Why It Matters

Love this podcast! It does cover what’s hot in the headlines now which can be a little tiring (and redundant) but a lot of episodes are topics that you really don’t hear much about but may be the underpinning factor(s) in current events.

The Council on Foreign Relations podcasts claim the opinions presented are that of their hosts and the Council takes no positions on policy as an institution. However, this belies the fact that every one of their hosts is a progressive liberal and views anyone to the right of a liberal as a fascist.

I was a loyal Foreign Affairs subscriber for a decade or more after college, but over time the content and impartiality eroded. This podcast is a great example. Take the recent episode about abortion where the views of the Guttmacher Institute were represented as objective truth rather than arguments from an advocacy group. The podcast consistently argued the US was one of a handful of countries reducing abortion and was thus swimming against the tide, without acknowledging Roe created one of the most unrestricted environments in the world. Most post-Roe state laws are actually far closer to policies across Europe than they were before Roe was overturned. Yet, at no point in the podcast did the host or any of the guests acknowledge this. While this was a particularly glaring example of CFRs political bent, it’s consistent with the general trend. CFR needs to get out of the politics business and back into the objective forum business. Abortion is almost an entirely domestic issue and has no place at CFR. Foreign Policy used to be an invaluable place to debate policy, but now it is just a place to regurgitate the same staid arguments.

For CFR promoting the leftist Elite’s agenda is all that matters. Concern for freedom of the press only extends to the leftist liars.