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The scandal over treatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib Prison shows no sign of dying down here in the U.S. And thanks to the new ubiquity of satellite television, the infamous images continue to resonate throughout the Arab world as well. Bob speaks with Knight Ridder Baghdad Bureau Chief Hannah Allam about how the story is playing in Iraq.
In the months after 9-11, the U.S. government dismantled the Arabic- service of the Voice of America, and replaced it with Radio Sawa - a station heavy on the Britney and short on the news. For veteran journalist and international media adviser Stephen Schwartz, it was just another in a long line of blunders by Americans in charge of winning Iraqi hearts and minds. Schwartz tells Brooke why he thinks U.S. attempts at controlling the Iraqi media landscape is undermining America's own credibility.
The photos from Abu Ghraib have left an indelible impression around the world, but only in the military's own report into the matter does the full picture become clear. This week, the Taguba report was widely available online, leaving little doubt in the minds of many that responsibility stretches far up the chain of command. But technically, that report remains classified. Brooke looks at the question of why it was classified in the first place with Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy.
Is the mainstream media prematurely writing off the chances of John Kerry for President? Salon writer Tim Grieve thinks so. As he tells Bob, recent coverage of Kerry is strikingly similar to the coverage that Bill Clinton received in 1992. And like his Democratic predecessor, Grieve says, Kerry still has a good shot at the White House.
Is selling a presidential candidate to the electorate the same as selling a car to consumers? Maybe not, but according to one marketing consultant, in both cases Americans are going to be buying for the same basic reasons. Clotaire Rapaille has helped dozens of Fortune 500 companies market their wares to the most primitive "reptilian" level of the human brain, and recently met with a John Kerry adviser to discuss an image makeover for the candidate. He shares some of his advice with Brooke.
Attention Wal-Mart shoppers: a DVD player now on sale rearranges movies to suit your own moral standards. Using technology developed by a company called Clearplay, the player skips scenes of nudity, violence, and drug use, and mutes bad language. If you like violence but can't stand nudity, you can program the filter accordingly. But the Director's Guild of America is suing Clearplay, saying the technology illegally alters a copyrighted work without the artist's permission. Last year, Brooke spoke to then-president of the DGA Martha Coolidge about the group's objections.
Five decades since he first stomped across the silver screen, the rampaging reptile is still going strong. To commemorate the great lizard's golden anniversary, a restored print of the original Japanese version is now stomping through selected theatres across the country. Many critics say it's far less campy than the version we've already seen, and in general, far more haunting. The same cannot be said for the sequels, now numbering nearly 30-and counting. NPR's Jim Zarroli looks back on a half-century of Godzilla.
The story of Lolita is one of the most important works in the 20th-century canon. It follows the travails of an older man obsessed with a younger girl, and was first published…in 1916? That's right, 42 years before Vladimir Nabokov's novel, a short story by Heinz von Lichberg titled "Lolita" appeared in Germany. Was Nabokov a plagiarist? Or did he suffer from cryptomnesia - memories based on events that have been forgotten by the rememberer? Brooke talks to New York Observer columnist Ron Rosenbaum about the line between appropriation and regurgitation in culture.
Highlights from Past ShowsFor more than two years now, U.S. officials have frequently lashed out at al-Jazeera, the most popular Arab language news network. It has been accused of anti-American bias, inflammatory rhetoric, and deliberate misrepresentation of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. This week, Secretary of State Colin Powell formally complained about al-Jazeera to the government of Qatar, which funds the station. Coalition Provisional Authority spokesman Robert Tappan tells Brooke why he thinks the network is out of line.
A train accident in North Korea this week made for a frustrating experience in news reporting, as journalists around the world struggled to get first-hand accounts of what happened. News organizations originally reported a casualty count well into the thousands, but even as that number was revised downward, there continued to be no mention of the accident on North Korea's state news channel. Rebecca MacKinnon, a former Northeast Asia correspondent for CNN, joins Bob to discuss the difficulty of documenting North Korea.
On the Media is funded by The Bydale Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Overbrook Foundation.
