CounterPunch is a biweekly newsletter published in the United States that covers politics from a left-wing perspective. It has a website which contains much more material not published in the newsletter. In politics, left-wing, the political left or simply the left are terms that refer to the segment of the political spectrum typically associated with any of several strains of, to varying extents, liberalism, socialism, green politics, anarchism, communism, social democracy, progressivism, American liberalism or social liberalism, and defined in...

Running six to eight pages in length, the CounterPunch newsletter primarily publishes commentaries by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair with regular contributions by others. It is noted for its critical coverage of both Democratic and Republican politicians and its extensive reporting of environmental and trade union issues, American foreign policy, and the Israeli-Arab conflict. CounterPunch considers itself to carry on the tradition of muckraking journalism of earlier investigative journalists such as I.F. Stone and George Seldes, casting its approach as "muckraking with a radical attitude." Alexander Claud Cockburn (pronounced , co-burn), born June 6, 1941, is a self-described radical Irish journalist who has lived and worked in the United States since 1973. ... Jeffrey St. ... The Democratic Party is one of the two major United States political parties. ... The Republican Party, often called the GOP (for Grand Old Party, although one early citation described it as the Gallant Old Party [1]), is one of the two major political parties in the United States. ... In American English, a muckraker is a journalist or an author who searches for and exposes scandals and abuses occurring in business and politics. ... Isador Feinstein Stone (better known as I.F. Stone) (December 24, 1907 – July 17, 1989) was an iconoclastic American investigative journalist best known for his influential political newsletter, . Stone was born in Philadelphia. ... George Seldes (November 16, 1890 – July 2, 1995) was an influential American investigative journalist and media critic. ...

History

The newsletter was established in 1994 by the Washington, D.C.-based investigative reporter Ken Silverstein. He was soon joined by the journalists Cockburn and St. Clair. In 1996 Silverstein left the publication and Cockburn and St. Clair have since been co-editors. Nickname: DC, The District Motto: Justitia Omnibus (Justice for All) Location of Washington, D.C., in relation to the states Maryland and Virginia Coordinates: Federal District District of Columbia  - Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D)  - City Council Chairperson: Vincent C. Gray (D) Ward 1: Jim Graham (D) Ward 2: Jack Evans... Ken Silverstein is a freelance investigative writer based in Washington. ...

The website, which is updated on a daily basis, is supported by revenues generated by the newsletter, as well as fundraising activities and commissions received on click-through sales from Amazon.com.^{[citation needed]} Amazon. ...

Contributors

Notable contributors to CounterPunch have included Robert Fisk, the late Edward Said, Tim Wise, Ralph Nader, M. Shahid Alam, Ward Churchill, Lila Rajiva, Tanya Reinhart, Frank "Chuck" Spinney and Alexander Cockburn's two brothers, Andrew and Patrick, both of whom write on the Middle East, Iraq in particular. For people named Robert Fiske, see Robert Fiske (disambiguation). ... Edward Wadie Said (Arabic: ‎, translit: ) (1 November 1935, Jerusalem &ndash 25 September 2003, New York City) was a well-known Palestinian-American literary theorist and outspoken Palestinian activist. ... Tim Wise is an American anti-racist activist and writer. ... Ralph Nader Ralph Nader (born February 27, 1934) is an American attorney and political activist. ... M. Shahid Alam is Professor of Economics at Northeastern University, Boston. ... Photo of Ward Churchill from University of Colorado faculty web page Ward LeRoy Churchill (born October 2, 1947) is an American writer, Vietnam veteran, political activist, and academic. ... Lila Rajiva is a Baltimore resident. ... Tanya Reinhart is an Israeli linguist who writes frequently on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. ... Frank Chuck Spinney, photographed by Army Photograph Franklin Chuck Spinney (Born 1946, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio) is a former Military Analyst for the Pentagon who became famous in the early 80s with what became known as the Spinney Report, which criticized the reckless pursuit of costly weapon... Andrew Cockburn () is an Irish journalist who has lived in the United States for many years. ... Patrick Cockburn () is an Irish journalist who has been a Middle East correspondent since 1979 for the Financial Times and the Independent . ... A map showing countries commonly considered to be part of the Middle East The Middle East is a region comprising the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. ...

Some paleoconservative writers like Paul Craig Roberts and William Lind can also be found in CounterPunch. The site regularly publishes veteran radicals, such as Lenni Brenner, Fidel Castro, and the late Stew Albert, as well as younger authors such as Diane Christian, Joshua Frank, Norman Finkelstein, Ron Jacobs, Gary Leupp, Cynthia McKinney^[1] and David Price. Paleoconservatism (sometimes shortened to paleo or paleocon when the context is clear) is an anti-communist, anti-authoritarian[1] right wing movement based primarily in the United States that stresses tradition, civil society and classical federalism, along with familial, religious, regional, national and Western identity. ... Paul Craig Roberts Paul Craig Roberts is an economist and a nationally syndicated columnist for Creators Syndicate. ... William S. Lind is director of the Center for Cultural Conservatism at the Free Congress Foundation. ... Lenni Brenner is an American author and activist. ... Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (born on August 13, 1926) is the current President of Cuba but on indefinite medical hiatus. ... Steward Edward Albert (December 4, 1939 – January 30, 2006) was a co-founder of the Yippies, an anti-Vietnam War political activist, and an important figure in the New Left movement of the 1960s. ... Joshua Frank is a left-wing writer living in the United States. ... Norman G. Finkelstein (born December 8, 1953) is a professor of political science and controversial American author. ... Ron Jacobs (born December 27, 1942 in Marion, North Carolina, United States) was head coach of the mens basketball team at the Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles. ... Photo of Cynthia McKinney from her Congressional web site Cynthia Ann McKinney (born March 17, 1955) is an American politician from the U.S. state of Georgia. ... There have been a number of people named David Price: Sir David Price (British politician) was a British Conservative Member of Parliament in the 1970s and 1980s David Price (Canadian politician) was a Member of Parliament from Quebec David Price (American politician) is a Democratic Congressman representing the 4th district...

