{"id":2093,"date":"2020-12-13T07:52:29","date_gmt":"2020-12-13T07:52:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=138759"},"modified":"2020-12-13T07:52:29","modified_gmt":"2020-12-13T07:52:29","slug":"fair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2020\/12\/13\/fair\/","title":{"rendered":"FAIR"},"content":{"rendered":"FAIR<\/title><title>CounterSpin<\/title><title>CounterSpin<\/title><title>Kimberle Crenshaw on the Equity Gag Order<\/title><title>\u2018These Executions, Disturbing as They Are, Have Flown Largely Under the Radar\u2019<\/title><title>\u2018The Chairmanship of Ajit Pai Has Been a Disaster\u2019<\/title><\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/fair.org CounterSpin is the weekly radio show of FAIR, the national media watch group. Sat, 12 Dec 2020 17:03:34 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https:\/\/wordpress.org\/?v=5.5.3 https:\/\/fair.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/cropped-favicon-fixed-32×32.png https:\/\/fair.org 32 32 https:\/\/fair.org\/feed\/podcast\/ CounterSpin, the weekly radio program of the media watch group FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting), provides a critical examination of the major stories every week, and exposes what the mainstream media might have missed in their own coverage. CounterSpin exposes and highlights biased and inaccurate news; censored stories; sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia and ableism in the news; the power of corporate influence; gaffes and goofs by leading TV pundits; TV news\u2019 narrow political spectrum; attacks on free speech; and more. Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting clean Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting jnaureckas@fair.org jnaureckas@fair.org (Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting) A weekly look behind the headlines of the mainstream news https:\/\/fair.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/COUNTERSPIN-itunes.png https:\/\/fair.org New York, NY Weekly https:\/\/fair.org\/home\/kimberle-crenshaw-on-the-equity-gag-order\/ Fri, 11 Dec 2020 18:05:14 +0000 https:\/\/fair.org\/?p=9019015 http:\/\/div%20id=’show_comments’Show%202%20comments\/div https:\/\/fair.org\/home\/kimberle-crenshaw-on-the-equity-gag-order\/feed\/ 2 <\/p>\n<p> Trump’s obviously suppressive executive order has been largely shrugged off by media that ought to be sounding the alarm.<br \/>\n <\/p>\n<p>CounterSpin Kimberle Crenshaw Full Show<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_9019020\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\">\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-9019020\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>(image: <strong>Breitbart<\/strong>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/tech\/2020\/09\/04\/partys-over-trump-orders-purge-of-critical-race-theory-from-federal-agencies\/\">9\/4\/20<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>This week on <strong>CounterSpin<\/strong>: \u201cThis is a sickness that cannot be allowed to continue. Please report any sightings so we can quickly extinguish!\u201d Donald Trump\u2019s disturbing September 5 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/realdonaldtrump\/status\/1302212909808971776?\">tweet<\/a> paired with his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/briefings-statements\/remarks-president-trump-white-house-conference-american-history\/\">claim<\/a> that \u201cteaching this horrible doctrine to our children is a form of child abuse in the truest sense of those words.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What is the sickness, the doctrine that Trump says is \u201cbeing deployed to rip apart friends, neighbors and families\u201d? It\u2019s Critical Race Theory, or really any of a whole group of interrelated social justice ideas, like structural racism, implicit bias or privilege\u2014tools for talking about and addressing persistent inequities in US society.<\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s September <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/presidential-actions\/executive-order-combating-race-sex-stereotyping\/\">executive order<\/a> on \u201ccombating race and sex stereotyping\u201d banned any training addressing racial or gender diversity for federal employees, government contractors and the US military. The effects were immediate and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/10\/13\/us\/politics\/trump-diversity-training-race.html\">chilling<\/a>\u2014not just the end of workplace diversity trainings, but academics forced to cancel lectures, research projects suspended, curricula scrubbed for fear of running afoul of what\u2019s being called the Equity Gag Order. And yet this obviously suppressive effort has been largely shrugged off by media that ought to be sounding the alarm. Oh, McCarthyism\u2014how can we miss you if you won\u2019t go away?