will not see covered in the commercially controlled media.
Document:Empire of LiesspeechIraq War 2003
Corporate Media/Propaganda
25 February 2011Jonathan Cook
Document:From Glory Boy to PoW SongbirdarticleJohn McCain13 June 2008Douglas ValentineA reality based counterbalance to the de-rigeur 'war-hero' treatment that John McCain is routinely accorded by the US commercially-controlled media and his Wikipedia entry
Document:How Saville got the Higher-ups off the hookarticleBloody Sunday18 June 2010Eamonn McCannA powerful critique of the Saville report into the 'Bloody Sunday' killings in Derry Northern Ireland by British paratroopers
Document:International Injustice: the Conviction of Radovan KaradzicarticleSrebrenica Massacre
Radovan Karadžić
Kosovo War
Bosnian War
30 March 2016Diana JohnstoneCommentary on the guilty verdict on Radovan Karadzic by the International Criminal Court on 24 March 2016
Document:Itamar - What the media missedarticleItamar attack17 March 2011Alison Weir
Document:Julian Assange Must be Freed, Not BetrayedArticleWikileaks
Julian Assange
Gareth Peirce
Saudi Arabia
Islamic State
Qatar
John Podesta
Hillary Clinton
Keir Starmer
David Leigh
Malcolm Turnbull
Julia Gillard
Scott Morrison
John Shipton
Nils Melzer
Sarah Ferguson
Stefania Maurizi
18 February 2020John PilgerSarah Ferguson's interview made no mention of a leaked document, revealed by WikiLeaks, called 'Libya Tick Tock', prepared for Hillary Clinton, which described her as the central figure driving the destruction of the Libyan state in 2011. This resulted in 40,000 deaths, the arrival of ISIS in North Africa and the European refugee and migrant crisis.
Document:Las Malvinas Son Argentinas: Return to the Falklands?articleDocument:Falklands and Chagos - A Tale of Two Islands
Falkland Islands
4 April 2016John Wright
Document:Libya and the Return of Humanitarian Imperialismarticle2011 Attacks on Libya
"Humanitarian intervention"
Imperialism
8 March 2011Jean Bricmont
Document:MI5 and the Christmas Tree Filesbook extractMI5
BBC
BBC/Deep state control
1988Mark Hollingsworth
Richard Norton-Taylor
Document:Manning Memo 14 March 2002memo2003 Iraq War14 March 2002David Manning
Document:Meyer Memo 18 March 2002memoDowning Street memo
Iraq War 2003
18 March 2002Christopher Meyer
Document:NATO Massacre at Majerwebpage2011 Attacks on Libya12 August 2011Franklin Lamb
Document:Pushing Ukraine to the Brinkarticle2014 Ukraine coup
Afghanistan/2001 Invasion
9 July 2014Mike WhitneyAn illuminating introduction to extent that control of both gas and oil pipelines defines Usaian global policy and actions - especially in the Middle East, Central Asia and Ukraine. It is essentially anti-Russian and aimed at maintaining Ango-US dominance over the EU and Europe
Document:Putin's triumpharticle2014 Ukraine coup23 March 2014Israel ShamirIsrael Shamir on the historical background to the politics of Vladimir Putin and the unfolding events in Ukraine and Crimea
Document:Riots and the Underclasswebpage2011 England riots12 August 2011Alexander Cockburn
Document:Sanctions of Mass Destruction: America’s War on VenezuelaArticleVenezuela
Alfred de Zayas
Hugo Chávez
Nicolás Maduro
Juan Guaidó
1 February 2019Garikai ChenguAmerica’s largest export used to be manufactured goods made proudly in the United States. Today, America’s largest export is the US dollar. Any nation like Venezuela that threatens that export is met with America’s second largest export: weapons, chief amongst which are Sanctions of Mass Destruction.
Document:Speech by Head of MI6speechMI6
MI5
Society of Editors
28 October 2010John SawersA speech by then Director General of MI6 to The Society of Editors about the work of the SIS's and their relationship with the media.
Document:The Assange Arrest is a Warning From HistoryArticleWikileaks
Julian Assange
Sarah Tisdall
Chelsea Manning
The Guardian
Alan Rusbridger
Katharine Viner
Hillary Clinton
David Leigh
Paul Manafort
Luke Harding
Scott Morrison
Leni Riefenstahl
Lenín Moreno
12 April 2019John PilgerLeni Riefenstahl, close friend of Adolf Hitler, whose films helped cast the Nazi spell over Germany told me that the message in her films, the propaganda, was dependent not on “orders from above” but on what she called the “submissive void” of the public: "When people no longer ask serious questions, they are submissive and malleable. Anything can happen.”
