by Adam Johnson | Apr 30, 2026 | Article, Israel, Media Criticism, Opinion, Politics and Movements: US, The Cultural Front
The Atlantic, along with the New York Times, is the quintessence of elite liberal opinion. It is popular with Democrat-aligned readers who are high-income and high-status, and shapes the Acceptable Range of Discourse on the American left, such as it is. What it publishes matters, but—more importantly—it matters to people who matter. Thus, it’s useful to, on occasion, stop and highlight their editorial priorities.
In the past two weeks, the Atlantic has published five stories with substantive discussion of left-wing Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, adding to a broader media outrage over the streamer’s alleged taboo comments on Hamas and shoplifting:
Israel Moderates Are Losing the Democratic Party (April 16) by Jonathan Chait: “The Democrats’ establishment opposes terrorism and backs a two-state solution; Piker and his allies want to cast that position as de facto support for the status quo, which is a single state controlled by Israel.”
The Problem With Hasan Piker’s Einstein Story (April 18) by Yair Rosenberg: “Critics on the right and left highlighted his refusal to condemn Hamas.”
Something Is Happening to America’s Moral Code (April 24) by Graeme Wood: “Piker said he would steal cars, ‘if I could get away with it.’”
Theft Is Now Progressive Chic (April 24) by Thomas Chatterton Williams: “At a time of kleptocratic governance and corporate oligarchy, Tolentino and Piker resort to a game of jaded whataboutism.”
Calling Trump a Tyrant Is Not a Call to Violence (April 28) by Jonathan Chait: “The prominence of Hasan Piker, an apologist for terrorism and a proponent of authoritarian regimes, has revealed a much broader comfort on the left with illiberal ideas and violent methods.”
This broader media panic, it’s worth
by Sharon Zhang | Apr 30, 2026 | Article, Israel, Media Criticism, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US, Reprint
This article was originally published by Truthout on April 29, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license.
The CEO for the parent company of Politico reportedly told editorial staff at the outlet this week that they should wholly embrace the company’s corporate “values,” which include support for Israel, or find work elsewhere, new reporting reveals.
Jewish Insider reported on the meeting held this week between Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner and Politico staffers and executives.
He told staff on the call that “nobody should work for Axel Springer despite the essentials or in disagreement with one of the essentials.” Appearing to suggest that staff should find work elsewhere if they disagree, he went on to note that “there are many options where values do not play such a role — or where other values play a role.”
The CEO is referring to a set of corporate values, which it calls the “Essentials,” written by German founder Axel Springer in 1967. According to the company’s website, the second of the company’s five values is: “We support the right of existence of the State of Israel and oppose all forms of antisemitism.” Other values include that the company works to “uphold the principles of a free market economy.”
The meeting came after Politico staffers sent a letter on Friday to their new editor-in-chief and former Politico executive, Jonathan Greenberger, expressing concerns over Döpfner’s “repeated use of POLITICO to promote his political agenda.”
The letter, per Semafor, referred to two recent op-eds by Döpfner for Politico Magazine. One, in March, cheered on the U.S. and Israel’s war on Iran and called for European states to take action against the “terrorist state,” which he claims aims for “the destruction of Israel and all
by Adam Johnson | Apr 5, 2026 | Article, Iran, Media Criticism, Opinion, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US, War
The term “hostage” is broadly understood to be the illegitimate capture of a civilian in order to extract concessions from a government or military actor. A “prisoner of war” is broadly understood to be a combatant captured by an adversary in the course of a battle. The former conveys innocence on the part of the captured and illegitimacy, terrorism and criminality on the part of the capturer. The latter conveys a lawful and reasonable response to being attacked by another military actor. Thus, how and why our media is framing Iran’s response to the unprovoked attack by the US is of tremendous importance: any potential “hostage crisis” could be used to further escalate the conflict and rally public support behind increased military aggression on the part of the US-Israeli coalition.
So it’s noteworthy that the mere potential of a single American being captured by Iran is immediately being framed by western media as an illegitimate act of aggression on the part of the country he or she was bombing. Indeed, several major Western media outlets are already rushing to frame the capture of a prisoner of war as a “hostage”:
Times of London: “US fighter pilot feared to have been taken hostage by Iran”
BBC: “If the airman is taken hostage and images circulated, it will be a propaganda victory for Iran”
ABC News Australia: “If the missing pilot is taken hostage…” “A US pilot taken hostage…”
“US fighter pilot… taken hostage by Iran.” Let us stew in that Orwellian phrasing for a bit. Though they do not explicitly call the downed pilot is a “hostage,” the New York Times dutifully orients his capture squarely
by Maximillian Alvarez and Dimitri Lascaris | Mar 30, 2026 | Iran, Media Criticism, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US, video, War
The US-Israeli war on Iran has now entered its second month. From the carnage on the ground to the chaos rippling throughout the global economy, the consequences of this disastrous, bloody, and unnecessary conflict—including many dead bodies—are piling up daily. “More than 2,000 people have been killed and thousands of civilian sites have been targeted in the US-Israeli attacks on Iran since February 28,” Al Jazeera reports. Many of the 13 US military bases near Iran have been reportedly rendered “all but uninhabitable” after Iran’s retaliatory strikes.
