The legal rationale used by the government to block Sibel Edmonds from testifying in court is called the "State Secrets Privilege." It has been invoked from time to time to quash information that the government says would threaten national security. But now, the precedent for that legal device is being challenged by people who claim it's based on a fraud. In January, Brooke spoke to George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley about the fascinating history of the State Secrets Privilege.
Since the Bush Administration rolled into office, Secretary of State Colin Powell has remained by far its most popular member. Sympathetic observers commonly attribute Powell's positive ratings to his up-by-the-bootstraps personal story, his straight-talking manner, and his reputation as a "good soldier." But might Powell's own calculating maneuvers be just as responsible for his media image? Brooke takes a closer look at the reality and representation of Colin Powell.
There's been a lot of talk recently about the exact definition of "torture." Some say it's an accurate descriptor of what happened to Iraqi detainees in U.S. custody. Others say those detainees were not tortured, but simply "abused," and that "torture" is something out of Saddam's dungeons. In a Newsday op-ed this week, linguist Geoffrey Nunberg mused over the invocation of the word "torture". He joins Bob to discuss the political uses and abuses of language, and his new book, Going Nucular: Language, Politics and Culture in Confrontational Times.
Listeners weigh in on our interview with marketing consultant and amateur political advisor Clotaire Rapaille, and our report on the longevity of Godzilla. Also, we update the story of the Bush administration’s attempt to package its Medicare message as real news.
Much was made over the extent to which media prognosticators got it wrong in the lead-up to the early Democratic presidential primaries. But this isn't the only democracy in which pundits are often contradicted by actual events. Take India, for example, where the Sonia Gandhi's Congress Party recently defied most predictions and displaced the ruling party from office. Brooke talks to Shailaja Bajpai, a columnist for the Indian Express in New Delhi, about the Indian media's poor performance.
New York Times correspondent Larry Rohter can stay in Brazil, after all. Earlier this month, the Brazilian government declared it would revoke the reporter's visa because of an article he wrote about President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's drinking habits. The nation's media rallied to Rohter's defense, but only on principle. For the most part, they remain uniformly critical about the article in question. As Brazilian journalist Antonio Brasil tells Bob, many of them saw the episode as more evidence of the sorry state of American journalism.
Last week, a team of Army Special Forces troops staged a simulated assault in front of the L.A. Convention Center. It wasn't a preparedness drill for a potential terrorist attack. The troops were promoting the latest version of "America's Army," a video game designed as an Army recruitment tool. When the first version of the game came out a year and a half ago, OTM asked a member of the game's target audience to give it a try. Marc Delgado, one of WNYC's Radio Rookies, came back with this report.
Highlights from Past Shows
Images of the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US military have been circulating for a couple of weeks - now they are joined in the newspapers and on television, by images of the horrific beheading of an American civilian in Iraq. UPI Senior Editor Martin Walker spoke to Brooke about reactions of the world press.
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.
On the Media is funded by The Bydale Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Overbrook Foundation.
