Portside

Attacks on public employee unions, especially teachers unions, have become a permanent feature of the political landscape. One glaring example is the lawsuit filed last month in federal court in Los Angeles against six California and national teachers unions. The lawsuit purports to defend the “free speech” rights of four California schoolteachers, but its real goal is to silence the collective voice of union members on political and educational issues.

The establishment US media’s backlash against award winning journalist Seymour Hersh for his report in the London Review of Books on the raid that killed Osama bin Laden has fueled a perception that it has been wholly discredited. Yet, a key part of Hersh’s report has now been corroborated by the New York Times’ Carlotta Gall, a Pakistan newspaper, and partly by NBC News. Hersh’s report challenges the Obama Administration claims on the capture of Bin Laden.