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This week on Uprising:

* Citing the “Bitter Politics of Envy,” Romney Wins Big in New Hampshire
* Analyzing Haiti Recovery Efforts Two Years After Earthquake
* How Media Coverage of Iran Fuels War Fervor

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Citing the “Bitter Politics of Envy,” Romney Wins Big in New Hampshire

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney continues to lead the pack of GOP Presidential hopefuls after winning 39% of the vote on Tuesday in the New Hampshire primary election. Congressman Ron Paul came in second with 23% of the vote and latecomer John Huntsman, former Governor of Utah, took third place with 17%. In this six all-men race the remaining three candidates failed to break 10%. Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum tied with 9.4% each, and Texas Governor Rick Perry did not even capture 1% of the New Hampshire vote. The candidates now have their sights set on the January 21st South Carolina primary and have already begun stumping there. Perry is betting big on a win in the South to keep him in the race. Mitt Romney took New Hampshire amid an all out attack on his business past with Bain Capitol, which made millions during Romney’s tenure even while shuttering manufacturing plants and laying off workers. Romney told ABC’s Good Morning America his rivals’ tactics represented “the bitter politics of envy” and was sure to be responsible for their loss of votes. A day before the election during a speech to the Nashua Chamber of Commerce, Romney made a comment related to health insurance choices, about how he “liked being able to fire people.” In the days after the election, the controversy around that comment gained steam. Romney is not as confident about his chances in the Palmetto State, calling the upcoming election in South Carolina a “battle.” Doing much of the fighting for the candidates again will be their supporting corporate-sponsored Super PACS, and about $3.5 million have already been spent purchasing ad time.

GUEST: Adele Stan, is the Washington bureau chief for AlterNet and Uprising Election 2012 analyst

Read Adele Stan’s article about the New Hampshire primary here: http://tinyurl.com/6ue64jl

Read Adele Stan’s article about media coverage of the New Hampshire here: http://tinyurl.com/7e7q4td

Amy Wilentz Analyzes Haiti Recovery Efforts Two Years After Earthquake

Two years after a 7.0 earthquake rocked Haiti, the nation remains in a state of crisis. A cholera epidemic that began 10 months after the January 12th 2010 disaster has infected 520,000 people and left 7,000 dead. The World Health Organization told CNN this week that 200 new cholera cases are reported everyday. Meanwhile, the nearly 5 million cubic meters of rubble left from fallen buildings and structures remains in piles where new homes, hospitals, and schools are envisioned but never built. Bill Quigley, of the Center for Constitutional Rights visited the devastated nation recently and wrote, “Haiti looks like the earthquake happened two months ago, not two years.” Nearly $4 billion has been raised for the rebuilding of the tiny nation but Quigley found most of that went to the United States Government as reimbursements for military, food, and other aid. Though not much looks different on the ground, the past year has brought changes to the nation’s political and economic landscape. In March, former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide returned to Haiti after being exiled following a 2004 coup. He returned over the objections of Haiti’s political elite and the US government during a highly anticipated election season. In April Michel Martelly, a pop-star turned politician, declared himself President following a controversial election that excluded Aristide’s party, Fanmi Lavalas, and that many concluded was fraudulent. Since taking office Martelly has worked closely with the US to implement an economic agenda that the newspaper Haiti Liberte characterized as, “[b]etting on sweatshops.” Martelly declared Haiti “open for business” earlier this year, touting, along with the US government, a $257m industrial park in the northern region of the nation based on a so-called “public-private partnership.” The Caracol park will house factories owned by international companies, including South Korea’s largest clothing manufacturer that supplies US retailers like the GAP and Target. President Martelly is also set on building up the Haitian military, courting foreign nations to pitch in $95 million to support about 3,500 troops. Observing the move Amy Wilentz wrote late last year that, “[a]t best, Martelly’s priorities are confused. At worst, they are ominous.”

GUEST: Amy Wilentz is the author of The Rainy Season: Haiti Since Duvalier, Martyrs’ Crossing, and I Feel Earthquakes More Often Than They Happen: Coming to California in the Age of Schwarzenegger. She is an award winning journalist and writer and her work has appeared in many publications including The New York Times, Time magazine, and Mother Jones. She is a former Jerusalem correspondent for The New Yorker, and a contributing editor at The Nation magazine and at the Los Angeles Review of Books. She also teaches at UC Irvine.

How Media Coverage of Iran Fuels War Fervor

An Iranian nuclear scientist was killed this week in a car bomb explosion near a University campus in Northern Teheran. The killing is the latest in a string of violence targeting Iranian nuclear scientists since 2010. On state television on Wednesday, Iranian officials implied US and Israeli responsibility for the killing and one Parliamentarian responded, “[t]his is not the first time arrogant powers adopt such futile measures.” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton denied any U.S. involvement while U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland strongly condemned the attack. Meanwhile, Israeli Chief Military spokesman Yoav Mordechai made a Facebook statement saying that while he didn’t know who “settled the score with the Iranian scientist,” he certainly wouldn’t “shed a tear.” Mordechai’s comment fueled speculation that foreign governments opposed to Iran’s nuclear development program are behind the killings. The news of the Iranian scientist’s death comes just days after Iran announced that it had sentenced a US citizen of Iranian origin to death for spying, accusing him of working for the CIA. US-Iran relations have become severely strained in recent weeks, fueled by media coverage alluding to an impending conflict. In November of last year an International Atomic and Energy Agency (IAEA) report gave opponents of Iran, as well as mainstream media outlets, fodder for speculation that Iran is harboring nuclear weapons. The media watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) has refuted a number of claims made by the media about the IAEA’s findings. A January 6th New York Times article described the Iranian nuclear program as having a “military objective.” FAIR issued an action alert on the New York Times saying the article contained “misleading assertions.” On January 10th, the Times public editor conceded to FAIR’s criticism writing, “[the IAEA report] falls short of making such a clear and conclusive statement.”

GUEST: Peter Hart is the activism director at FAIR. He writes for FAIR’s magazine Extra, and is also a co-host and producer of FAIR’s syndicated radio show CounterSpin.

Visit www.fair.org for more information.

Read FAIR’s latest analysis of media coverage on Iran here: http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=4454

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day:

“The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western world. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity – much less dissent.” — Gore Vidal