<\/p>\n<p>Resisting the effort to silence necessary conversations about racism is Kimberle Crenshaw. A pioneer in critical race theory, she\u2019s a professor of law at UCLA and Columbia Law Schools, and executive director of the <a href=\"https:\/\/aapf.org\/\">African American Policy Forum<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/aapf.org\/center-for-intersectionality\/\">Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies<\/a>. We talk with her about Trump\u2019s order and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facingsouth.org\/2020\/12\/campaign-overturn-trumps-truth-denying-equity-gag-order\">Truth Be Told<\/a> campaign that\u2019s pushing back on it, and the ideas behind it.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fair.org\/audio\/counterspin\/CounterSpin201211Crenshaw.mp3\"><strong>MP3 Link<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Plus Janine Jackson takes a quick look at coverage of President-elect Joe Biden\u2019s cabinet picks.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fair.org\/audio\/counterspin\/CounterSpin201211Banter.mp3\"><strong>MP3 Link<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>]]><br \/>\n Trump’s obviously suppressive executive order has been largely shrugged off by media that ought to be sounding the alarm. Trump’s obviously suppressive executive order has been largely shrugged off by media that ought to be sounding the alarm. Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting 27:52 https:\/\/fair.org\/home\/these-executions-disturbing-as-they-are-have-flown-largely-under-the-radar\/ Wed, 09 Dec 2020 23:55:53 +0000 https:\/\/fair.org\/?p=9018986 http:\/\/div%20id=’show_comments’Show%201%20comments\/div https:\/\/fair.org\/home\/these-executions-disturbing-as-they-are-have-flown-largely-under-the-radar\/feed\/ 1 <\/p>\n<p> “Family members of the condemned are often erased and have been, for the most part, throughout this process, and I try to really keep that at the center of my work.”<br \/>\n <\/p>\n<p><i>Janine Jackson interviewed <\/i> <i>the <\/i><b><i>Intercept<\/i><\/b><i>\u2019s Liliana Segura<\/i><i> about Trump\u2019s execution spree for the <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/fair.org\/home\/liliana-segura-on-trumps-execution-spree-gaurav-laroia-on-ajit-pais-fcc\/\"><i>December 4, 2020, episode<\/i><\/a><i> of <\/i><b><i>CounterSpin<\/i><\/b><i>. This is a lightly edited transcript.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fair.org\/audio\/counterspin\/CounterSpin201204Segura.mp3\"><strong>MP3 Link<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_9018989\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9018989\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-9018989\" src=\"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Snopes-Executions.png\" alt=\"Snopes: Did Trump Admin Execute More People in 5 Months Than Feds Did in Past 50 Years?\" width=\"350\" height=\"369\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-9018989\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em><strong>Snopes<\/strong> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.snopes.com\/fact-check\/trump-death-penalty\/\">11\/30\/20<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><b>Janine Jackson: <\/b>It\u2019s so astonishing\u2014at a time we feel ourselves nearly numb to astonishment\u2014that it generated a <b>Snopes<\/b> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.snopes.com\/fact-check\/trump-death-penalty\/\">factcheck<\/a>: Could it be that the <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2020\/09\/09\/federal-executions-keith-nelson-indiana-terre-haute\/\">Trump administration executed more people<\/a> in five months than the federal government executed during the previous five decades?<\/p>\n<p>It <i>is<\/i> true; and indeed, things are at such a pass that it\u2019s almost eerie that Trump isn\u2019t bragging night and noon about the spree of state killings\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/national\/justice-dept-carries-out-third-federal-execution-in-four-days\/2020\/07\/17\/5afba3fa-c86f-11ea-8ffe-372be8d82298_story.html\">three in four days<\/a> over the summer, and now ramping up to a level <a href=\"https:\/\/truthout.org\/articles\/trump-administration-is-on-an-unprecedented-death-row-killing-spree\/\">unprecedented<\/a> from a lame-duck White House since the days of Grover Cleveland, who had been, law professor Austin Sarat <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/news-and-politics\/2020\/11\/william-barr-lame-duck-execution-spree-is-unprecedented.html\">reminded<\/a> recently in <b>Slate, <\/b>an executioner himself as a New York sheriff.<\/p>\n<p>Not content to schedule state killings practically up to the day Biden takes office, Trump\u2019s Justice Department has also just changed the rules to allow executions by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/11\/25\/us\/politics\/executions-firing-squads-electrocution.html\">electrocution and firing squad<\/a>\u2014this at a time when many <a href=\"https:\/\/deathpenaltyinfo.org\/facts-and-research\/dpic-reports\/dpic-year-end-reports\/the-death-penalty-in-2019-year-end-report?x-craft-preview=KO6E1MQQKW&token=5f6dVvM-EauadQKXMcVkqhEl0lwwn7Lo\">states have abolished<\/a> the death penalty, and more and more <a href=\"https:\/\/deathpenaltyinfo.org\/facts-and-research\/public-opinion-polls\/national-polls-and-studies\">people say they oppose<\/a> it.