Ben Norton

Ben Norton is a journalist and writer. He is a producer and reporter for The Real News, and a contributor to the Grayzone Project and FAIR. Ben co-hosts the Moderate Rebels podcast with Max Blumenthal. His website is BenNorton.com.

Meet the Nicaraguans Facebook Falsely Branded Bots and Censored Days Before Elections

Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter suspended hundreds of influential pro-Sandinista journalists and activists days before Nicaragua’s November 7 elections, falsely claiming they were government trolls. The Grayzone interviewed them to reveal the truth.

Ben Norton
By Ben Norton

MANAGUA, NICARAGUA (The Grayzone) — Just days before Nicaragua’s November 7 elections, top social media platforms censored top Nicaraguan news outlets and hundreds of journalists and activists who support their country’s leftist Sandinista government. The politically motivated campaign of Silicon Valley censorship amounted to a massive purge of

Read Full Article

A US Military Veteran and ‘Aid Volunteer’ Sends Death Threat to Venezuela Embassy Defenders

Far-right Venezuelan opposition activist Luis Medina, a former US Marine and volunteer for Juan Guaido’s aid stunt, told CODEPINK embassy defenders “we are coming to get you with plenty of ammunition.”

Ben Norton
By Ben Norton
Luis Medina

Grayzone --  A far-right Venezuelan opposition activist emailed a death threat to human rights activists from the peace group CODEPINK. The threat was delivered when CODEPINK was helping to protect the Venezuelan government’s embassy in Washington, DC from an illegal takeover by Juan Guaidó’s US-backed coup administration. This rabid opposition

Read Full Article

Us-Backed Opposition Leader Admits Venezuela ‘Is Not a Dictatorship’

Opposition leader María Corina Machado, a key figure in the US coup plot, admitted that Venezuela “is not a dictatorship” and only international “humanitarian intervention” can topple Maduro.

Ben Norton
By Ben Norton
Maria Corina Machado

Grayzone -- A major right-wing opposition leader in Venezuela has acknowledged that her country “is not a dictatorship,” calling it a “huge error” to claim otherwise. She also conceded that the only way the government in Caracas can realistically be toppled is through international “humanitarian intervention.” Maria Corina Machado has a close

Read Full Article

Four Years of Hell: To Crush Yemen’s Independence, US-Saudi War Created World’s Worst Humanitarian Crisis

Despite the enormous international onslaught, hundreds of thousands of deaths, widespread famine-like conditions, hundreds of billions of dollars wasted on war — despite all of this, the US-UK-Saudi-UAE coalition has been unable to crush the will of the Yemeni people, who continue to fight for independence and sovereignty.

Ben Norton
By Ben Norton
Yemen | Saudi war

Grayzone -- March 26, 2019 marked the fourth anniversary of the US-Saudi bombing campaign in Yemen. These four years have unleashed Hell on Earth for millions of civilians. It would be impossible to overstate the devastation, destruction, and death they have experienced. For 1,460 days, Saudi Arabia, one of the richest countries on the planet,

Read Full Article

Hollywood’s ‘Captain Marvel’ Blockbuster Is Blatant US Military Propaganda

Grayzone’s Ben Norton looks at the sizable role the Pentagon played in the production of the hit Hollywood film Captain Marvel, and how the blockbuster film is being used spread recruitment propaganda.

Ben Norton
By Ben Norton
Captain Marvel | Air Force

Grayzone -- The superhero blockbuster Captain Marvel is a perfect case study for how the United States military uses Hollywood to spread propaganda. The US military is at the center of the plot of Captain Marvel. The film’s protagonist, Carol Danvers, is a former US Air Force pilot who becomes a superhero after absorbing the powers of an

Read Full Article

Internal US Gov’t Document Outlines Program of ‘Economic Warfare’ on Venezuela

An internal government document reveals tactics of “economic warfare” and “financial weapons” the US is using against Venezuela in the name of “furthering capitalism.”

Ben Norton
By Ben Norton
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro fist bumps a worker of the state-run oil company PDVSA during a visit to the Orinoco oil belt in Venezuela in 2013. (Photo: Miraflores/AP)

GrayZone Project -- Venezuela has suffered from an economic crisis in recent years, and while the US government and corporate media outlets have blamed this hardship solely on the ruling socialist party, internal US government documents acknowledge that Washington has been using what it clearly describes as “financial weapons” to wage “economic

Read Full Article

Venezuela’s US-Backed Coup Leader Immediately Targets State Oil Company, Requests IMF Money

Unelected US-backed coup leader Juan Guaidó immediately moved to try to restructure Venezuela’s state-owned oil company and seek financing from the neoliberal IMF.

Ben Norton
By Ben Norton
Juan Guaido | Venezuela

GrayZone Project -- The right-wing opposition leader that the United States is trying to undemocratically install as Venezuela’s president immediately set his sights on the country’s state-owned oil company, which he is hoping to restructure and move toward privatization. He is also seeking money from the notorious International Monetary Fund (IMF)

Read Full Article