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Last time Brooke spoke with NPR's John Burnett, he had just arrived in Baghdad and was about to leave his military assignment. Since then, he's finally had the chance to speak with ordinary Iraqis, and get a different perspective on the war. On the eve of his departure to the U.S., Brooke checks in with John for one last assessment of the "embed experiment."
Plenty of eyebrows were raised this week after The New York Times ran a front-page story about incriminating revelations by an Iraqi chemical weapons scientist. In the article, reporter Judith Miller wrote that "the terms of her accreditation" prevented her from interviewing the scientist, and required that she submit her article for military review. Brooke talks to Slate.com's Jack Shafer about Miller's untraditional arrangement.
The government's war on terrorism has left plenty of collateral damage in its wake, especially when it comes to Americans' basic freedoms. So far, it seems that citizens are willing to sacrifice some civil liberties in exchange for national security. But as Bob examines the trade-offs that have already been made, he finds that much of the damage is invisible, and potentially more far-reaching than many think.
Across the country, towns and cities are taking a stand against the U.S. Patriot Act, on the grounds that it poses egregious affronts to civil liberties. Helping to organize the national movement is the Bill of Rights Defense Committee of Florence, Massachusetts. The group's director, Nancy Talanian, tells Brooke why she is so concerned.
Despite the rapid spread of SARS in China, until recently there was a virtual media blackout about the disease there. Earlier this week, the International Press Institute condemned China's suppression of reporting about the SARS epidemic. Bob discusses China's handling of the crisis with UC Berkeley J-School Dean Orville Schell.
Hong Kong's government recently countered an Internet rumor about the spread of SARS by sending millions of corrective announcements via cell phone text messages. Thus was a panic, fueled by high-tech communications technology, defused by an even higher tech solution. Xeni Jardin wrote about the phenomenon for Wired News. She talks to Brooke about how people in the Far East are using text-messaging technologies to cope with SARS.
Twenty-five years ago this month, a ground-breaking mini-series about the Holocaust was broadcast on network television. Since then, numerous movies have been made about the Holocaust, but their treatments of the subject have varied widely. WNYC's Sara Fishko traces the evolution of the Holocaust film over the past quarter-century.
Highlights from Past ShowsAfter years of negotiations, Rupert Murdoch has succeeded in his bid for DirecTV. The satellite broadcasting operation adds 11 million American viewers to Murdoch's global empire, making his media company not simply the biggest, but probably the most powerful as well. Bob queries Cable World Senior Editor Alicia Mundy about Murdoch's ever expanding media holdings.
This week, U.S. strikes on buildings housing reporters in Baghdad left three journalists dead, raising the total number of journalists killed in the war to 12. Press representatives from all over the world, as well as the Committee to Protect Journalists, have condemned the "reckless" American attacks. CPJ Acting Director Joel Simon discusses the war's toll on journalists with 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.