<\/p>\n<p>Our next guest has reported on the death penalty, sentencing and US prisons for much longer than Trump has been in office. Investigative journalist Liliana Segura now <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/staff\/liliana-segura\/\">reports<\/a> for the <b>Intercept<\/b>. She joins us now by phone from Nashville. Welcome to <b>CounterSpin,<\/b> Liliana Segura.<\/p>\n<p><b>Liliana Segura: <\/b>Hi, thanks for having me.<\/p>\n<p><b>JJ: <\/b>As with a lot of things, it feels like we\u2019re moving in two different directions. More people, if still not a majority, say the death penalty is <a href=\"https:\/\/news.gallup.com\/poll\/312929\/record-low-say-death-penalty-morally-acceptable.aspx\">morally unacceptable<\/a>. The data has kind of sunk in that its application, anyway, is unfair and <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/discrimination-racial-injustice-united-states-archive-race-and-ethnicity-ded1f517a0fd64bf1d55c448a06acccc\">racist<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amnesty.org\/download\/Documents\/48000\/act500062008en.pdf\">not a deterrent<\/a> to crime. But then when individual cases come up, it becomes a different category of story, if you will, and statistics matter less than \u201cWhat if it were your sister?<i>\u201d<\/i> You\u2019ve been doing, as I say, this reporting since before Donald Trump and Bill Barr. I just wonder how you\u2019ve approached the terrain of this issue, and what you\u2019re making of the present moment?<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_9018993\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9018993\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-9018993\" src=\"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Intercept-Death-Penalty.png\" alt=\"Intercept: With Federal Executions Looming, the Democrats\u2019 Death Penalty Legacy Is Coming Back to Haunt Us\" width=\"350\" height=\"560\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-9018993\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em><strong>Intercept<\/strong> (<a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2019\/07\/29\/death-penalty-federal-executions\/\">7\/29\/19<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><b>LS: <\/b>It\u2019s been a very surreal time to be covering these executions. As you highlighted, I\u2019ve written about the death penalty a lot, for many, many years. And actually, one of the bizarre aspects of my work in recent years has been that since I moved to Nashville, about five years ago, the state of Tennessee has actually carried out a large number of executions. And the last several of those were carried out using the electric chair. Although I haven\u2019t witnessed those executions, a number of my local friends and colleagues in the media have.<\/p>\n<p>Outside of our local bubble, and I think more broadly, I don\u2019t think Americans quite realize just how much we\u2019ve tolerated a system that continues to use things like the electric chair, which, when it was announced that the Trump administration was looking to bring back the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.federalregister.gov\/documents\/2020\/08\/05\/2020-15039\/manner-of-federal-executions\">electric chair and firing squads<\/a>, it really generated a fair amount of revulsion among a lot of people who seemed sort of unaware, or maybe haven\u2019t thought about these issues in a long time.<\/p>\n<p>So I think we run the risk a little bit of putting these federal executions in the context of this horrifying, violent Trump era, which has broken so many norms that we\u2019re accustomed to. And yet when you look at different states, when you look at what\u2019s been happening in Tennessee, we\u2019ve been pretty violent in the past several years, and tolerating quite a bit as Americans when it comes to these more mundane executions from day to day and year to year.<\/p>\n<p>So part of my project, when William Barr <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/pr\/federal-government-resume-capital-punishment-after-nearly-two-decade-lapse\">announced<\/a> that they were looking to restart federal executions after more than 15 years, my task was to remind myself of the history that underpins this federal system. We hadn\u2019t seen a federal execution since 2003. So the first <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2019\/07\/29\/death-penalty-federal-executions\/\">piece<\/a> that I wrote was actually going back and reexamining how we got here. And so much of that story really is about the Democrats, frankly, and is about the era of the <a href=\"https:\/\/fair.org\/home\/senate-crime-bill-unscrutinized-by-the-press\/\">1994 crime bill<\/a>, and the vast expansion of federal prosecutions, federal death sentences, as a result of that crime bill.