Praise

The Village Voice has said that CounterPunch "outshines all its competitors." By some accounts, Counterpunch articles have been picked up by or generated articles in Harper's, The Nation, the National Journal, the New York Daily News, The Washington Post, The Texas Observer, and several other publications.^[2] The Village Voice is a weekly newspaper in New York City featuring investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts reviews and events listings for New York City. ... An issue of Harpers Magazine from 1905 Another issue, from November 2004 Harpers Magazine (or simply Harpers) is a monthly general-interest magazine covering literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts from a progressive, moderate left perspective in a fashion often not found in the ordinary news... This article is about the U.S publication. ... National Journal is a weekly magazine about American politics and government, published by National Journal Group, Inc. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The Washington Post is the largest newspaper in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. ... The Texas Observer (also known as the Observer) is an American political magazine published bi-weekly and based in Austin, Texas. ...

Criticism

Franklin Foer of The New Republic and right-wing commentator Steven Plaut have written articles alleging that CounterPunch is biased against Israel and the USA, charging it with publishing anti-American, anti-Israel and anti-Semitic views.^[3][4] For other uses, see the disambiguation section. ... Steven Plaut (born in 1951) is a Professor on the faculty of the Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Haifa and a writer. ... Anti-American sentiment is a hostility towards or disapproval of the government, culture, history, and/or people of the United States of America. ... Anti-Zionism is a term that has been used to describe several very different political and religious points of view, both historically and in current debates. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...

Some base this argument on the increasing presence in Counterpunch of articles by explicitly anti-Jewish racists such as Israel Shamir and Gilad Atzmon. Among the latter's numerous publications on the Counterpunch site is a piece entitled "On anti-semitism" which argues that "we must begin to take the accusation that the Jewish people are trying to control the world very seriously…. They (Zionists) are especially annoyed when they are blamed for the death of Jesus…. … American Jewry makes any debate on whether the ‘Protocols of the elder of Zion’ are an authentic document or rather a forgery irrelevant. American Jews do try to control the world, by proxy… I would suggest that perhaps we should face it once and for all: the Jews were responsible for the killing of Jesus who, by the way, was himself a Palestinian Jew”. Counterpunch has also published pieces in support of Nazi holocaust denial, most notably Alan Cabel's defense of Ernest Zundel, author of "The Hitler We Loved and Why", entitled "Star Chamber Redux" which appeared in the journal's print-only edition. Counterpunch has also been criticised by socialist activists Tony Greenstein and Roland Rance of Jews Against Zionism, for its practice of publishing articles by writers such as Gilad Atzmon, which deliberately blur the distinction between anti-Zionism and antisemitism, while refusing to publish responses by activists attacked in these articles. ^{[5] [6]} Israel Shamir Israel Shamir is a writer and journalist who is known as a controversial anti-Zionist. ... Gilad Atzmon (born June 20, 1963) is an Israeli jazz musician, author and leftwing political activist. ... Zündel leaving prison (1985) Ernst Christof Friedrich Zündel (born April 24, 1939 in Bad Wildbad) is a German Holocaust denier and pamphleteer who was jailed several times in Canada for publishing literature which is likely to incite hatred against an identifiable group and for being a threat to... Gilad Atzmon (born June 20, 1963) is an Israeli jazz musician, author and leftwing political activist. ... Anti-Zionism is a term used to describe several different political and religious points of view that have in common some form of opposition to Zionism. ... Manifestations Slavery · Racial profiling Hate speech · Hate crime Lynching · Gay bashing Genocide · Holocaust Ethnocide · Ethnic cleansing Pogrom · Race war Religious persecution Movements Discriminatory Aryanism · Neo-Nazism White/Black supremacy Hate groups · Kahanism Anti-discriminatory Abolitionism Womens/Universal suffrage Civil rights · Gay rights Childrens rights · Youth rights Policies Discriminatory...

In May 2006, James Taranto, editor of the Wall Street Journal's online Opinionjournal.com website, referred to Counterpunch as a "moonbat site."^[7] James Taranto (born 1966) is a Manhattan-based columnist for The Wall Street Journal and editor of its online editorial page, OpinionJournal. ... The Wall Street Journal is an influential international daily newspaper published in New York City, New York with an average daily circulation of 1,800,607 (2002). ... Moonbat (also barking moonbat) is a term often used as a political epithet. ...

Notes

COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program) is a program of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation aimed at investigating and disrupting dissident political organizations within the United States. ... Steven Plaut (born in 1951) is a Professor on the faculty of the Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Haifa and a writer. ...

External links

• CounterPunch. Retrieved on 2006-07-30.
• Discover the Networks. Retrieved on 2006-07-30. Dossier on CounterPunch.org (from a conservative political viewpoint)