Some of our favorites from nearly thirty years of his Nation column.
Alexander CockburnAlexander Cockburn, one of America’s best-known radical journalists, died unexpectedly over the weekend, at age 71. A champion of and frequent contributor to alternative and independent media, Cockburn penned The Nation’s “Beat the Devil” column from 1984 to 2012. Our favorites of his columns are collected below.
The Right’s Chicago Trial August 1, 1987 Oliver North’s “fascism with a human face” and the mysterious case of Ralph the Lobster.
From Smoking Gun to Smoking Dog: A “Beat The Devil” Investigation October 3, 1987 Why were two dogs gunned down right before the arrival of Air Force One?
The Rebellion in Israel and the Territories January 16, 1988 The usual regulatory mechanisms of the mainstream US media processed the turmoil in the occupied territories and in Israel itself with some initial difficulty.
Why Say No? October 4, 1994 Rabin and Arafat’s pathetic handshake.
ADK November 21, 1999 A tribute to Andrew Kopkind.
Message in a Bottle May 2, 2005 In India, Coca-Cola’s plants bring foul water and toxic sludge.
Levee Town October 3, 2005 There are decades of memos from engineers and contractors setting forth budgets to build up the Gulf Coast’s levees, but Bush wouldn’t let them be.
The 9/11 Conspiracy Nuts September 7, 2006 August Bebel once called anti-Semitism the socialism of fools. These days, the 9/11 conspiracy fever is fast becoming the “socialism” of the left.
From Flying Saucers to 9/11 September 21, 2006 The world is in tumult, but in the heart of Empire, the level of creative political energy runs flat along the bottom of the graph.
Support Their Troops? July 12, 2007 If the American people are largely against the war, what’s the matter with the antiwar movement? The answer lies with what has happened over the years to the American left.
“A Giant Ponzi Scheme” December 17, 2008 What separates Madoff’s Ponzi scheme from the follies of the bailed-out banks, and how is Blagojevich’s pay-to-play any different from standard political fundraising?
The Parable of the Shopping Mall February 18, 2009 From the wreckage of capitalism an opportunity for change springs forth.
Dead Souls April 15, 2009 Life sentences without possibility of parole contribute to the ever-expanding gulag of our criminal justice system.
Rupert Murdoch’s Watergate May 2, 2011 An invasion of privacy scandal threatens the careers to two of Murdoch’s top executives and the apparent heir the News Corp. empire.
Russian Hero July 27, 2011 A bet on a horse in the 1949 Grand National resulted in the largest collective transfer of wealth ever to communism’s stalwarts in Britain.
Why We Must Raise the Minimum Wage April 23, 2012 Instead of making vague promises to create high-paying jobs, the government should increase wages for the jobs that actually exist.
Alexander CockburnAlexander Cockburn, The Nation's "Beat the Devil" columnist and one of America's best-known radical journalists, was born in Scotland and grew up in Ireland. He graduated from Oxford in 1963 with a degree in English literature and language. After two years as an editor at the Times Literary Supplement, he worked at the New Left Review and The New Statesman, and co-edited two Penguin volumes, on trade unions and on the student movement. A permanent resident of the United States since 1973, Cockburn wrote for many years for The Village Voice about the press and politics. Since then he has contributed to many publications including The New York Review of Books, Harper's Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly and the Wall Street Journal (where he had a regular column from 1980 to 1990), as well as alternative publications such as In These Times and the Anderson Valley Advertiser.
He has written "Beat the Devil" since 1984.
He is co-editor, with Jeffrey St Clair, of the newsletter and radical website CounterPunch(http://www.counterpunch.org) which have a substantial world audience. In 1987 he published a best-selling collection of essays, Corruptions of Empire, and two years later co-wrote, with Susanna Hecht, The Fate of the Forest: Developers, Destroyers, and Defenders of the Amazon (both Verso). In 1995 Verso also published his diary of the late 80s, early 90s and the fall of Communism, The Golden Age Is In Us. With Ken Silverstein he wrote Washington Babylon; with Jeffrey St. Clair he has written or coedited several books including: Whiteout, The CIA, Drugs and the Press; The Politics of Anti-Semitism; Imperial Crusades; Al Gore, A User's Manual; Five Days That Shook the World; and A Dime's Worth of Difference, about the two-party system in America.