<\/p>\n<p>So it\u2019s been an interesting time to see through the election, now entering a Biden administration\u2014Joe Biden famously having <a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/bill\/102nd-congress\/senate-bill\/1241\">authored<\/a> much of the crime bill\u2014to see what\u2019s going to happen next. Biden now claims to <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/365258989e6be8d7077b2f67d8c3e190\">oppose the death penalty<\/a>, and I\u2019m looking forward to seeing how that plays out in terms of meaningful action.<\/p>\n<p><b>JJ: <\/b>Absolutely. You don\u2019t have to dig too far to find Biden <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/joe-biden-touted-crime-bill-1992-death-penalty-jaywalking-senate-2019-6\">saying<\/a> we do \u201ceverything but hang people for jaywalking\u201d in this bill. He was very much <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/06\/25\/us\/joe-biden-crime-laws.html\">for it before he was against it<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It seems like the death penalty is an issue in this country where the country moves, as I would say, forward and then back. We start to act like every other so-called developed country, and then someone like <a href=\"https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/95378\/troy-davis-death-penalty-abolish\">Lester Maddox<\/a> pops up and says, \u201cThey\u2019re getting away with murder!,\u201d you know, and it swings back again. And as part of that, media and politicians characterize points of view without actual human beings attached, you know: \u201cVictims deserve better.\u201d \u201cCriminals can\u2019t be helped.\u201d It can get very sloppy and very strawman, which is why I think reporting, as you do, simple witnessing, is important. But there are particular hurdles to that kind of reporting, aren\u2019t there?<\/p>\n<p><b>LS: <\/b>Absolutely. When Trump was elected, a lot of us kind of knew; we were like, \u201cOK, this is a guy is very pro\u2013death penalty, he\u2019s going to choose a very pro\u2013death penalty attorney general.\u201d We knew that federal executions were likely to return under Trump. What I <i>never<\/i> could have anticipated, certainly what none of us could have, would have been that these executions would be carried out with such a vengeance, but also in the midst of an <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2020\/08\/02\/federal-executions-indiana-trump-coronavirus\/\">unprecedented pandemic<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_9018995\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9018995\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-9018995\" src=\"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Terre-Haute.jpg\" alt=\"USP Terre Haute\" width=\"350\" height=\"173\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-9018995\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>US Penitentiary, Terre Haute, Indiana<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>And a huge part of the challenge of reporting on this moment has been navigating the danger, frankly, and risk of traveling during a pandemic, of doing this reporting during a pandemic. I happen to be based in Nashville, which gives me an advantage; I just have to drive the four hours up to <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/United_States_Penitentiary,_Terre_Haute\">Terre Haute<\/a> to be on the ground for these executions. But a huge number of my media colleagues who have not been similarly positioned haven\u2019t come, and have had to choose to protect themselves and not try to make that trip to Terre Haute during these last few months.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll also add that, while the DoJ and BoP have have taken steps to <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/c9e7b0c522b3be790b0ad3121bf96b06\">provide protective equipment,<\/a> masks, sanitizer, all of that, to the press who do come, especially to witnessing reporters, they\u2019ve also laid down some pretty <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/press-releases\/bop-data-show-federal-executions-likely-caused-covid-19-spike\">arbitrary rules<\/a> about what people are allowed to do and not do in order to protect themselves. So one of the things I find most disturbing, and that I\u2019ve grappled with every time I apply to be a witness for these executions, is the fact that they don\u2019t want reporters bringing their own masks. For me, that makes a difference, especially now, between applying to be a witness and accepting that role if I\u2019m chosen, and not. And I think journalists who have had to witness repeatedly\u2014there\u2019s one local reporter in Terre Haute who has witnessed all eight executions, and will almost certainly witness the rest\u2014they take that job on as part of their professional obligation, but assuming quite a bit of risk and danger that really shouldn\u2019t be necessary to do their jobs.