Nation in the News | The Nation

What is "independent media," and why is it so important? Free Speech TV interviewed a handful of Nation writers at this past weekend's National Conference for Media Reform about their personal projects and what's missing in political discourse as we know it.

Where does deregulation end and inequality begin? "Comcast, NBC, ATT, Verizon, all of the big names in the telecomm world are big players in policy making and often push through policies that are bad for communities," says The Nation's Leticia Miranda, "especially low-income people and people of color."

For local- and state-based struggles like the uprising in Wisconsin, Nation writer John Nichols says, documentarians and unattached media-makers are integral for capturing what's happening on the ground. Otherwise, "It's almost as if the working people have gotten in the way of power."

There's no ignoring, Nation sports editor Dave Zirin says, the political and financial underpinnings of where the World Cup was placed—and yet, "the overwhelming majority of the sports press wasn't drawing these connections." From the seeds of emptiness, in that and other arenas, Game Over was born.

—James Cersonsky

The media makes history, and history makes politics. Read Dave Zirin's Chileanist take on the death of Margaret Thatcher.

In his budget plan next week, President Barack Obama is expected to propose a new inflation formula that would reduce cost-of-living payments for social security benefits. This proposal would punish average Americans for the financial woes brought on by risky investment practices and too-big-to-fail banks, charging them for a prosperity they never really shared in, said Katrina vanden Heuvel on C-SPAN's Washington Journal on Friday.

Vanden Heuvel touched on a wide range of issues, from social security to immigration to campaign finance. She said that the social security cut is just the latest victim of a "misplaced obsession with debt and deficits."

—Alec Luhn

Read the article Katrina recommended during the show, Lee Fang's piece on how corporations lie about their political contributions.
 

Of the NYPD's 5 million stops-and-frisks over the last 3 years, more than three quarters have targeted black and Latino people—a reality attested to during the federal lawsuit Floyd v. City of New York, currently underway. "It's important to remember that we're talking about the largest police department in the country and how they deal with young men of color, on a regular basis, on a day-to-day basis," says Nation contributor Ryan Devereaux. "You travel to different neighborhoods around New York City, and you hear the same sorts of stories over and over again." Devereaux joins a panel on Democracy Now! to discuss the realities of stop-and-frisk and the evidence against its legality. 

—James Cersonsky

Like the private prison industry, Gang of Eight leader Chuck Schumer will be on the winning end of any detention-friendly immigration reform. Read Aura Bogado's take.

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What’s so bad about steroids in baseball? And why do Americans care so much about the sport in the first place? As Nation sports editor Dave Zirin puts it, “There’s a timelessness about it that we want to be able to preserve, and not think that it’s getting out of whack with the times, with technology—which is really what performance-enhancing drugs represent.” Zirin joins acclaimed writers Jane Leavy, Frank Deford and John Grisham at the Virginia Festival of the Book to reflect on the meaning of the game.

—James Cersonsky

What can pro sports do to stop rape? As Dave Zirin writes, a lot.