This week on CounterSpin: The war in Iraq re-appeared on American TV screens last week, when the Iraqi government decided to confront Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's militias mostly in the southern city of Basra and parts of Baghdad. Those paying attention to the corporate media's coverage of the fighting could have been easily confused by the dominant storyline. We'll try to sort it all out with Raed Jarrar, Iraqi political analyst and blogger.

Also on CounterSpin today, the U.S. press had been ignoring Somalia for years until 2006 when the U.S. government began alleging the Islamist governing forces there were linked with al Qaeda. A U.S. backed attack on Somalia by Ethiopia—replete with U.S. bombing—followed, and a more U.S.-friendly regime was installed. How the press abetted the propaganda campaign and war is the subject of an article in the new issue of FAIR's magazine Extra!, we'll be joined by its author, Julie Hollar.

Links:

— Raed Jarrar's blog: In the Middle

— Rediscovering Somalia: Press Downplays U.S. Role in Renewed Crisis, by Julie Hollar (Extra!, 3–4/08—print only)