<\/p>\n<p><b>JJ: <\/b>Of course, every difficulty, every hurdle for reporters means a loss for the public in terms of information. We hear that prisons used to be in the center of town, that people were hanged in the square. And there\u2019s all kinds of things you can say about that, but the implication is that transparency has been important. And now we really hide this part of what\u2019s done in our names. And that\u2019s partly why the witnessing is so important. But it\u2019s also why it seems so critical to be able to ground the conversation in <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2019\/12\/03\/death-penalty-capital-punishment-data\/\">data<\/a>, in information.<\/p>\n<p>And on that note, I wanted you to tell us a bit about the <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/series\/the-condemned\/\">project<\/a> that you\u2019ve worked on with <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/staff\/jordan-smith\/\">Jordan Smith<\/a> and others at the <b>Intercept<\/b>. What is the scope of that? And how do you hope that that project would be used?<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_9018994\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9018994\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-9018994\" src=\"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Intercept-Condemned.png\" alt=\"Intercept: The Condemned\" width=\"350\" height=\"188\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-9018994\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em><strong>Intercept<\/strong> (<a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/series\/the-condemned\/\">12\/3\/19<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><b>LS: <\/b>I should preface this just by saying that Jordan and I, neither of us are \u201cdata people,\u201d and so that project was quite an undertaking on a number of different levels.<\/p>\n<p>This project really started back in 2016. Essentially, we set out to try to take stock of the death penalty, writ large, as it exists in its current state. The impetus for the project at the time was the anniversary of the landmark decision in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oyez.org\/cases\/1975\/74-6257\"><i>Gregg v. Georgia<\/i><\/a><i>,<\/i> which is when the US Supreme Court, in 1976, determined that after a four-year moratorium that came about because of flawed death penalty laws throughout the country, that essentially enough reforms had ensured that the death penalty could now be carried out in an equitable and fair way; there were enough protections to ensure that \u201cthe system worked.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And so since 1976 onwards, that\u2019s what we call the so-called modern death penalty era. Yet we know, Jordan knows\u2014through years of reporting, through seeing <a href=\"https:\/\/crimestory.com\/2019\/11\/12\/tuesday-november-12-2019\/\">exonerations<\/a> of innocent people who were sent to death row, the data pointing to systemic racism throughout the system as a whole\u2014we knew that if we were to start to look at, not only who was still on death row in this country, or who has been executed, for that matter, in recent years, but the whole picture of who has been sentenced since 1976, and what has happened with those sentences, where those people have ended up, that would provide a much fuller picture of the failures and shortcomings of this system.<\/p>\n<p>And so, in a moment of what feels like temporary madness, we decided we were going to try to collect the data from all remaining death penalty states, to basically just ask for information about all the people sentenced to death from 1976 to the present, and their status.<\/p>\n<p>We knew that the vast majority of those people would not have been executed, because what we see is that people on death row spend decades, often die of natural causes, oftentimes they are resentenced, people many times take their own life on death row. And so we wanted to get a bigger overview of what this system looked like. So it took literally years to collect and analyze this data.<\/p>\n<p>One of the big takeaways that I suppose shouldn\u2019t be surprising, but which is nonetheless disturbing when you consider the power of the state in taking a human life, is the fact that the recordkeeping was just pretty <i>bad<\/i>, really, really shoddy, really incomplete, just a lot of confusing, basic questions that were not answered in our first attempts to collect this data.<\/p>\n<p>I will say that there is absolutely no question that the data shows overrepresentation of people of color, especially Black people, on federal death row, and we\u2019re starting to see how that\u2019s playing out now: Of the five people who are set to be executed before Joe Biden\u2019s inauguration, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/21736993\/trump-federal-execution-december\">four of them are Black men<\/a>, and the other is the only woman on federal death row, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.huffpost.com\/entry\/lisa-montgomery-death-penalty-trump-administration_n_5fa586a3c5b623bfac4f101d\">Lisa Montgomery<\/a>. So it\u2019s pretty striking, and there\u2019s still a lot to learn from that <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/firstlookmedia\/the-condemned-data\">dataset<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><b>JJ: <\/b>I appreciate the layperson approach, if you will, because it <i>should<\/i> be legible to non-statisticians; it <i>should<\/i> be information that can be understood.