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Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.

His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.



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SPECIAL REPORT: "The Resistance - Women's March 2018 - Hartford, Connecticut" Jan. 20, 2018

Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris




SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018



SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018




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SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017



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SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017




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SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven



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THANK YOU TO EVERYONE...

who helped make our 25th anniversary with Jeremy Scahill a success!

For those who missed the event, or were there and really wanted to fully absorb its import, here it is in video

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 1 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 2 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.


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Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

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"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.





Listen to audio of the plenary sessions from the weekend.


JEREMY SCAHILL: Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker "Dirty Wars"

Listen to the full interview (30:33) with Jeremy Scahill, an award-winning investigative journalist with the Nation Magazine, correspondent for Democracy Now! and author of the bestselling book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," about America's outsourcing of its military. In an exclusive interview with Counterpoint's Scott Harris on Sept. 16, 2013, Scahill talks about his latest book, "Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield," also made into a documentary film under the same title, and was nominated Dec. 5, 2013 for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category.

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GOP Doubles Down on War Against Women's Access to Contraception

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Posted March 7, 2012

Interview with Judy Tabar, the long-time president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southern New England , conducted by Melinda Tuhus

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In 1965, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Griswold v. Connecticut that married couples have the right to use birth control. In fact, at that time Connecticut was one of the last states to bar access to birth control based on the 19th century moral police empowered under the Comstock Law. In 1972, in Eisenstadt v. Baird that right was extended to unmarried individuals as well.

The 1965 case was decided based on the right of privacy, which paved the way for the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 that legalized abortion. The "Griswold" in the case was Estelle Griswold, executive director of what was then called the Planned Parenthood League of Connecticut, and is now Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, that works in both Connecticut and Rhode Island. Conservative politicians such as Rick Santorum and right-wing talk show hosts have blamed the high Court’s decision in the Griswold case for opening the floodgates for what they claim is immoral behavior. Radio talker Rush Limbaugh triggered a national controversy when he called a law student, Sandra Fluke, a “slut and prostitute,” after she gave testimony at a congressional hearing advocating for women's access to contraceptives.

Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Judy Tabar, the long-time president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southern New England. She discusses the continuing need to defend women's access to reproductive health care amid the current controversy, and the narrow defeat of the Blunt amendment in the U.S. Senate that would have given employers the right to deny employees any type of medical treatment based on their personal religious or “moral objections.

JUDY TABAR: The decision by the Senate to defeat the Blunt amendment was a real victory for women's health, although the fact that it was so narrowly decided is really a grave concern. But the Senate did really stand up for women's health, and will make it possible for women to be able to get preventive health care, including birth control, without a co-pay, regardless of where they work.

BETWEEN THE LINES: So this basically supported a very important element of President Obama's health care reform, by voting the way they did. There were other groups that also weighed in against the Blunt amendment, other groups concerned about the provision of health care that have nothing to do with women's reproductive health, groups that work around the issue of spina bifida, the American Cancer Society, Easter Seals, that also came out strongly against Blunt. So what would it have meant if just two votes had gone the other way, not just for women's health care, but more generally?

JUDY TABAR: Well, that would have allowed any employer or health insurance plan to refuse to cover any activity those entities had a religious or moral objection to. That could be anything. So, for example, it's become routine practice for a woman to have an ultrasound or amniocentesis if she is 35 or older, and so, they could object to doing that. They could object to mammograms. They could object to any wide range of services, so it was very, very broad, and that's why it was such a broad coalition of organizations that were against this.

BETWEEN THE LINES: I see a distinction between, if you're pro-choice or anti-abortion, and if you're for or against the provision of birth control. The idea being that, for one thing, if more women had more access to birth control, there would be fewer abortions. Six or eight years ago I did a long piece when it was the 40th anniversary of Griswold v. Connecticut. And I really found that all the people I interviewed who were anti-abortion, all of them were also against birth control. And it's interesting because up until recent years, birth control did not seem to be very controversial, although abortion has always been controversial. What's your sense of the political landscape that now, these people – one of whom is going to be running against Obama for president – are all taking these extreme positions?

JUDY TABAR: Well, these extreme positions are out of step with the American public. The vast majority of Americans do use birth control; in fact 99 percent of women who are sexually active use birth control, and 98 percent of Catholic women use birth control. So I think most of us are puzzled about why these extreme politicians are focusing on women's health and birth control when we have such critical issues as the economy and jobs that they should be focusing on. It's really out of step with where the majority of Americans would like to see our elected officials focusing.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Someone was pointing out that any man can get a prescription – health care insurance coverage – for Viagra or the equivalent medications. They don't have to prove they're married; they don't have to answer questions about how often they have sex. That seems to make it pretty blatant about the discrimination against women in terms of this particular issue.

JUDY TABAR: Yeah, women's health care and contraception is basic health care, but beyond that, regardless of it being preventive health care, it's an economic concern for women. We know that in this past year, one out of four women delayed going to their gynecologist or delayed getting birth control because they couldn't afford it. That's why this is so critically important. So when some people dismiss this as 'It's just preventive care,' this is basic essential health care for women.

BETWEEN THE LINES: What do you think needs to happen – or what do you think will happen – to try to beat back all these attacks and at least get us back to 1965, when birth control became legal for married women?!

JUDY TABAR: Well, I think women, men across this country are standing up and taking notice when such extreme attacks are happening on something as basic as birth control, which is universally accepted and, as I said, widely used, by American women. So, people are standing up and I think starting to speak out against these extreme attacks, and that's what's going to be required.

For more information on Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, visit www.plannedparenthood.org/ppsne.