President Bush isn't exactly Britain’s favorite US president, and so when Air Force One touched down in London this week, some expected that the media would give him the same cold shoulder as did the protesters in Trafalgar Square. But after he delivered a speech that surpassed the media's low expectations and British targets were bombed in Turkey, Bush received a much gentler treatment by the British press. Brooke checks in with WBUR Correspondent Michael Goldfarb, who is based in London.
Over the past 20 years, media mogul Conrad Black amassed the biggest newspaper holding company in history. Mostly, he bought struggling papers that were traditionally conservative…and reinvented those that were not in his own political image. This week Lord Black was charged with misallocating funds, and was forced to step down from the helm of his media empire, Hollinger Inc. Bob gets the scoop from Black biographer and Sunday Telegraph reporter Richard Siklos.
In broadcasting's younger days, going live was extremely difficult, costly and rare. But exactly 40 years ago, a monumental tragedy occurred that made live coverage essential, no matter the cost, whenever a President left the White House. On the Media's Sara Fishko prepared this recollection of those dreadful days in November. -
A budget battle is underway in Mexico that could have grave consequences for the nation's burgeoning film industry. If approved, the President's proposal would gut the industry's state-subsidies, which culture watchers say are the country's last defense against the Hollywood juggernaut. And the increasingly deafening outcry has put the President on the defensive. Bob checks in with Ken Bensinger, who writes about Mexico's silver screen for Daily Variety.
Lining up big donors for not-so-big movies has always proved a challenge for independent filmmakers. So Ethan Hawke is forgetting about those donors altogether, and taking his new movie straight to the people. This week, shares for Hawke's latest project, "Billy Dead," went on the Internet auction block in what is believed to be the first ever IPO for an individual film. Brooke talks to Barry Polterman, who founded the brokerage firm managing the sale.
Brooke and Bob read from listeners' letters.
Journalists in Baghdad received a blast from the past this week when guerillas fired rockets at the Palestine Hotel. Just over seven months ago, the same hotel had been fired on by an American tank during the siege of Baghdad. Two journalists were killed in that first attack, and they are among the six whose stories are told in a new documentary, "Journalists: Killed in the Line of Duty." Bob talks to the film's director, Steven Rosenbaum.
For many, the infamous massacre at My Lai best represents the wartime horrors committed by soldiers in American uniforms. But last month, The Toledo Blade ran an expose about a seven-month killing spree by an elite Army unit called Tiger Force, during which hundreds of Vietnamese civilians were summarily executed. During the war, an extensive investigation by the Army had uncovered enough evidence to prosecute the soldiers. Instead, the case was closed with the fall of Saigon, and the public never learned of Tiger Force's atrocities. Brooke speaks with Michael Sallah, one of the Blade reporters who broke the story.
Highlights from Past Shows
The daily casualty count from combat in Iraq shows no sign of abating, and this week the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq characterized the conflict as "war." Meanwhile, hostility between the military and the media in Iraq is also mounting, with increasing incidents of abuse, detentions and confiscation of equipment. NPR's Deborah Amos recently returned from Iraq, and shares some of her latest impressions with Brooke.
These days, there seems to be no shortage of government officials who would prefer a media-free democracy. But for much of American history, Congress and the press have existed symbiotically, with each alternatively shaping the actions of the other. National Security Archive founder Scott Armstrong joins Brooke to discuss the recent breakdown in this symbiosis, and the consequences for the democratic process.
On the Media is funded by The Bydale Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Overbrook Foundation.
