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Since CBS weighed in last week with its own expose of George W. Bush's National Guard service, the rest of the media have been consumed with the story behind that story. But while the talking heads went back and forth over the authenticity of the CBS documents, did they lose sight of the bigger picture? And was the kerfluffle the best thing the Bush campaign could have hoped for? Bob takes a look at media scandal-as-diversion.
When high-ranking government sources refuse to go on the record, what's a reporter to do? All too often, they're given no choice but to dub the official with the perennial anonymous catchall: "senior administration official." So how is a reader to deduce which official is which? Harry Jaffe, national editor at Washingtonian magazine, penned a field guide to the names behind the phrase, and shares it with OTM's own "senior administration official," Brooke Gladstone.
The media have long complained about President Bush's scarceness with the press. After all, he's held fewer solo press conferences than any of his predecessors in 50 years. By way of contrast, a President Kerry would grant one press conference per month - or so he has promised. But candidate Kerry is not nearly as generous with his time. Brooke talks with Washington Post reporter Paul Farhi about the recent brownout by the Kerry campaign.
Do you like how the public airwaves are being used? FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, for one, emphatically does not. As the Republicans gathered last month in New York, Copps decried the networks' skimpy convention coverage. And in condemning the general state of broadcast television, he heartily bit the hand that feeds him. Copps bares his teeth for Brooke.
This week, the PBS series "Wide Angle" will broadcast a new documentary on the inner workings of the Iranian news media. "Red Lines and Deadlines" takes viewers behind the scenes at Shargh, one of the country's few remaining reform newspapers. Director Taghi Amirani tells Brooke how the year-old paper has quickly learned to walk a perilous political tightrope.
If you'd like to cleanse your country of a minority population and prevent the media from getting the word out, you may want to talk to Omar al Bashir. He's the president of Sudan, which, according to Secretary of State Colin Powell, bears responsibility for the systematic killing of tribal Africans in the Darfur region. Refugees International president Kenneth Bacon tells Bob why the world press was late to give the story the play it deserved.
Ever since the Beach Boys sang about losing their T-Bird, consumer products have often appeared in pop music lyrics. But artists weren’t paid for those product placements (though songs like Run DMC’s “My Adidas” resulted in lucrative backend deals). Lately, the negotiating has crept into the creative process itself. Bob talks to Advertising Age reporter TL Stanley about the increasingly intimate relationship between the music and advertising industries.
The 45 was once the dominant musical medium. From Elvis to the Beatles to the Supremes, that round little disc with the big hole in the middle defined the early rock 'n' pop era. New technologies have since swept the single aside, but there are some die-hards who refuse to relinquish their vinyl disks. OTM's Rex Doane reports.
Highlights from Past ShowsIn the throes of the Beslan hostage catastrophe last week, the Russian government reverted to the standard procedure employed in previous crises: it lied. But is it possible that the latest embarrassment, which met with harsh criticism from much of the media, will finally coax the government into more honesty with its people? The Christian Science Monitor's Fred Weir tells Bob not to hold his breath.
Georgia’s Democratic senator Zell Miller took the podium at the RNC this week to praise President Bush and condemn candidate Kerry’s record. The tirade set off a whirlwind of fact-checking hitherto invisible in the coverage of the convention speeches. Brooke muses on a possible change in the journalism ether.
On the Media is funded by The Bydale Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Overbrook Foundation.
