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President Bush was on tour this week in Europe, meeting with heads of state in an attempt to bridge a transatlantic gap that has grown wider in recent years. With the Iraq war looming as a backdrop to the official visits, Bush and his counterparts discussed dicey issues like nuclear proliferation in Iran, the arms embargo on China, and the state of democracy in Russia. Brooke joins Susan Caskie, contributing editor of The Week, for a roundup of what the European papers had to say.
Last week, The New York Times announced that it was spending $410 million to acquire About.com. It's the latest in a string of Old Media purchases of New Media properties. Wall Street Journal parent Dow Jones bought Marketwatch.com, and The Washington Post picked up Slate.com. Why, when a viable Web-based business model has proved so elusive, are established journalistic institutions rolling the dice? Brooke gets some answers from Forbes executive editor Paul Maidment.
In life, a rose by any other name will smell as sweet. But in politics, an old sneaker can smell as sweet as a rose, if you convince people (with the help of the media) to call it a rose. Politicians have used words to inspire and seduce since the dawn of nations. From Social Security to the Estate Tax to the War on Terror, Brooke explores the ways in which he who controls the language controls the debate.
A week ago, Hunter S. Thompson committed suicide at the age of 67. In the intervening days, we've seen dozens of tributes to the original gonzo journalist from people who knew him and admired him. Brooke sits down with one of them - Thompson's fellow New Journalist Gay Talese - to reflect on the journalistic legacy of Hunter S. Thompson.
There are those who believe the moon walk was faked in a studio, and still more who have spotted U.F.O.'s in the night skies. But Rice University anthropologist George Marcus isn't interested in fringe theorists. He's fascinated by instances in which official explanations just don't hold water, and drive reasonable people to take up conspiracy theories to account for what can't be explained any other way. He discusses his ideas with Brooke.
Open-ended questions about 9/11 have resulted in plenty of alternative accounts of what might have really happened that day. And so in March's issue, Popular Mechanics magazine sets out to debunk some of the most persistent conspiracy theories. Editor-in-chief James Meigs tells Brooke what experts in aviation, engineering and the military have to contribute to the mythology still swirling around Ground Zero.
On his website, conspiracy-watcher Alex Jones directs readers to a variety of articles concerning such topics as 9/11, Waco, and the annual meeting of powerful men at the California campground Bohemian Grove. If you ask Jones, Popular Mechanics is unfairly taking aim at the 9/11 Truth Movement. He tells Brooke why.
Highlights from Past Shows"Blog swarm" is the term applied to a critical mass of blogosphere chatter that forces a story into the mainstream media. Lately the phenomena hasn’t simply been claiming column space, it’s been claiming high profile media careers. It happened to Dan Rather, to Jeff "James Gucker" Gannon and most recently to CNN executive Eason Jordan - who misspoke last month at the World Economic Forum. After the resulting "blog swarm" Eason was forced to resign. Bret Stephens, reporter for the Wall Street Journal, joins Bob to suss out the damage done by the swarm.
Five years ago the Federal Communications Commission authorized low-power FM, opening up the FM airwaves to thousands more community broadcasters. But the National Association of Broadcasters and NPR both testified to Congress that low-power FM would interfere with existing signals. The FCC had done its own tests proving otherwise but Congress put on the brakes, stalling LPFM …until this week. Seen as an antidote to media consolidation, LPFM has been exhumed in a bill co-sponsored by John McCain that seems likely to put Low Power back on the fast track. Or will it? Media Maven Rick Karr joins Brooke to survey the state of the spectrum.
On the Media is funded by The Bydale Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Overbrook Foundation.
