Hosts Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola put together this response to CNN's report on a Russia-backed video company, where Rania works.

A U.S.-funded think tank in Germany, the German Marshall Fund, went to CNN, and together, they convinced Facebook to suspend video channel pages that are owned by Maffick Media—including Soapbox. (You may have seen Soapbox videos from Rania, such as this one on Venezuela.)

Rania recounts how CNN went digging for dirt on Maffick Media. Management eventually reached out to CNN and informed them that they knew what CNN journalists were doing. They granted CNN access and agreed to answer just about any question CNN had about the company.

Kevin describes the German Marshall Fund, who is affiliated it, and why it is significant that the think tank came after In The Now. It is far less transparent in its promotion of a Hamilton 68 "tracker" to uncover alleged Russian influence operations than Maffick Media is with their videos.

Rania and Kevin note that CNN's investigation was pretty poor. They did not turn up much of anyhing, but they achieved censorship, which is what matters. This has real ramifications for Rania and whether she may keep her job.

Even more significantly, CNN keeps churning out reports that fuel panic over all things Russia because it is profitable. Russia and the U.S. control 90 percent of the world's nuclear weapons. Instead of contributing to a world that can support peace between these two powerful countries, CNN serves the agenda of U.S. intelligence and military officials.

***

Further Reading

How CNN Led Facebook To Censor The Pages Of Russia-Backed Video Company And Manufactured A News Story

Hosts Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola are joined by Christina Schiavoni, who is a food sovereignty activist and doctoral researcher at the International Institute of Social Studies in The Hague. She has engaged in solidarity work in Venezuela and focuses on food issues, and she lived in a working class community in Caracas from early 2016 to 2018.

Schiavoni describes how she became involved in activism around food sovereignty in Venezuela. She addresses the issues of food shortages and who owns most of the major food companies. She also grapples with the lack of diversification in Venezuela's economy.

Later in the interview, Schiavoni talks about food aid that is handed out to poor and working class Venezuelans by the government. She outlines the impact of sanctions and provides an explanation for why the government may not want to allow the humanitarian aid from President Donald Trump's administration to enter Venezuela.

Hosts Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola welcome author Barry Eisler to the show. He spent three years in a covert position with the CIA's Directorate of Operations, and he has written several best-selling espionage novels. His most recent book is The Killer Collective.

During the show, Eisler talks about developing the story for Killer Collective. He is an avid reader and supporter of independent news media and describes how news headlines and perspectives from these sources influence his work.

Eisler recently tweeted, "I could spend all day tweeting about Putin hysteria. It’s become that omnipresent. For many liberals, there are no other frameworks for understanding reality anymore. Putin the Puppet Master has eclipsed everything else." He talks about this framework, as well as "information laundering," which establishment news media outlets do constantly.

Hosts Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola are joined this week by educator and journalist Roberto Lovato. In 2015, he wrote the article, "The Making Of Leopoldo Lopez," for Foreign Policy.

Recently, he contributed a piece to Latino Rebels on the appointment of Elliott Abrams to represent the Trump administration as special envoy to Venezuela (particularly, the opposition).

Lovato, who is of Salvadoran descent, describes the dread he experienced when the former State Department official implicated in massacres in El Salvador in the 1980s was given a job by President Donald Trump's administration to help advance their agenda in Venezuela. He recalls bearing witness to a mass grave.

Later in the show, Lovato recalls what happened to him when he went to Venezuela to report on Lopez, the opposition leader who is a folk hero to many international human rights groups and Western media outlets. He highlights when he was threatened by a member of the opposition. When he returned home, a State Department employee gave him a creepy phone call.

Lovato also highlights some of the individuals in the opposition, who have ties to neo-fascists.

*Thank you to our patrons for supporting our show, and thanks for listening to the interview. If you like what you hear, become a patron.

In a special episode, hosts Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola stand up to a slew of smear attacks against Rania for speaking out on the attempted coup in Venezuela.

Particularly, journalists like Michael Weiss of The Daily Beast, Yashar Ali of Huffington Post, and Casey Michel of Think Progress attacked members of Congress who interacted with her tweets on Venezuela. They labeled her a "Russian propagandist" to further isolate and make them denounce her.

Rania's Wikipedia page was defaced around January 28. It was brought to editors' attention. A slanderous sentence was removed from the top of her page and then re-inserted further down. It was then locked making it difficult for anyone to remove what was added. She had to wait for nearly a half of a day before it was deleted altogether, and her page still going through maintenance so it conforms with Wikipedia's standards and does not attack her reputation.

This has lasted for about a week. In the words of Kevin, this sustained campaign of attacks are an effort to silence a strong and effective woman journalist who is unapologetic in her anti-imperial views. She agitated for members of Congress to come out against President Donald Trump's support for a coup in Venezuela, and it worked because multiple representatives responded to her favorably. That deeply upset those in media who despise her.

We spend nearly an hour going through several of the attacks. Most importantly, we give Rania space to deal with what she has endured. Nobody is going to shut Rania down on "Unauthorized Disclosure."

Hosts Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola talk about what is unfolding in Venezuela, where Juan Guaido and the right-wing opposition refuse to recognize Nicolas Maduro as president. They have the support of President Donald Trump's administration and aim to overthrow Maduro.

Later in the show, the hosts shift to Tulsi Gabbard's announcement on CNN in the past week, where she said she will run for president in 2020. Both of the hosts challenge the media's reaction, as well as the left's reaction, while breaking down several of her strengths and flaws as a candidate.

Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola are glad to be back for another season of the "Unauthorized Disclosure" podcast.

For the first episode of the year, journalist and Nation contributor Aaron Maté joins the show to talk about a recent article he wrote, "New Studies Show Pundits Are Wrong About Russian Social Media Involvement in US Politics."

Maté highlights several aspects of reports on alleged Russian influence in the 2016 election that were co-signed by members of Congress. They show marketing campaigns were small, amateurish, and mostly unrelated to the election.

During the show, Maté addresses a recent story about Paul Manafort that was all but retracted entirely and how this happens frequently with "Russiagate" news reports.

The show opens with Maté and the hosts discussing how incredible it is that there were no sonic weapons attacking U.S. embassies in Cuba. It turns out the sounds supposedly making officials ill were crickets.

Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola wrap up this year's season of "Unauthorized Disclosure" with MintPress News founder and editor-in-chief Mnar Muhawesh.

During the show, they reflect on some of the more pernicious social and political developments in the past year. Mnar talks about censorship by Facebook, Twitter, and other social media companies, and the impact it is having on independent journalists and alternative media outlets, especially the effect on MintPress News.

Later in the show, Mnar and Rania discuss the wars in Yemen and Syria. They take a moment to address the most recent development—President Donald Trump ordering the withdrawal of troops from Syria.

The show ends with Mnar, Rania, and Kevin each highlighting something they believe went significantly under-reported or virtually ignored in the U.S. press, including progressive media.

Hosts Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola discuss yet another round of blaming Russia for dissent. They highlight the protests in France. Then, Gosztola shares how he was accused of helping Putin undermine faith in the rule of the law and the justice system by a think tank in Washington, D.C.

The hosts pay tribute to William Blum. He died at 85 and published work that was essential for anyone interested in fighting U.S. imperialism.

Finally, the hosts talk about the successful Yemen war powers resolution vote in the Senate and how Paul Ryan served the war industry by ensuring the House could not hold a similar vote.