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The number one media outlet in Iraq right now is the independent talk radio station, Radio Dijla. The winning formula is a combination of free-wheeling conversation, news they can use, and attention to the real priorities of the real people. The station's founder and director, Ahmad al-Rikaby, joins Brooke and describes how free expression sounds on Iraqi airwaves and how community is formed, even when it is too dangerous to leave the house.
Simon Haselock was the head of media development and regulation for the former Coalition Provisional Authority. He has been criticized for taking a heavy hand in creating the FCC-like Independent Media Commission to regulate the Iraqi media. Now Haselock is worried that all the checks and balances he had suggested will be undone with the creation by the Iraqi government of the Higher Media Commission which would regulate against, among other things, criticizing the new president. Bob gets the scoop.
In China, the bold and hugely successful tabloid, The Southern Metropolis Daily, made journalistic history last year when it affected actual change with one of its exposes. But good things come to an end and now the paper's crusading editor is sitting in jail awaiting charges. Meanwhile, two of his colleagues have been hit with 6 and 8 year sentences for what appear to be trumped up charges of corruption and bribery. Bob talks with Washington Post's Beijing bureau chief, Philip P. Pan.
This past March, roughly a dozen legislators gathered in a Senate office building to honor the Reverend Sun Myung Moon's most durable media brand, The Washington Times. Or so they thought. Actually, they were there to crown Moon "humanity's Savior, Messiah, Returning Lord and True Parent." Reporter John Gorenfeld broke the story, and joins Brooke to discuss the relationship between Moon’s religious organization and his influential newspaper.
Medical reporters play a vital role in documenting hospital practices, but the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA is making it increasingly difficult for them to do so. Andrew Holtz is a freelance medical reporter based in Portland, Oregon and was the former head of the Association of Health Care Journalists. He tells Brooke how HIPAA is giving hospitals the power to shut out journalists.
We’ve all heard alarming stories about the extent to which pharmaceutical companies have their hands in what appear to be objective studies on their products. So it comes as a great relief to many patients and physicians alike that there are medical journals to sniff out the real breakthroughs from the steaming piles of marketing hype. But can the peer-reviewed paragons of probity really escape the conflicts of interest that plague medical research in general? Bob takes a look at the story that’s not so evident in the pages of medical journals.
Highlights from Past ShowsThe Democratic Party's quadrennial political-media blowout is over, and the Fleet Center is getting back to its sporty self. For viewers at home, it was hard to tell which was the greater subject of revelation this year - the nominees, or the tortured psyches of the journalists covering them. Throughout the week, the media noted with stoic distaste the dearth of real news, even as they, the brave, the true, the many, soldiered on. But was there really no substance to be parsed? Brooke talks to NPR's Mike Pesca about the difficulty of reporting on such a scripted event.
In politics, 2004 is shaping up to be the year of the weblog. During the primary, candidates discovered they could raise money from supporters by featuring blogs on their websites. And for the first time, bloggers have been accredited to cover this summer's political conventions. They'll be allowed to visit the convention floor, interview delegates, and do everything the other journalists do. Some guardians of the old order are none too happy about their presence, but others are excited about the prospect of bloggers shaking up convention reporting. NPR's Jim Zarroli reports.
On the Media is funded by The Bydale Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Overbrook Foundation.
