The Dissenter Update

L.A. And The Long History Of Violence Against Journalists

Host Kevin Gosztola is joined by guest Adam Rose, who is the press rights chair for the Los Angeles Press Club. He discusses lawsuits against the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, the Los Angeles Police Department, and the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department.

Putting Profits Ahead Of Press Freedom (With Jeff Cohen)

Host Kevin Gosztola is joined by guest Jeff Cohen, the founder of FAIR [http://www.fair.org/] (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting), the co-founder of RootsAction.org [http://www.rootsaction.org/], and author of “Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media.” We discuss corporate media capitulation during Donald Trump's second presidential term. Jeff is a longtime media critic, who has spoken out against media conglomerates' ties to military contractors. Both Kevin and Jeff speak about how war led them to prioritize media reform advocacy. And later in the episode, Jeff recalls fighting the FCC in 2003 as the invasion and occupation of Iraq unfolded and war propaganda filled the airwaves.

Dying Gaza Journalists And The Western Media's Complicity

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. files.

ICE Is a Press Freedom Issue (With Tina-Desiree Berg)

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 journalism event in Buffalo, New York.

Trump Administration's Reliance On Lie Detectors

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 covered a leaked DIA intelligence assessment on US attacks on Iran's nuclear energy sites.