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For the past two months, one of the hottest prime-time attractions in Iraq has been a reality TV show called "Terror in the Hands of Justice." The show airs twice a day on the state-run Al Iraqiya, and features captured insurgents staring into the camera and confessing to their crimes. Financial Times Baghdad correspondent Steve Negus tells Bob about the show's impact on Iraqi society.
For every military official we see interviewed about the war in Iraq, there are tens of thousands of unseen soldiers carrying out that official's decisions. Especially absent from mainstream coverage have been the men and women wounded in action. Salon national correspondent Mark Benjamin, one of very few reporters following the stories of wounded soldiers, suggests to Brooke some of the reasons why.
This week, the Supreme Court heard the case of MGM v. Grokster, a case which pits the major music and film houses against "peer-to-peer" programs that allow anyone to freely trade material via the Internet. The entertainment industry claims the software makers are arming pirates. The software makers say the industry is strangling technological innovation. Bob speaks with Fred von Lohmann, senior attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Dan Glickman, president and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, argues on behalf of Hollywood.
Normally, we hear about companies trying to maximize their exposure on Google. But not everybody wants in. Recently, the world's most popular search engine was slapped with a copyright lawsuit by the world's oldest news organization, Agence France-Presse. Essentially, AFP is charging Google with stealing its news content. As University of Virginia law professor Timothy Wu tells Brooke, it could signal the coming Balkanization of the Internet.
This month, the Associated Press advised its 17-hundred member news organizations that it will now offer two versions of many of its big news stories. The second version will be much the same as the original, except for its lead, which will be filled with imagery, narrative devices, and creative turns of phrase. The reason: Newspaper editors have expressed concern that readers increasingly see the wire stories they run in their papers a day earlier - on the Internet.
Who penned the words you are reading now - a man, or a woman? With the help of a recently developed computer algorithm, you'd have a good chance of guessing correctly. The program analyzes a writer's use of simple words like "you," "the," and "with" - and has an 80 percent rate of accuracy. Brooke talks to technology writer Clive Thompson about the so-called gender-detector.
If op-ed pages are supposed to reflect a cross section of perspectives, a quick survey of bylines suggests that they aren't doing a great job. Somewhere between 80 and 90 percent of all opinion pieces are written by men. The disparity recently sparked a public dispute between USC law professor Susan Estrich and LA Times Editorial and Opinion editor Michael Kinsley. The Nation's Katha Pollitt was one of many columnists who subsequently weighed in. She joins Brooke to discuss the gender gap.
The notoriously drab White House press room may soon be getting a face lift. Renovation plans reportedly include a temporary relocation of facilities across the street. And that's raised the suspicions of some reporters, who see it as another attempt to reduce their already skimpy access to the President. From what we've seen on ABC, however, we're sure everybody will be grateful when they see the results.
Highlights from Past ShowsAnybody watching TV coverage of the Terri Schiavo legal wrangling this week was most likely left with the impression of a nation divided down the middle over what should be done. But that picture doesn't match public opinion poll data, which suggest an overwhelming majority of Americans side with Shiavo's husband. Brooke talks to Salon senior writer Eric Boehlert about why news organizations are ignoring their own research. David Berkman “Tiny Prairie Landscape” Album: Handmade Label: Palmetto Jazz
If no news is good news, then what's fake news? If you're producing it, it's good news too. And so for the past four years, the Bush Administration has been churning it out, in the form of "video news releases" designed to shoehorn the government's message seamlessly into TV newscasts. Last year, the Government Accountability Office deemed the practice "covert propaganda." But the Justice Department recently told federal agencies to ignore that ruling. Bob hashes out the difference between public information and propaganda with G.A.O. managing associate general counsel Susan Poling.
On the Media is funded by The Bydale Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Overbrook Foundation.
