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The Federal Communications Commission is poised to make sweeping changes to its restrictions on media ownership. The rules were created to promote a diversity of voices on the airwaves and in the papers, and many fear that the changes, should they pass, could undermine that goal. OTM's Paul Ingles reports on what's at stake in next month's FCC vote.
With only weeks left until the FCC vote, those on both sides of the deregulation debate are furiously trying to win the hearts and minds of Congress and other key players. The result has been some last-minute bargaining and unlikely alliances. Cable World Senior Editor Alicia Mundy gives Bob a view from inside the Beltway.
Since the Jayson Blair fiasco recently came to light, many have wondered why the mountain of factual inaccuracies in that reporter's stories hadn't raised a red flag earlier. Its probably because mistakes aren't all that uncommon -- about half of all newspaper articles contain at least one. OTM's John Solomon takes a look at what's being done to address one of the most common grievances of readers - newspaper errors.
Broadcast media are often accused of taking story ideas that have already been reported by print media organizations. The ethical guidelines surrounding this practice are still unclear, but that hasn't kept some journalists from getting good and steamed about it. Investigative reporter and CQ/Homeland Security Editor Jeff Stein tells Bob about seeing a story he broke re-reported by 60 Minutes.
The election is still a year and a half away, but the presidential candidates are already off and running the race. How well will the media perform this time around? Not very, if the last presidential election can be taken as a sign of things to come. That's according to Robert Shogan, the author of "Bad News: Where the Press Goes Wrong in the Making of the President." Shogan and Brooke discuss the history of presidential election coverage.
Gulf War II was the first war that viewers had the ability to watch in real time, but it wasn't the first time reporters offered play-by-play narration from the battlefield. That distinction goes to World War II. The war reporting of Edward R. Murrow and his colleagues can again be heard on a CD companion to the new book, "World War II On the Air." Co-author Mark Bernstein listens to some of the highlights with Bob.
A messy quarrel between two Seattle papers has focused attention on the strange world of Joint Operating Agreements. These agreements make it possible for cities to be two-paper towns when they probably could support only one. Slate.com columnist Daniel Gross explains to Brooke why he thinks JOAs should go the way of the dinosaur.
Highlights from Past ShowsOver the past couple of years the satellite TV network Al-Jazeera has often been criticized by U.S. government and military officials. But the network's critics include Arabs as well - among them the Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed, Editor-in-Chief of the London-based Arabic newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat. He joins Brooke to discuss what he saw to be Al-Jazeera's skewed coverage of the war in Iraq.
With the Bush Administration's declaration of victory in Iraq, the unveiling of a new peace plan for Israel and the Palestine, and the imminent withdrawal of US forces from Saudi Arabia, it was a busy week for political restructuring in the Middle East. World Press Review contributing editor Peter Valenti fills Bob in on the Arab press' response to the week's events.
On the Media is funded by The Bydale Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Overbrook Foundation.
