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What does George W. Bush have in common with John Adams, Abraham Lincoln, FDR, Harry Truman, JFK, and Lyndon Johnson? Each is a wartime president who took measures to quell dissent at home in the name of an American victory. And all of them, according to Geoffrey R. Stone’s book Perilous Times, went too far. Stone and Bob discuss what happens to the First Amendment when the nation is at war.
New York Times reporter William L. Laurence was with American troops in a plane over Nagasaki when the atomic bomb was dropped. He won the Pulitzer Prize for a series of stories he subsequently published, many of which included details about the development and production of the bomb that he had previously kept secret. But it turned out those weren’t the only secrets Laurence was keeping; he was also on the payroll of the U.S. War Department. Bob speaks with author David Goodman about Laurence’s dueling allegiances.
Pornography is a form rife with easily-recognizable tropes. Strategic lighting, hokey music, and close-up camera angles all are a part of creating the aspirational and idealized world of porn. In last October’s issue of Harper’s, Frederick Kaufman took a closer look at the cable channel he thinks is the most pornographic of all — The Food Network. Kaufman explains to Brooke how peach-pitting is made tantamount to foreplay.
Baseball purists recoil at televised coverage, claiming glib announcers, exploding graphics, and jarring sound effects treat the on-field action as a mere afterthought. Baseball purists, of course, are a bitter lot. Still, for many committed fans, the fame is best maintained unchanged, and, as Rex Doane reports, old-time radio announcers couldn’t agree more.
Over 25 years, fantasy sports have become a real-world pastime, changing how millions of fans interact with actual sports played on actual fields. Fan-ship used to be about favorite teams; now, fantasy players live or die by the fortunes of players who may not even be on their favorite teams. Bob talks with Rotisserie Baseball founding father Daniel Okrent and fantasy-league commentator Matthew Berry.
Watching the new DVD release of All the President’s Men recently, Brooke came upon a bombshell, buried in one of the DVD’s commentary tracks. It concerns the unlikely genesis of what has become the prevailing symbol of all that is fine in American journalism.
Highlights from Past ShowsA week ago, Israeli warplanes sent missiles into two TV transmission towers used by the popular Lebanese channels LBC and Future TV. But as Israeli officials pointed out, at least one of the towers also contained relay stations for Hezbollah station Al Manar. It’s hardly the first time media have been caught up in fighting. But former CBS Middle East correspondent Lawrence Pintak tells Brooke that the global polarization of news has put individual reporters at risk like never before.
Whenever news media turn their attention to the Middle East, accusations of bias – from all sides – are sure to follow. This week was no exception. But the story’s a little different than it’s been in the past, and bias aside, American media haven’t quite adjusted to the new realities. That’s the view of J.J. Goldberg, editor of the Jewish newspaper The Forward. He tells Brooke that journalists’ attempts at “scrupulous balance” come at the expense of accuracy.
On the Media is funded by The Bydale Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Overbrook Foundation.
