Bob and Brooke answer some of your letters.
While Al-Jazeera has achieved wide name-recognition in the West over the last two years, in the Arab world it's the Middle Eastern Broadcasting Company, or MBC, that is the established news provider. Now MBC is getting ready to launch a 24-hour network called al-Arabia as a direct rival to Al Jazeera. Jihad Fakhreddine of the Pan-Arab Research Center in Dubai joins Bob to discuss the Arab TV landscape.
The fall of Indonesia's President Suharto in 1998 prompted the beginning of a steady thaw in tight governmental control of the country's media. A media boom ensued. Recently the Indonesian parliament passed a law aimed at increasing regional television programming, taking media ownership out of the hands of corrupt Suharto-era cronies. The Economist's Edward McBride tells Bob that the new laws could have unexpected consequences for the media industry.
The Kutch region of India, in the western state of Gujarat, is both isolated and impoverished. Television sets are sparse and print media is non-existent. But every town has a radio and this fact inspired a collaboration between a Kutchi women's group and a regional media cooperative that resulted in a popular weekly radio show. As Miranda Kennedy reports, listening to the broadcasts have become communal events in the Kutch.
This past week Britain's Tony Benn conducted a landmark interview with the Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. While news of the impending war with Iraq is never far from our screens, this interview with Saddam - the first he'd granted a Westerner in 12 years, received little air-time. Fawaz Gerges, a professor of international affairs and Middle Eastern studies at Sarah Lawrence University, tells Bob that Saddam is not using the media to his advantage.
Time Inc. Magazine Group has been in the hot seat before for its aggressive marketing techniques, and now it is the focus of a multi-state investigation for its use of a billing technique called automatic renewal. On the Media's John Solomon is on the case.
The U.S. Court of International Trade recently ruled, much to the chagrin of fans, that the X-Men aren't men at all. They're dolls! Brian Wilkinson, the editor of the website, X-fan, has taken their case public. Brian and Brooke get to the core of the controversy.
Highlights from Past Shows
Seeking prime airtime, the Anti-War Video Fund created a 30-second issue ad to be broadcast on CNN before and after the State of the Union address. Unfortunately for the activists, the ad did not air. It was rejected at the last minute by the mega cable company, Comcast. Outraged anti-war advocates are crying censorship. Alicia Mundy from Cableworld magazine returns this week to talk with Brooke about the controversy.
The Congressional leadership swap returned veteran lawmaker John McCain to the helm of the Senate Commerce Committee. What will Senator McCain's chairmanship mean for the contentious future of media regulation? Brooke speculates with Cable World reporter Alicia Mundy.
On the Media is funded by The Bydale Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Overbrook Foundation.
