“Copaganda: How Police and the Media Manipulate Our News” with Alec Karakatsanis

In this timely interview, author and civil rights attorney Alex Karakatsanis unpacks the powerful thesis of his book, “Copaganda: How Police and the Media Manipulate Our News.” He argues that the mainstream news media—including trusted liberal outlets like NPR, the New York Times, and PBS—operates in collaboration with politicians, prosecutors, and the multi-billion dollar prison industry to systematically distort our understanding of crime and safety. Through what he terms "copaganda," these institutions manipulate well-meaning people by narrowing our concept of threat to focus on offenses by the poor and marginalized, while ignoring far greater harms like wage theft and pollution. Karakatsanis masterfully explains how the media uses "selective anecdotes" and sheer volume of coverage to create a false perception that crime is perpetually rising, even when data proves it’s at historic lows, all to justify ever-increasing investments in what he calls the "punishment bureaucracy."

 

Moving beyond critique, the conversation delves into the real-world consequences of this propaganda machine. Karakatsanis reveals how every crisis, even a police killing, is funneled by the media into demands for more system funding—like more training or more officers—instead of prompting deeper questions about the system's purpose. He dismantles the "common sense" idea that more policing means more safety, presenting compelling data that shows investments in healthcare, housing, and education are vastly more effective. Ultimately, this podcast is a powerful call to recognize how we’ve been deceived and to shift the focus from punishment to addressing the root material conditions—like poverty and inequality—that truly determine community safety.

 

Alex Karakatsanis is a civil rights attorney, founder of the nonprofit Civil Rights Corps, and author of Usual Cruelty and Copaganda. A former public defender, he has dedicated his career to challenging the inhumanity of the American legal system. His work has been featured in major publications, and he is a leading voice in the movement for abolition and transformative justice.

 

Follow Alex & Civil Rights Corps:

Order the book: https://thenewpress.org/books/9781620978535/

Civil Rights Corps: https://civilrightscorps.org/

Alex on Twitter/X: @equalityAlec

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