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With its unflinching coverage of the war in Iraq, Al Jazeera is ruffling feathers on both sides of the conflict. The cable channel has already been ejected from the New York Stock Exchange and now in a strange twist, a correspondent has been booted from Iraq. Despite that, last week Al Jazeera was the most searched-for term on the Net. Bob talks with Joanne Tucker, managing editor of Al Jazeera's English language website.
Overall, Americans still appear to be mostly satisfied with television coverage of the war. But which channels are people turning to most often? And how much influence does the coverage have on people's opinions? Brooke gets some answers from Max Robbins from TV Guide, which recently conducted a poll of who's watching what.
Brooke checks in with NPR correspondent John Burnett, who has been re-assigned to an artillery division closer to the frontline. This week, he talks about the differences between his opportunities as an embedded reporter and those of the so-called 'unilaterals.'
In one of the war's more paradoxical twists, TV coverage has focused on generals in the newsroom as often as it has featured reporters on the battlefield. But while there's no doubt as to their military expertise, are the armchair generals in a position to offer critical analysis? Bob wonders whether we'd all be better off if the retired generals went back into retirement.
OTM listeners weigh in on last week's discussions about naming war operations and the Fox drama "24," and correct one of our earlier corrections.
The week, another "Left Behind" novel is slated to hit bookstores. It's expected to debut at the top of bestseller lists, as have each of the last four installments in the evangelical series. George Washington University Professor Melani McAlister speaks with Brooke about potential ramifications of the "Left Behind" series in wartime.
It has been speculated that Saddam's regime shares fundamental traits with those of European totalitarian movements of the last century. Might it be possible, then, to better understand life in Iraq by looking back at the Nazi era? Brooke talks about overcoming indoctrination with Ottomar Rudolf, a Reed College professor who grew up a member of the Hitler Youth.
Two weeks before bombs started falling on Baghdad, documentary filmmaker Jon Alpert recorded a real-time conversation between a group of young Americans and their peers in Iraq. The result was "Bridge to Baghdad," a rare glimpse into the lives of regular Iraqis. Bob talks with Alpert about the production, and about why the film isn't being shown in the U.S.
Highlights from Past ShowsA week into the war in Iraq, the picture we are getting from the domestic press is quite different from that portrayed by the foreign press. This gulf is especially large when it comes to the Middle Eastern media. United Press Chief Correspondent and inveterate media watcher Martin Walker is in Kuwait, and gives us a view from the ground.
A few days into the war, the Iraqi government is stepping up restrictions on the few Western reporters left in Baghdad, and threatening that they could be taken into "protective custody." Before the bombs started falling, the International Federation of Journalists appealed to military leaders on both sides to respect the rights of reporters, as IFJ's Sarah De Jong explains to Bob.
On the Media is funded by The Bydale Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Overbrook Foundation.
