CounterPunch
EditorsJeffrey St. Clair
Joshua Frank
Staff writersFrank Bardacke,
Daniel Burton-Rose,
Andrew Cockburn,
Laura Flanders,
Annys Shinn,
Ken Silverstein,
JoAnn Wypijewski
CategoriesPolitics
FrequencyBi-monthly
First issue1994 (1994)
CountryUnited States
Based inPetrolia, California
LanguageEnglish
Websitewww.counterpunch.org
ISSN1086-2323

CounterPunch is a magazine published six times per year[1] in the United States that covers politics in a manner its editors describe as "muckraking with a radical attitude".[2] It has been described as left-wing.[3][4][5]

History

The newsletter was established in 1994 by the Washington, D.C.-based investigative reporter Ken Silverstein.[6] He was soon joined by Andrew Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair, who became co-editors in 1996 when Silverstein left.[7][8] In 2007, Cockburn and St. Clair wrote that in founding CounterPunch they had "wanted it to be the best muckraking newsletter in the country", and cited as inspiration such pamphleteers as Edward Abbey, Peter Maurin, and Ammon Hennacy, as well as the socialist/populist newspaper Appeal to Reason (1895–1922).[9]

During the 2016 presidential election, Counterpunch published the writings of Alice Donovan who purported to be a freelance writer but was in fact a pseudonymous employee of the Russian government.[10] Donovan was tracked by the FBI for nine months.[10] According to The Washington Post, "she seemed to be doing the Kremlin’s bidding by stoking discontent toward Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton and touting WikiLeaks, which U.S. officials say was a tool of Russia’s broad influence operation to affect the presidential race."[10] In late November 2017, The Washington Post contacted Counterpunch about Donovan; co-editor Jeffrey St. Clair said that Donovan's pitches did not stand out amongst the pitches that Counterpunch received daily.[10] St. Clair asked Donovan to substantiate her identity by sending a photo of her driving license; Donovan never responded.[10]

Reception

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In 2003, The Guardian described the CounterPunch website as "one of the most popular political sources in America, with a keen following in Washington".[11] Other sources have variously described CounterPunch as a "left-wing",[3][4][5] "extreme" or "radical"[12][13] a "political newsletter",[14] and a "muckraking newsletter".[15]

The lobby group Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) that counters criticism of the Israeli government in U.S. media in 2007 described CounterPunch.org as an "extremist anti-Israel web site."[16] CounterPunch was also criticized for an interview with Pink Floyd's Roger Waters in which he made extreme comments on Israel and a "Jewish lobby."[17] (Waters in a separate interview with Haaretz stated that he hates apartheid and not Israelis.[18])

In 2004, Max Boot described CounterPunch as an "extreme" "conspiracy-mongering website", citing a 2003 article by Dave Lindorff comparing George W. Bush to Adolf Hitler.[12][19] The same article was also referred to by James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal as similarly permitting the dismissal of CounterPunch. Lindorff has defended his article against this characterization.[20]

In 2016, Adrian Chen of The New Yorker called CounterPunch a "respected left-leaning" publication following accusations that CounterPunch promoted a pro-Russian agenda.[21]

References

  1. ^ "FAQs". CounterPunch.org. Retrieved 2017-07-31.
  2. ^ "We've got all the right enemies". CounterPunch. Archived from the original on 2011-04-25. Retrieved 2010-10-01.
  3. ^ a b Ralph Blumenthal (May 12, 2006). "Army Acts to Curb Abuses of Injured Recruits". The New York Times. Retrieved June 14, 2011.
  4. ^ a b "The Devil You Know". new Republic.
  5. ^ a b "Olbermann, Assange, and the Holocaust Denier When you want to believe, you'll believe anything". Reason.
  6. ^ "Counterpunch is the brainchild of Ken Silverstein, a former AP reporter in Rio de Janeiro." Lies of Our Times, vols 4-5 (1993), p. 26.
  7. ^ Alexander Cockburn, Jeffrey St. Clair, Five Days that Shook the World: Seattle and Beyond (London and New York: Verso, 2000), p. 151; Alexander Cockburn, Ken Silverstein, Washington Babylon (London and New York: Verso, 1996), p. 302.
  8. ^ Alexander Cockburn, Jeffrey St. Clair, End Times: The Death of the Fourth Estate (Petrolia, California, and Oakland, California: CounterPunch and AK Press, 2007), pp. 2, 44.
  9. ^ Alexander Cockburn, Jeffrey St. Clair (2007), End times: the death of the fourth estate, CounterPunch and AK Press, p383
  10. ^ a b c d e Entous, Adam; Nakashima, Ellen; Jaffe, Greg (2017-12-25). "Kremlin trolls burned across the Internet as Washington debated options". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2017-12-25.
  11. ^ Christopher Reed (March 2, 2003). "Battle of the bottle divides columnists". The Observer.
  12. ^ a b Boot, Max (March 11, 2004). "The Fringe Fires at Bush on Iraq". LATIMes.
  13. ^ "The Assange allegations". December 21, 2010. Archived December 25, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.
  14. ^ Dan Mitchell (October 29, 2006). "Royalty checks aren't in the mail - Business - International Herald Tribune". The New York Times. Retrieved June 14, 2011.
  15. ^ MELINDA TUHUS (March 22, 1998). "Who Pays For Mistakes In Making Electricity?". The New York Times. Retrieved June 14, 2011.
  16. ^ "Norman Finkelstein, Benny Morris and Peace not Apartheid". CAMERA. February 7, 2007. Retrieved June 14, 2011.
  17. ^ Boteach, Shmuley. "The Anti-Semitic Stench of Pink Floyd". Observer.com. Retrieved 5 January 2017.
  18. ^ Gideon Levy (August 2, 2015). "Roger Waters Sets the Record Straight: I Hate Apartheid, Not Israel". Anti-Defamation League. Retrieved March 23, 2017.
  19. ^ Dave Lindorff (February 1, 2003). "Bush and Hitler and the Strategy of Fear". CounterPunch.
  20. ^ Dave Lindorff (July 17, 2003). "Is Bush Another Hitler?: Bush and Hitler...Compare and Contrast A Response to the WSJ's James Taranto". CounterPunch.
  21. ^ Adrian Chen (December 1, 2016). "The Propaganda About Russian Propaganda". The New Yorker. Retrieved March 23, 2017.
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