Russ Baker Interview, SiriusXM Radio, with Judith Regan, July 20, 2011

Host Judith Regan, who worked for Rupert Murdoch, gets Russ’s assessment of her former boss.

What Rupert Murdoch Means For You Personally

Once you get past the shockers of the hacking scandal….it gets worse. Here’s the big picture on how Murdoch’s methods impact the world—Murdoch’s 12 mortal sins.

Libya: Connect the Dots-You Get a Giant Dollar Sign

Finally, if you look hard enough, you can start seeing the back story to the urgency to remove Qaddafi. It’s an ugly story—and all the ugliness is not on Qaddafi’s side, not by a long shot.

CIA Lies to Congress

[Update below—Ed.] During last spring’s controversy over whether congressional leaders were briefed by the CIA over its use of “enhanced interrogation techniques,” Russ called for an investigation into the congressional briefing process. It is now all the more clear that such an...

Hedge Funds Flex Lobbying Muscle

The Wall Street Journal has a solid piece of reporting on the continued power of hedge funds to shape their own—and the nation’s—destiny. The lede says it all (subscription required): Many hedge funds were relieved last week when the Obama administration’s financial-overhaul plan included no big...

Death by the Numbers

Should the numbers of enemy fighters killed by American forces be published? That’s the topic of the moment at the Wall Street Journal, as summarized by Slate: The WSJ fronts a look at how the U.S. command in Afghanistan has been releasing numbers of every enemy fighter killed in combat. It marks the first...

Insolvency

Anytime government or corporate interests allege an imminent crisis, journalists must guard themselves against manipulative terminology. Take the report the Obama administration released yesterday showing that the Social Security and Medicare trust funds are being depleted at a faster rate, thanks in part to...

Tortured Rationalizations

In an opinion piece, the Wall Street Journal convincingly argues that top Democrats in Congress have been speaking out of both sides of their mouths in criticizing Bush Administration policy on Enhanced Interrogation Techniques (EITs), also known as torture. These days, Speaker Pelosi insists she heard and...

The Noblest and Best

The Wall Street Journal published a stunning report yesterday on how New York Federal Reserve Chairman Stephen Friedman enriched himself by purchasing Goldman Sachs stock while the Federal Reserve was propping up the investment bank: The Federal Reserve Bank of New York shaped Washington’s response to...