BBC and Syria Reporting; Coup Ousts Condé in Guinea; Unemployment Benefits Expire

Mark Sleboda, international affairs and security analyst, joins us to talk about news of the BBC admitting that a radio documentary it aired on Syria last November “failed to meet editorial standards for accuracy by reporting false claims” and that the BBC program was wrong to insinuate that a whistleblower who had doubts about the accepted narrative about a gas attack in Douma, Syria, was motivated by the prospect of a reward when there was none. We also talk about the state of whistleblowers at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and whether the media will take another look at the Douma attack after these recent revelations.

Netfa Freeman, organizer at Pan-African Community Action (PACA), member of the Coordinating Committee of the Black Alliance for Peace, and co-producer and host for the radio show and podcast Voices With Vision on WPFW 89.3 FM, talks to us about the military coup that overthrew Guinean President Alpha Condé, who had been in office since 2010, but saw very bloody protests and mass civil unrest during his tenure, and how these could have led to his ousting. We also talk about Lieutenant Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, now in power in the country, and the intersection of extractive industries and globalization, and the connections of the political instability in the country with power struggles in other countries of the region.

Jon Jeter, author and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist with more than 20 years of journalistic experience and a former Washington Post bureau chief and award-winning foreign correspondent on two continents, joins hosts Michelle Witte and Bob Schlehuber to talk about the expiration of unemployment benefits for at least 7 million Americans, and the impact this will have on the well being of our citizens, how a new “news website,” The Well News, is actually funded by and editorially directed by two centrist political advocates, consultants and PR professionals, our increasing homeless crisis, and the case for bolstering Supplemental Security Income.