This week on CounterSpin: When a study in the British Medical journal the Lancet found that hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have died as a consequence of the war, the Lancet was dismissed by George W. Bush, who called its methodology flawed. American media outlets also cast doubt, calling the peer-reviewed findings "disputed" and pointing to lower, less scientific numbers as more reliable. Daniel Davies, a writer for the Comment is Free blog on the website of London's Guardian, will join us to explain why the critics are wrong.

Also on the show: The FCC’s war on what they call ‘indecency’ has led to a tenfold increase in fines levied to stations. A new report outlines how that, combined with a high degree of uncertainty about just what might be judged indecent next, is already leading to a chilling "risk avoidance" among creative artists. But we’ll hear from veteran children’s programming advocate Peggy Charren about the effect censorship has on the kids it’s supposed to be protecting.

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—The numbers do add up, by Daniel Davies (Comment is Free, 10/12/06)