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The media is frothing with every development in the Kobe Bryant story. It has all the elements of an American scandal - money, celebrity, sex…and race. Long before jury selection and the first utterance of defense, the media have begun to speculate on the role of race in the case. Bob talks with Leon Wynter, author of American Skin: Pop Culture, Big Business, and the End of White America, about whether the media can afford to play the race card with the prince of the NBA.
This week, The Economist centered its crosshairs on Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, challenging him in an open letter to answer allegations of corruption and dodgy dealings. It wasn't the first time the venerable British weekly has gone on the offensive against Italy's richest man, but perhaps the most relentless. The Economist's Editor-in-Chief Bill Emmott tells Brooke what motivated the five-page salvo.
In yet another attempt to hold the attention of the flitting remote-controllers, NBC is inserting original programming into its commercial breaks this fall. The "mini-movies" will be chopped into 30-second halves that will air at separate times throughout the night. Paris Barclay co-produced the shorts, and joins Bob to discuss them.
The Big Brother reality show has been adapted worldwide, but nowhere has it combined contestants from as many countries as it has in Africa. The show has attracted more than 30 million viewers, as well as its share of controversy. While some celebrate the show as a landmark display of pan-Africanism, others call it just another example of Western-style tawdriness. Ugandan reporter Moses Serugo fills in Brooke on the flap.
In Mexico, government planners saw an opportunity in the enormous popularity of country's own version of Big Brother. And so this year the show's viewers witnessed more than the standard nitty-gritty of co-habitation - they watched contestants recycle, conserve water, and make compost. Reporter Peter Aronson goes behind the scenes of Big Brother Mexico.
Big Media. In this age of media consolidation, the phrase carries an ominous, minor-key ring. But does big media necessarily mean bad media? Newsweek columnist Robert Samuelson doesn't think so. He tells Brooke why he thinks the FCC's recent relaxation of media ownership rules won't spell the end of choice for media consumers.
Is the media liberal, or does it swing to the right? The perennial argument over media bias is as hot as ever, but a new study from Harvard's Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press is offering some rare empirical data to the mix. New York magazine columnist Michael Tomasky conducted the study, and found that conservative editorial pages are far less willing to criticize Republicans than liberal pages are to take on the Democrats. He shares his findings with Bob.
This week, we take a cue from local TV newscasts, and end our show on a lighter note. For as any good producer knows, nothing ends a broadcast better than a piece of fluff. OTM's Rex Doane reflects on that staple of TV news - affectionately known as the kicker.
Highlights from Past ShowsThis week, President Bush defended the decision to classify 28 pages in the Congressional report on 9/11, despite requests from several members of Congress to release the deleted portion. This follows efforts in the past few weeks from Democrats in Congress to begin demanding more information from the notoriously secretive administration. Scott Armstrong is founder of the National Security Archive. He tells Brooke Congress should already have access to the information that was requested.
Ever since the FCC voted to relax media ownership rules, congressional opponents of deregulation have been working to reverse the changes. But because the leader of a key House committee opposed the effort, nobody thought it would get very far. Undaunted, deregulation opponents took an alternative tack, and were vindicated this week in a vote by the full House. Cable World Senior Editor Alicia Mundy fills Bob in on the latest in the FCC saga.
On the Media is funded by The Bydale Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Overbrook Foundation.
