This week on CounterSpin: The debate over the Central American Free Trade Agreement is heating up, and while there is greater split in political and corporate elites than there was in the 1990's NAFTA debate, media cheerleading for the so-called free trade legislation is still a given. We'll talk to Chris Slevin, the deputy director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch about CAFTA.

Also on the program: New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman's new book is a bestseller, despite a writing style somehow simultaneously tortured and goofy. But does the argument of The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty First Century hold any water? We'll hear from Amitabh Pal, managing editor of The Progressive magazine, on that score.

LINKS:

Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch

Review: The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century By Thomas L. Friedman, by Amitabh Pal (The Progressive, 7/05)