Nation in the News | The Nation

On Tuesday, Attorney General Eric Holder said the leak that prompted the Justice Department’s seizure of the phone records of almost 100 reporters and editors at the Associated Press needs to be investigated because it “put the American people at risk.”

Appearing on Democracy Now!, Nation Institute fellow Chris Hedges said that Holder presented no evidence of the leak, which is believed to be related to a terrorist plot foiled by the CIA, was dangerous. Moreover, even if the seizure doesn’t frighten journalists, it will have a chilling effect on their sources, he said.

“It is one more assault in a long series of assaults against freedom of information and freedom of the press,” Hedges said.

—Alec Luhn

Read more about whistleblower Bradley Manning and how his persecution has also touched the LGBTQ community.

Harvard economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff once concluded that economies stall when debt reaches 90 percent of GDP. A recent paper from Amherst College points out important holes in the Harvard paper's conclusions—and, in turn, the austerity playbook. "This study, on which so much of the austerity agenda, so much of our actual politics...so much of what they've based their argument on," Nation writer John Nichols says, "as the Harvard economists acknowledge, contains significant mistakes." Nichols joins KPFA radio (about 7 minutes into the show) to discuss the nuts, bolts and implications of the new findings.

—James Cersonsky

What does American trade policy have to do with the ongoing Bangladeshi factory fires? Read William Greider's analysis.

In recent years, straight athletes have been more outspoken in their support of LGBT equality. But never, until NBA center Jason Collins's announcement this week, has a current player come out as gay. "Homophobia has been a part of organized men's sports as long as there has been organized men's sports," says Dave Zirin, Nation sports editor and author, most recently, of Game Over. "There are no words for how historic this is." Appearing on CNN, Zirin puts the moment in context. 

—James Cersonsky

Where does LGBT equality fit into immigration reform? Read more at StudentNation.

Far from ending Bush-era policies of extraordinary rendition and torture that outraged liberals, Democratic President Obama has developed them further, Nation correspondent Jeremy Scahill said during the second part of a Democracy Now! interview about his new book, Dirty Wars.

"There are ways in which Obama pushed the Cheney agenda far beyond what a President McCain or a President Romney would have been able to do, because he had his base of supporters," Scahill said.

—Alec Luhn

Read an excerpt from Scahill’s new book at TheNation.com.