PODCAST: Janine Jackson on Corporate Media Bias

Today we have another edition of OPTOUTCAST for you!

On this edition of OptOutcast, I speak with Janine Jackson, the host and producer of COUNTERSPIN, a weekly radio show and podcast from national media watchdog FAIR. Jackson is also FAIR's program director. She co-edited The FAIR Reader: An Extra! Review of Press and Politics in the ’90s, and she has appeared on ABC‘s Nightline and CNN Headline News, among other outlets, and has testified to the Senate Communications Subcommittee on budget reauthorization for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Her articles have appeared in various publications, including In These Times and the UAW’s Solidarity, and in books including Civil Rights Since 1787 and Stop the Next War Now: Effective Responses to Violence and Terrorism.

Listen to the full episode

We discuss Janine's entry into media criticism, the current misinformation crisis, corporate media's failures in covering the Iraq War, and lots more.

Janine answers questions such as: Have the corporate media become less biased towards the U.S. government regarding foreign policy over the last few decades? How do we counter misinformation in broadcast news? What kind of structural change in the media ecosystem would help improve society?

U.S. corporate media made it their job to ignore Iraqis, to ignore peace advocates, to ignore regional specialists who said, "This isn't gonna go the way you think it's gonna go." So for me the question is, did media learn anything? Well no, they didn't, because they're not going back to the sources who got it right on the Iraq War.

Listen to the full episode here or wherever you get your podcasts.

Most full OPTOUTCAST episodes are available only to recurring OptOut donors, but we thought we'd offer this one to everyone. For access to future episodes, as well as many other perks, become an OptOut Member, Baller, or OG!

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The OptOut Media Foundation (EIN: 85-2348079) is a nonprofit charity with a mission to educate the public about current events and help sustain a diverse media ecosystem by promoting and assisting independent news outlets and, in doing so, advance democracy and social justice.

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