In 1997, the FCC divvied up the rights to a new media frontier. The companies that would become Sirius and XM were allotted one-half each of the spectrum that could be used to broadcast radio via satellite. It took four years before satellite radio was actually available to consumers, and four more years after that milestone, neither company has earned a penny of profit. Bob talks to Fast Company editor Bill Breen about strategy and success in a high-stakes duopoly.
Music: Sonic Youth, Track: Rain On Tin, Album: Murray Street, Label: Geffen Music: Artist: Weather Report, Track: Black Market, Album: Black Market, Label: Columbia
When we covered the coverage of the State of the Union Address last week, media watcher David Brock noted that the fact-checking so prominent on television during the political debates had fallen off. And that’s particularly troublesome when the President’s biggest issue is virtually impenetrable to begin with: Social Security reform, or modification, or privatization or personalization or, whatever. Brooke speaks with Brooks Jackson, whose website factcheck.org was widely read during the debates, to correct the mistruths volleyed from both sides.
Music: Artist: Once Blue, Album: Once Blue, Track: Wait, Label: EMI
A couple of weeks ago, the editor of a weekly Georgia newspaper got a call from a PR firm representing Wal-Mart. The firm was offering interviews aimed at improving the mega-store’s tarnished image. Jackson Herald Editor Mike Buffington, who also happens to be the president of an organization of community newspapers, wasn’t interested. He felt that Wal-Mart, which has done very little local newspaper advertising, was looking for favors in all the wrong places. Bob questions the journalistic ethics of Buffington’s complaint, and Buffington defends his struggle against an anti-local corporate giant.
Music: Artist: Built To Spill, Track: Randy Described Eternity, Album: Perfect From Now On, Label: Warner Brothers Music: Artist: Ornette Coleman, Track: Lonely Woman, Album: The Shape Of Jazz To Come, Label: Atlantic
While satellite radio asks listeners to pay for what they’re used to getting free, the trend is moving in the opposite direction for newspapers. Currently there are two new free dailies competing for readers in the Big Apple, and last month the New York Times announced that it planned to buy 49 percent of a free paper called the Boston Metro. OTM’s Lizzie O’Leary gets the scoop on the business of free newspapers.
The PBS children’s show “Postcards From Buster” recently found itself involved in a minor scandal when an episode, “Sugartime!,” showed Buster, the titular animated rabbit, learning to make maple syrup from a young Vermonter named Emma. Incidentally, Emma has two mothers. PBS opted not to distribute the episode to its member stations but defiantly, WGBH, who produced the show, made the program directly available to its fellow affiliates. So far, only around 40 have decided to air it. Allan Pizzato is an Alabama affiliate executive director who refused “Sugartime!” and he joins Brooke to explain why.
Music: Artist: Nancy Sinatra, Album: Sugar, Track: Sugartown, Label: Sundazed
This week saw Jeff Gannon (not his real name), a reporter for Talon news (actually a website-only conservative news source) step down after two years in the White House press pool. In that time Gannon lobbed the President softball questions, so soft in fact that they aroused the suspicion of the blogosphere. Now the White House is trying to explain how a self-declared conservative with no previous professional journalism experience was repeatedly credentialed in the first place. Bob speaks with Jeff Gannon, er, James Gucker and others about who gets into the pool.
Highlights from Past Shows
When President Bush used his inaugural address to vow an end to ‘tyranny worldwide,’ the international reaction ranged from sympathy to amusement to fear. But after the successful elections in Iraq this week the Bush administration’s agenda is being reconsidered yet again. Martin Walker, our intrepid media watcher and Editor in Chief of United Press International, brings us the coverage of both the Iraqi elections and the State of the Union from the overseas press.
Last week brought the announcement that Michael Powell, lightning-rod chairman of the Federal Communications Commission for the past 4 years, would be leaving the FCC. Bob takes a look back at his stormy tenure.
On the Media is funded by The Bydale Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Overbrook Foundation.
