Counterpunch

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

File:Counterpunch.jpg

 http://www.counterpunch.org link Sourcewatch
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.

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."

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. Over the next few months, CP published almost a dozen articles with a weirdly overreacting aggressive tone against Johnstone. 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.”"

'Alice Donovan'

In 2016, the Washington Post presented claims 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." 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 connected to the US secret services. This has been a standard FBI technique time and again for a century.