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A year ago last week, the world was confronted for the first time with images of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib. Ever since, the American Civil Liberties Union has worked to keep the spotlight on allegations of torture at American military facilities. Unfortunately for the group, additional photos were never released by the Pentagon. Brooke talks to ACLU media relations director Emily Whitfield about what it takes to keep a story alive.
Last week, the Defense Department released hundreds of official military photos depicting honor guard ceremonies for soldiers killed at war. The Pentagon originally denied a FOIA request for the images, but relented in the face of a lawsuit. Last year, Bob got this primer on filing FOIA requests from online muckraker Russ Kick, whose own FOIA request for photos of returning caskets had just been granted... by mistake.
Conservatives have long complained about what they perceive as a left-wing tilt in public broadcasting. This week, a front-page story in the New York Times reported that Kenneth Tomlinson, chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, is among the critics, and is taking steps to right the leaning ship. Tomlinson tells Bob that he's not politicizing public broadcasting, but rather balancing programming to serve more Americans
This week, a coalition called TV Watch was founded with the backing of three big networks to oppose government regulation of TV content. It's the industry's response to pressure that's been building since Janet Jackson's Superbowl exposure, most recently in the form of calls from some lawmakers to crack down on cable TV indecency. Bob talks to TV Watch founder Adam Thierer about the prospects for regulating cable.
We've heard plenty about the so-called digital divide in this country between haves and have-nots. But what about the digital divide between this country and the rest of the world? In the May/June issue of Foreign Affairs Magazine, Thomas Bleha argues that when it comes to developing the broadband infrastructure, the U.S. has fallen far behind Japan and other Asian nations. He makes his case for Brooke.
You don't have to be an obsessive TV watcher to have noticed recent runaway coverage of a certain would-be bride. When Jennifer Wilbanks got cold feet, she made tabloid headlines and left tracks all over the cable news channels, including CNN. But when Jonathan Klein took over as president of that network last year, he promised more "roll up your sleeves" style journalism. Klein butts heads with Brooke over what constitutes news, and whether stories need justification.
Among the ranks of talking heads populating the world of TV punditry are many men and women from the newsrooms of America's print and broadcast outlets. For some, it comes easy. But not everybody is born to bloviate. And so one Washington P.R. firm is training journalists with little or no TV experience for their star turns as pundits. OTM's John Solomon attended one class to see if he had what it takes.
Highlights from Past ShowsWith computers, wireless connections, and digital cameras, soldiers are armed with everything it takes to publish a blog. Those blogs - and there are dozens and dozens of them - are bringing the war, in all its glory, horror and mundanity, to our home computers, whenever we want to log on. Brooke speaks with Corporal Michael Bautista and Jason Hartley, who have written often poignant and nakedly honest accounts from the front lines. And according to Army Times reporter Joe Chennelly, Pentagon guidelines for bloggers are anything but clear.
The State Department has abruptly stopped publishing its annual report on international terrorism. The move follows news that the number of terrorist attacks in 2004 represented a 20-year high. U.S. officials say the report's methodology needs retooling. But others accuse the State Department of squelching information that contradicts the President's message about progress in the so-called War on Terror. Bob talks to Knight Ridder's Jonathan Landay, who broke the story.
On the Media is funded by The Bydale Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Overbrook Foundation.