<\/p>\n<p>And then the other thing that leaps out at me is, you have to combine the fact that the recordkeeping is so bad with the repeated assurances that the death penalty is being applied, as it were, surgically; that it\u2019s the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/verdict.justia.com\/2020\/06\/09\/the-illusory-quest-to-execute-only-the-worst-of-the-worst\">worst of the worst<\/a>,\u201d as the horrible overused phrase is. The fact that the data is opaque, that the data is erratic and incomplete, is a statement in itself.<\/p>\n<p><b>LS: <\/b>Yeah, that was one of our big takeaways as well. It\u2019s really an indictment of this lack of seriousness with which we treat these fundamental powers of government; there\u2019s a lack of interest or curiosity, or just an unwillingness to engage with that, that reality of so many Americans. And I learn that again and again in my reporting, just the fact that these executions, as disturbing as they are, have flown largely under the radar; a lot of people are unaware that they\u2019re even happening.<\/p>\n<p>And I want to also say that in my recent interviews, those people who are unaware include some of the original prosecutors in the cases that are now coming up for execution. It\u2019s become a bit disturbing to me, how little some of those prosecutors, who are largely retired, how little they\u2019ve followed these cases to their conclusion, the fact that it was just part of their career, and they\u2019ve moved on, while the victims that they promised closure to have been hanging on, and oftentimes waiting for decades, to see this all play out. It\u2019s really bothered me in recent days.<\/p>\n<p><b>JJ: <\/b>Finally, the death penalty has a finality, an irreversibility, that for many people set it apart. But we should be wary, shouldn\u2019t we, of imagining that an equally certain but slower death in solitary confinement without possibility of parole is somehow a feel-good alternative. We can\u2019t just have a piece of this conversation about the continuum of cruelty that\u2019s reflected in our criminal system. And I know your concerns are expansive in that way; it\u2019s important to contextualize the death penalty. It\u2019s not like it\u2019s the one bad thing the system does.<\/p>\n<p><b>LS: <\/b>Yeah, that\u2019s exactly right, and thank you for bringing that up. That\u2019s something that fortunately, I think, we\u2019ve started to see a little bit of change in the broader landscape around the way people see what I call \u201cpermanent sentencing.\u201d I was struck, during the primaries, when everything was so heated, that Elizabeth Warren, I believe, got into a little bit of trouble at one point where she kind of said\u2014and I don\u2019t remember the precise context\u2014but essentially, gave support for the idea that <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/news-and-politics\/2020\/01\/elizabeth-warren-life-without-parole-death-penalty.html\">life without parole<\/a> is an appropriate sentence, I believe, as an alternative to the death penalty.<\/p>\n<p>And at least on <b>Twitter<\/b> and social media, a lot of people <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/matthewferner\/status\/1218034526573617153\">jumped all over<\/a> this comment, to say that this was almost as bad, it\u2019s a form of torture, that we shouldn\u2019t support life without parole. And I gotta say, as somebody who\u2019s been covering life without parole and the death penalty for years and years, that is different. It was not people\u2019s sort of knee-jerk response to the notion that \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/archive\/why-should-thousands-prisoners-die-behind-bars-nonviolent-crimes\/\">LWOP<\/a>,\u201d as we call it, is an appropriate alternative. The anti\u2013death penalty movement for many years has pushed life without parole\u2014in my mind, erroneously\u2014as the default, acceptable alternative to state-sanctioned murder. And those issues have generated a fair amount of debate and tension. But I think that the broader culture, at least in the context of the primaries, has kind of come around on questioning that as well, and I think solitary confinement and that form of torture is a big part of that, as you lay out.<\/p>\n<p>Can I say one more thing about transparency?<\/p>\n<p><b>JJ: <\/b> Say it.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_9018991\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9018991\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-9018991\" src=\"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Liliana-Segura-Portrait.png\" alt=\"Liliana Segura\" width=\"350\" height=\"438\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-9018991\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Liliana Segura: \u201cFamily members of the condemned are often erased and have been, for the most part, throughout this process, and I try to really keep that at the center of my work.