Episode 17: Whitewashing America's Role in Yemen
Citations Needed
Citations Needed
4.8 • 4.1K Ratings
🗓️ 29 November 2017
⏱️ 69 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Over 15,000 civilians dead and almost a million reported cases of cholera. 17 million people unsure of where their next meal will come from, including 7 million on the brink of starvation. Nearly 3 million people internally displaced. Hunger, disease, and bombs. That's what the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the U.S. have wrought on Yemen.
After almost three years of wanton destruction by U.S.-supported Saudi bombing campaigns and, most recently, a total land, air and sea blockade, the vast majority of Americans still haven't heard much about the dire circumstances facing the people of Yemen. They've heard even less about how the United States is enabling, facilitating, authorizing, aiding and abetting this slaughter.
By and large, the media has almost entirely ignored the decimation of Yemen and its civilian population. When it is touched upon, America's central role in the conflict is often omitted, as is––even more inexplicably––Saudi Arabia's. The violence is routinely referred to as a regional "proxy war" between Gulf monarchies and Iran or Sunnis and Shias, rather than a U.S.-backed massacre.
On this episode, Adam and Nima, joined by Dr. Sheila Carapico and Dr. Greg Shupak, look back at the media's coverage of this tragedy, why it let Obama off the hook for it, how the typical "cycle of violence" framing is used to obscure U.S. responsibility, and what can be done to lay blame where it belongs moving forward. With guests Dr. Sheila Carapico and Dr. Greg Shupak.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This is Citations Needed with Nemeshirazi and Adam Johnson. |
| 0:08.8 | Welcome to Citations Needed, podcasts where we talk about media, power, PR, and the history |
| 0:14.2 | of bullshit. |
| 0:15.6 | I am Nemeshirazi here with my co-host Adam Showtime Johnson. |
| 0:19.6 | How you doing? |
| 0:20.6 | Good. |
| 0:21.6 | We're not really calling me Showtime just to be clear. |
| 0:22.6 | That was it. |
| 0:23.6 | Inside joke. |
| 0:24.6 | Oh, I thought, no, I was really good at it. |
| 0:25.6 | I'm not actually going to call myself Showtime. |
| 0:26.6 | No, you don't have to call yourself that. |
| 0:28.2 | I'm going to call you that. |
| 0:29.2 | Oh, man. |
| 0:30.2 | All right. |
| 0:31.2 | Fine. |
| 0:32.2 | Thank you, everyone, for joining us as always. |
| 0:33.4 | You can find us on Twitter at CitationsPod, Facebook at Citations Needed, and also, of course, |
| 0:40.4 | you can help us out by becoming a supporter of the show, get all sorts of extra goodies |
| 0:46.3 | by going to Patreon. |
| 0:47.3 | Citations Needed, podcast, Nemeshirazi, Adam Johnson. |
| 0:50.0 | Our names are right on there. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Citations Needed, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Citations Needed and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

