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Janine Jackson interviewed the Center for Constitutional Rights’ Samer Araabi about dissent as “terrorism” for the September 4, 2026, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript. https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin260904Araabi.mp3 Janine Jackson: The upcoming remembrance of September 11, 2001, will pull a lot of strings.

To mark the 25th anniversary of September 11, 2001, FAIR shares an excerpt from Belén Fernández’s 2011 book The Imperial Messenger (Verso), a critical look at Thomas Friedman, who as foreign affairs columnist for the New York Times was one of the most influential media voices interpreting 9/11 and justifying its employment as a rationale for the US government’s ongoing “War on Terror.” Especially clear in Thomas Friedman’s dealings with the Arab/Muslim world is the idea that, just because...

The New York Times (8/22/26) went after NYC-DSA’s co-chair for living in a home in Brooklyn…. Particularly in its editorials and op-eds, billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal (e.g., 4/19/26, 7/2/26, 8/9/26, 8/12/26) openly opposes socialist policies and people. The New York Times (e.g., 6/16/25, 10/20/25, 11/4/25) also opposes socialism, but it prefers a less direct and more insidious approach.

Subscribe: RSS https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin260911.mp3 Right-click here to download this episode (“Save link as…”). This week on CounterSpin: Some 3,000 people died when planes hit the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001. One hundred twenty-five people died at the Pentagon in Virginia, and at least 265 people were killed—passengers and crew—on the planes used to carry out the attacks. It was a day of horror and grief.

AP (6/3/26): “The environmental footprint of data centers already rivals some of the world’s largest countries.” If you follow conservative media and Republican politicians, you could be convinced that any opposition to AI data centers is not due to their sprawling footprint, greed for electricity or insatiable need for cooling water. Rather, it’s the result of a Chinese Communist plot. These data centers are dreadfully unpopular.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani plans to increase income taxes for residents who make more than $1 million (1% of the population) and raise corporate taxes (on 1,000 out of the city’s 250,000 businesses, according to the Empire Center for Public Policy—10/30/25). The New York Post responded with a drumbeat of coverage claiming that rich residents and corporations will leave the state in a mass exodus, triggering an economic spiral.

Subscribe: RSS https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin260904.mp3 Right-click here to download this episode (“Save link as…”). This week on CounterSpin: No humor intended: Listening to this show might make you a domestic terrorist. Yes, the Trump White House is trying to make anyone a “terrorist” who speaks out publicly, or co-signs silently, against their plans or policies.

Janine Jackson interviewed Brown University School of Public Health’s Abdullah Shihipar about Medicare for All for the August 28, 2026, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript.

Washington Post (8/23/26): “The fixation on El-Sayed’s faith is part of a growing embrace of open Islamophobia by some Republicans.” Political cartoons commenting on Michigan’s 2026 US Senate race have been dominated by a torrent of Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism directed at Democratic nominee Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, an Arab-American Muslim.

Approximately 17,000 New York City homeowners were notified on July 22 that their properties may be subject to a new pied-à-terre tax, a surcharge on secondary residences  valued at $5 million or more, should owners be unable to prove exemption by late August.