On Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge called a press conference to warn Americans that Al-Qaeda may be planning to attack the U.S. before November's elections. In the second installment in his two-part series on homeland security readiness, OTM's John Solomon looks at how the government and the media are beginning to work together in preparing for the possibility of such an event.
That is the question. Recently, news and photo editors have been forced to decide what to do with the gruesome images of hostages in Iraq that have been filtering back via the internet and other conduits. Some journalists, such as San Antonio Express-News editorial page editor Lynell Burkett, have taken the position that any news outlet running those images becomes complicit in the crime. But Editor & Publisher senior editor Joe Strupp dismisses that notion as outrageous. Burkett and Strupp sort it out with Bob.
While the gatekeepers of American media hem and haw over what to do with the gory footage of war, news consumers in the Arab world are getting a steady stream of those very images via satellite television. And when it comes to things like hostage executions, says Arab media critic Mamoun Fandy, commentators on many of those stations provide nothing in the way of condemnation, and so they fan the flames of ignorance and hatred. Fandy makes his case for Brooke.
Listeners weigh in on last week's segments on Fahrenheit 9/11 and the Carlyle Group.
Tucked inside the U.S. Army's recently declassified assessment of Operation Iraqi Freedom were some interesting disclosures. Like this one - that iconic toppling of the Saddam statue as American troops took Baghdad last year was not a spontaneous act instigated by an Iraqi crowd, but rather a carefully planned operation backed by a psychological operations unit. Brooke talks to Los Angeles Times reporter David Zucchino - himself a former "embed" - about what reporters on the scene in Iraq missed the first time around.
People who watched live images of the Saddam statue toppling in Baghdad might not recognize the version repeatedly broadcast on TV since then. In its repackaged form, the drawn-out, American-managed event looks more like a spontaneous popular uprising. Brooke reflects on what may be the second draft of history.
Much as it may surprise you, there are some who don't believe the Fox News Channel is fair and balanced. In fact, there are those who believe Fox News was conceived by News Corporation's Rupert Murdoch to be a house organ for the Republican Party. One such skeptic is Robert Greenwald, who has spent the last four months poring over hundreds of hours Fox News footage. The result is his new documentary Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism. Greenwald joins Bob to discuss what he learned along the way.
Highlights from Past Shows
Americans awoke this past Monday to learn that the much-anticipated "handover" of sovereignty to Iraqi officials, scheduled for later in the week, had already happened. If the Coalition Provisional Authority was trying to avoid a violent attack during the ceremony, the strategy seemed to have worked. But after weeks of meticulous planning for covering the event, television news crews were left as much in the lurch by the last-minute change as were insurgents. Marcy McGinnis, Senior Vice President for News Coverage at CBS News, tells Bob about her network's early-morning scramble.
When the so-called handover of sovereignty from the Coalition Provisional Authority takes place in Iraq on Wednesday, the Iraqi Media Network will be one of the institutions that changes hands. Network officials say it will form the backbone of a new public broadcasting service in Iraq, but critics counter that its independence has already been nipped in the bud by excessive regulation on the part of the CPA. Brooke talks to the CPA's head of media development and regulation, Simon Haselock.
On the Media is funded by The Bydale Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Overbrook Foundation.