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><b>LS: <\/b>One other thing that\u2019s really been on my mind when it comes to the lack of transparency, and the managing of the narrative on the part of the federal government, is I\u2019ve really been struck, going back and forth to Terre Haute, by the ways in which the Department of Justice controls the narrative to such a degree that it\u2019s got a very rigid system for enabling reporters\u2019 access to certain people involved in these executions.<\/p>\n<p>And you highlighted, rightfully, the way in which people, when confronted with the horror of these crimes, say, \u201cWhat if it was your loved one?\u201d And so reporters have, on occasion, had access to the victim\u2019s family members after the execution. What happens is, the witnessing press comes back, people are allowed into this media room, and those family members who have witnessed come and are given a forum to address reporters. Sometimes reporters ask questions, and it\u2019s very moving, it\u2019s very sad. And the family, oftentimes, thanks the Trump administration, says that justice has been served. And it\u2019s part of this process.<\/p>\n<p>And yet, there is no equivalent, there is no forum for the loved ones of the people who are put to death; in fact, they are explicitly not allowed in the media center. And to the extent that we\u2019ve heard from loved ones of people put to death in Terre Haute, it\u2019s only been because activists have staked out, literally <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indystar.com\/story\/news\/crime\/2020\/08\/14\/death-penalty-protesters-indiana-state-police-come-agreement\/5584991002\/\">sued<\/a>, actually, to gain access to a field across from the penitentiary, next to a Dollar General, where where they have come to hold vigils and protests, but also these kind of mini-press conferences featuring spiritual advisors and, in the case of Christopher Vialva, the mother of Christopher Vialva, who witnessed his execution.<\/p>\n<p>And I\u2019ve thought a lot about that, because it was the first time Christopher Vialva\u2019s mother was able to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnhinews.com\/cnhi\/article_322245ae-fec7-11ea-a93a-3b74bae8320d.html\">address<\/a> reporters, but also express her sorrow and condolences for the family of the victims in that case, and it was a very moving moment, and yet not one that was officially sanctioned, not one that would <i>ever<\/i> be enabled by the federal government.<\/p>\n<p>So family members of the condemned are often erased and have been, for the most part, throughout this process, and I try to really keep that at the center of my work. It\u2019s the reason I approach my stories with an eye towards including, when I can, the voices of the families on the other side, who are also losing a loved one in this process.<\/p>\n<p><b>JJ: <\/b>We\u2019ve been speaking with Liliana Segura. You can find her <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/staff\/liliana-segura\/\">work<\/a> online at <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/\"><b>TheIntercept.com<\/b><\/a>. Liliana Segura, thank you so much for joining us this week on <b>CounterSpin<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p><b>LS: <\/b>Thank you so much for having me, and for covering this issue.<\/p>\n<p>]]><br \/>\n “Family members of the condemned are often erased and have been, for the most part, throughout this process, and I try to really keep that at the center of my work.” “Family members of the condemned are often erased and have been, for the most part, throughout this process, and I try to really keep that at the center of my work.” Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting 17:31 https:\/\/fair.org\/home\/the-chairmanship-of-ajit-pai-has-been-a-disaster\/ Tue, 08 Dec 2020 23:00:01 +0000 https:\/\/fair.org\/?p=9018957 http:\/\/div%20id=’show_comments’Show%202%20comments\/div https:\/\/fair.org\/home\/the-chairmanship-of-ajit-pai-has-been-a-disaster\/feed\/ 2 <\/p>\n<p> “He’s failed in his job to make sure that the people come first, and not these companies.”<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/2020\/12\/13\/fair\/\">Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FAIRCounterSpinCounterSpinKimberle Crenshaw on the Equity Gag Order\u2018These Executions, Disturbing as They Are, Have Flown Largely Under the Radar\u2019\u2018The Chairmanship of Ajit Pai Has Been a Disaster\u2019 https:\/\/fair.org CounterSpin\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2093"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2093"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2094,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2093\/revisions\/2094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}