The US is facing humanitarian and political crises, and media will be judged on how they choose to respond.

The distance between the democracy media talk about and the system we have is wrenching -- and a recent Supreme Court ruling highlights right-wing efforts to increase that gap and set it in stone.

"There's this kind of infantilism of Brazilians, and Latin Americans in general, and all Third World peoples, especially people who aren't white, in US news coverage, which plays into Americans’ inherent sense of superiority over other countries."

CounterSpin talks with Kevin Kumashiro about student-loan debt cancellation as just the beginning of a conversation about the role of education in an aspiring democracy.

The Brazilian anti-corruption crusade, called Car Wash or Lava Jato, that put popular ex-president Lula da Silva in prison and paved the way for fascist president Jair Bolsanaro—all while being celebrated in the US corporate press—was actually,

"It's an actual strategy among oil companies...that if you can fearmonger enough, you can get a public that says, 'Fine, even though the safety measures are not in place, we'll drill 10 miles in the ocean if you don't go to foreign oil.'”

"I was shocked to see how easily these big oil companies, in this case Exxon, could make its story the dominant story."

Two deep conversations, about oil and much more.

"A lot of media operate almost like they’re the fourth branch of the United States government, in terms of peddling misinformation, when you can't tell the distinction between the misinformation and what is actually happening in countries."

"If this landmark ruling—and it is a landmark ruling, make no mistake—does hold up to appeal, then there will be a big celebration in Ecuador, and around the world, for those who support indigenous rights and the environment."