Document:The Brown Revolution in UkrainearticleUS/Sponsored Regime-change efforts since 1945
Ukraine Riots 2013-14
24 February 2014Israel ShamirIsrael Shamir's take on the February 2014 events in Western Ukraine with a pithy, numbered outline of this particular 'Regime-change' modus-operandi - one which is becoming wearily predictable and familiar to students of these things.
Document:The Brutal Legacy of Bloody Sunday is a Powerful Warning to Those Hoping to Save BrexitArticleThe Troubles
Bloody Sunday (1972)
Theresa May
Boris Johnson
Brexit
Democratic Unionist Party
Good Friday Agreement
Irish question
19 March 2019Patrick CockburnWhat we are seeing is the two most divisive issues in modern British history coming together in a toxic blend: these are Brexit and the Irish question.
Document:The Demonization of Jeremy CorbynArticleBBC
Austerity
Boris Johnson
Ed Balls
Jeremy Corbyn
Ephraim Mirvis
10 December 2019Tony McKennaNotwithstanding, Corbyn was transfigured by a rabid establishment into successive manifestations of the purest evil: he was a terrorist sympathiser; a threat to national security; a communist spy; a misogynist; and, a dyed-in-the-wool anti-Semite.
Document:The International Terrorist Threat and the Dilemas in Countering itspeech"War on Terror"1 September 2005Eliza Manningham-BullerA promotion of The War On Terror from the head of UK's MI5. "The world has changed"... etc.
Document:The London Riots in Historical Perspectivewebpage2011 England riots11 August 2011Ashley Dawson
Document:The Move to Muzzle Dieudonné M’Bala M’Balaarticle"Antisemitism"
Censorship
Dieudonné M'bala M'bala
Quenelle
1 January 2014Diana JohnstoneHow a French Cameroonian Comedian has the Judaic-dominated French establishment so worried they are making embarrassing fools of themselves.
Document:The Pentagon’s “2015 Strategy” For Ruling the WorldarticleUS/Exceptionalism
US/Military
File:2015 US National Military Strategy.pdf
3 July 2015Mike WhitneyA critique of the 2015 US National military strategy document
Document:The Shoah as State Religion?article"Antisemitism"
Quenelle
24 January 2014Diana JohnstoneThe paranoid sensitivities of the French establishment to any and all manifestations of ridicule and satire concerning the 'State Religion' of the Shoa or Holocaust
Document:The Strange Death of Hugo ChavezInterviewHugo Chávez22 April 2016Mike Whitney
Eva Golinger
Mike Whitney interviews Eva Golinger and discusses persuasive evidence that Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez did not die from a naturally occuring cancer in 2013
Document:The Suicide StatearticleIsrael
Zionism
17 February 2012Uri AvneryOn the suicidal tragectory of zionist Israel
Document:The War Prayershort storyWar
Patriotism
November 1916Mark TwainMark Twain's scathing indictment of war, and particularly of blind patriotic and religious fervor as motivations for war. The piece was left unpublished at his death, largely due to pressure from his family, who feared that it would be considered sacrilegious. Twain’s publisher and other friends also discouraged him from publishing it.
Document:Three Shattered Mythsopen letterBabar Ahmad
UK/Police
UK/Torture
26 January 2005Babar Ahmad
Document:To understand or not to understand PutinarticleVladimir Putin
2014 Ukraine coup
8 May 2014Diana JohnstoneUnderstanding President Vladimir Putin and the dogged, determined unanimity of the western media to demonise and blame him for everything, in near total disregard of the evidence - a surreal situation explained with clarity
Document:Washington's "Pivot" hits a Brick Wallarticle2014 Ukraine coup/Civil war29 August 2014Mike WhitneyA scathing polemic on US support and promotion of the civil war in Ukraine
Document:Why Much of the Global South Isn’t Automatically Supporting the West in UkraineArticleRussia
China
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
Global North and Global South
Western world
28 February 2023Krishen Mehta"The BRICS are not imposing sanctions on Russia nor supplying arms to the opposing side. While Russia is the biggest supplier of energy and foodgrains for the Global South, China remains the biggest supplier of financing and infrastructure projects to them through the Belt and Road Initiative. And now Russia and China are closer than ever before because of the war."
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References