Last October, I wrote the piece “‘Democracy Now’ Gets Nuclear Ban Vote Totally Wrong“.
Yesterday morning, again, “Democracy Now” got crucial information about the treaty wrong. The lead headline on the morning’s show was:
At the United Nations headquarters in New York, 122 countries have approved a global treaty to ban the use of nuclear weapons, despite the United States leading the opposition to the treaty.
Actually, unacknowledged in the transcript (and spliced on the current online version) is that during broadcast, Amy Goodman initially read the headline as “despite the United Nations leading the opposition to the treaty” — and then corrected it at the end of headlines, which is somewhat darkly amusing.
But the core statement is not true. The treaty doesn’t “ban the use of nuclear weapons” — it bans possession. The name of the agreement is “Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons“.
The treaty states:
Each State Party undertakes never under any circumstances to: (a) Develop, test, produce, manufacture, otherwise acquire, possess or stockpile nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices;…
“Democracy Now” should correct this and be be far more serious about reporting on the role of the U.S. government in forcing the continued possession and threatening use of nuclear weapons.