President Donald Trump and his administration have continued to obfuscate, flip flop, and bluster their way through the morass they’ve made, from claiming that “we’ve won this war,” to baselessly suggesting that a deal with Iran to end the war will come soon, to sending thousands more troops to the Middle East to prepare for what many fear will be a ground invasion.
For people in the Western Hemisphere in general, and for people in the US specifically, it is infuriatingly difficult to get accurate and honest information about what the hell is actually happening in this war. The Trump regime and its vast media network of corporate and “independent” propagandists have proven time and again that they will not tell the public the truth. The majority of oligarch-owned news media outlets and social media platforms have likewise shown a systematic propensity for filling our newsfeeds and brains with half-truths, AI slop, or empire-serving schlock masquerading as serious analysis, all while simultaneously suppressing or invisibilizing realities and perspectives they don’t want the public to see.
That is why it is so vital for us at TRNN
by Adam Johnson | Mar 24, 2026 | Article, Iran, Media Criticism, Opinion, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US
While a war against Iran remains deeply unpopular, the percentage of Americans who support its underlying logic and goals remains relatively high. The premises for wars in US discourse––whether it’s Iraq’s WMDs or Hamas’ mindless jihadist barbarity––are rarely in dispute, only the method to best contain or eliminate these existential enemies. Since Iran has not attacked the US directly (the Iraqi “Shia proxies” line is, for example, mostly a lie), and has killed fewer US civilians in the past 30 years than Israel has, building a casus belli to launch an attack on Iran has been difficult for war promoters. Absent a real threat, what one usually hears is a combination of vague reference to Iran-allied Shia militias attacking US troops in Iraq during the US Iraqi occupation (don’t ask why the US invaded both of Iran’s major neighbors), lines about Iran being the “largest exporter of terrorism in the world” (a braindead cliche that no one bothers to even explain anymore) and—the most popular and frightening—that Iran is perpetually on the brink of developing a nuclear weapon that “could” maybe, sort of, one day reach the United States. Pursuant to this latter talking point, the idea of Iran’s civilian nuclear energy program has effectively been weaponized and rendered menacing to Western audiences through many framing and rhetorical tricks, wearing down a public that has neither the time nor inclination to understand the nuances of nuclear policy.
This dynamic is reflected in a new a YouGov poll fielded by ReThink Media from February 2026 that shows 25% of Americans believe the patently false claim that Iran currently possesses nuclear weapons and
by Adam Johnson | Mar 11, 2026 | Article, Iran, Media Criticism, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US, terrorism, War
It’s not a war of aggression in the Middle East without the American media pushing out nonstop “sleeper cell” stories built on vague paranoia, supposed “chatter,” deliberate conflation of Sunni with Shia “terrorism,” and an even more deliberate conflation of mentally unwell “lone wolves” with state agents of Iran, sourced entirely from ex-spooks, zionist advocacy groups, and/or anonymous leaks from the US government. A trope as old as the War on Terror, “sleeper cell” stories are a media favorite because they require no actual reporting beyond copy-and-pasting anonymous government officials and quoting conflicted pro-war lobbyists, while providing an urgent sense of stakes to an increasingly cynical and war-weary public. Whenever polls show increased skepticism or opposition to bombing people 6,500 miles away, the U.S. security state and its media conduits can build support for these far-off wars by insisting that “sleeper agents” from the populations being bombed are hiding among you at your local PTA meeting or grocery store or strip mall and are ready to kill you and your loved ones at any time. This brings the war home without the messy burden of “evidence,” “proof,” or Things That Have Actually Happened.
Since the US launched its unprovoked war on Iran on Feb. 28, and in the weeks leading up to the attack, US media has uncritically promoted the broad narrative that Iranian sleeper agents are living among Westerners waiting on word to strike at any moment:
New York Times: Iran Could Direct Proxies to Attack U.S. Targets Abroad, Officials Warn (2/22/26)
Fox Business: Hezbollah, Hamas sleeper cell fears raised amid Iran strikes (3/2/26)
ABC News: Iran may be activating sleeper cells outside
