The research group, Iraq Body Count, issued findings recently that show the rate of civilian deaths rising each year since the declared end of combat operations. According to the group, in the first year violent deaths occurred at a rate of 20 per day; year two, 31; in 2006 to date, 36. Since IBC relies entirely on media reports for its figures, we wondered how the Washington Post's assertion that the death toll is suppressed would affect its work. IBC spokesman Scott Lipscomb joins Brooke.
Currently, all online information - be it a page from EBay or a porn site photo - travels at roughly the same speed. But watchdogs are warning that some data will encounter speed bumps if internet service providers can charge content providers for access to a fast lane. Advocacy groups are outraged, claiming the internet's "network neutrality is crucial to its egalitarian nature and innovative spirit." Medley Global Advisors analyst Christopher Stern tells Brooke what's at stake.
In recent weeks, the intended overhaul of the Telecommunications Act seems to have shriveled into a minor revision, as such issues as network neutrality and video franchising slide on and off the table. Now, committee members are weighing the power of the baby bells (not quite babies anymore) against the power of public pressure. Congress Daily reporter David Hatch talks with Bob about the political wrangling.
For years, even when it was a near monopoly, AT&T managed to do the impossible with a surprising degree of success. It managed to convince us that a huge corporation could be our friend. But despite its pioneering command of public relations, its omnipotence was never far from view. Claude Fischer, author of A Social History of the Telephone, and Lily Tomlin's erstwhile operator Ernestine guide Brooke through a century of the long arm of Ma Bell.
The most creative writing being done in journalism today is the haiku-like form of the obituary. So says Marilyn Johnson, practitioner and obit obsessive who's written a survey of the form, The Dead Beat. She makes her case to Bob that in the right hands full lives can be distilled and delivered daily.
Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code, is being sued in a London court for copyright infringement. Plaintiffs Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh claim that aspects of the mega-hit novel were cribbed from their non-fiction book, The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. Brooke talks first with Katherine Rushton, a reporter for Bookseller, then with Sarah Dunant, author of In the Company of the Courtesan, about the case and the nature of historical fiction.
Keith Olbermann, host of MSNBC's Countdown, has a weekly segment called "the worst person in the world," and frequently awards that honor to Bill O'Reilly, of Fox's O'Reilly Factor. Recently, O'Reilly cracked. He said anyone who spoke Olbermann's name on his program would hear from Fox security and apparently, at least one caller to his radio program already has. We gathered actual tape of the feuding hosts, set their voices to music, and yes, embellished the tale, just a little.
Highlights from Past Shows
The cable news crawl has raised the question; is Iraq on the brink of civil war? Members of the Bush administration say no. The Iraqi Defense Minister has said that if civil war breaks out, it will never end. The Washington Post cited a body count of 1,300 directly related to sectarian violence in Iraq - but stopped short of drawing linguistic conclusions. So, who really gets to make the call? Bob explores the question with some of the experts.
For the past seven years, intelligence operatives have been poring over public records in the National Archives. Their orders: to identify documents that should never have been made public in the first place. The problem: much of what they decided to re-classify has already been widely disseminated, and poses no apparent threat to national security. Brooke speaks with Matthew Aid, the historian who inadvertently discovered the secret reclassification program.
On the Media is funded by The Bydale Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Overbrook Foundation.
