As media consolidation has become a bigger media story, the name "Clear Channel" has increasingly come to represent the perceived evils of corporate media domination. And so the media behemoth has spearheaded a P.R. campaign to clean up its image. MediaWeek Senior Editor Katy Bachman is one industry observer who thinks Clear Channel has gotten a bum rap, and she makes her case for Bob.
Frustrated by the national media's preoccupation with bombings, political turmoil and failing infrastructure in Iraq, the President has begun doing what politicians often do. He's blaming the messenger. This week, Bush went on the offensive with his alternative version of events in Iraq, bypassing what he calls the "national media filter" and granting interviews directly to a small group of regional broadcast reporters. Bob speaks to Washington Post White House correspondent Dana Milbank about the administration's end-run around the national media.
A tug-of-war is underway in Washington for control of the government's media arm in Iraq. Since the fall of Saddam, the Pentagon has been running the Iraqi Media Network, but critics in Congress say military oversight of the network could be jeopardizing its credibility, as well as the larger battle for hearts and minds. Don North, a former advisor to the IMN, tells Brooke why he's not going to return to the job.
It's a bird, it's a plane, it's….Dubyaman! For the past two years, President Bush has been featured in the pages of India's biggest English language newspaper as a masked crusader with a W emblazoned on his bodysuit. In the eponymous cartoon strip, Dubyaman flies around the world mispronouncing the names of the places he has bombed, crashing into world monuments, and battling his nemesis, the Statue of Liberty. It's India's most popular comic, and has only gotten more so since the war in Iraq. OTM's Miranda Kennedy reports from New Delhi.
From Ted Mack's Amateur Hour a half-century ago to Star Search in the '80s, the TV talent show has been a staple of American entertainment. But recently, the form seems to be experiencing its own British invasion. The hugely popular "American Idol" was just one of 21 international adaptations of "Pop Idol" - the show that started in the UK several years ago. David Lyle is President of Entertainment and Drama at Fremantle Media North America, the company that's bringing the Idol franchise to a market near you.
Brooke and Bob read from listeners' letters.
This week the movie "Veronica Guerin" hits theaters across the country. It's the story of an Irish reporter who, through assiduous reporting and extraordinary courage, tracked down and exposed the drug lords who were turning Dublin into a war zone in the mid 1990s. But veteran Irish journalist Ed Moloney tells Brooke that it was Guerin's murder in 1996, rather than her years of a crusading journalism, that spurred Ireland to crack down on the drug trade.
Highlights from Past Shows
When Arnold the action hero morphed into Arnold the governor this week, it seemed like many members of media could not quite believe what they were reporting, despite pre-election polls which indicated an easy win for Schwarzenegger. In a recent column, Harper’s Magazine Editor Lewis Lapham chastised the eastern editors who could hardly mask their incredulity at the whole affair. He joins Brooke to discuss the election coverage.
Last week we talked to Congressman Jim Marshall who had recently completed a 3 day tour of Iraq and found that the coverage coming out of Baghdad was far more dismal than the reality he perceived on the ground. Dexter Filkins has been covering Iraq for the New York Times for the last six months. He spoke to Bob about the dissonance between what he saw over there, and what he’s hearing back home.
On the Media is funded by The Bydale Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Overbrook Foundation.
