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Media were all abuzz over Barack Obama when he revealed on "Meet the Press" that he would consider an ’08 presidential run. Coming on the heels of a Time cover story and Obama’s well-received second book, media across the political spectrum were chanting Run, Barack, Run. National Journal columnist William Powers has anatomized the rise of candidates in years past, and tells Brooke that Obama is right on course.
Whoever ends up running in ’08, observed Paul Waldman on TomPaine.com, Obama offers Democrats a "lesson in how powerful rhetoric can capture and exploit a political moment." Waldman is a senior fellow at the progressive think tank Media Matters for America. He tells Brooke that Obama cannily established his personal and political identity with two early speeches that hark back to Reaganesque oratory.
With midterms around the corner, campaign ads have flooded every inch of the internet and every hour of airtime. Two trends have emerged: the Republican that dare not mention the word Republican and the Democrat that does. WNYC reporter Bob Hennelly talks with Bob about how this is playing out in New Jersey, where the candidates for Senate are running neck and neck.
’Tis election season - a time for the press to explore the issues, like vote fraud and voter suppression. Only the challenge for newsrooms is how to inform the public about the problems with voting without discouraging them from going to the polls. Michael Waldman is the executive director of the Brennan Center for Justice at the NYU School of Law. He joins Bob to discuss the fine line between news and hysteria.
When a blogger named Michael Rogers reported on his site that Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig is a closeted gay, Spokane Spokesman-Review editor Steve Smith had to decide how his paper would handle the story. The result speaks volumes about how the digital age has changed the calculus on questions of privacy, discretion and journalistic transparency. Smith talks with Bob about the story he couldn’t ignore.
Last week NBC announced a severe cost cutting plan it’s calling NBCU 2.0., including nearly 700 jobs eliminated and an end to most scripted television between 8 and 9 p.m. Which means more reality-TV and the reality of a smaller budget for NBC News. John Higgins, business editor of Broadcasting and Cable, talks with Bob about why advertisers and analysts are interested in NBC’s decision to brand a slump.
During his 20 years at NBC, Warren Littlefield experienced both the highs and lows of television programming. His early years were forged during the network’s single least successful lineup, but then Littlefield went on to oversee much of NBC’s 80s and 90s renaissance. He speaks with Brooke about the necessity of creating must-see TV.
In "Network," an anchorman erupts and calls on viewers to join him in the now iconic primal scream: "I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore!" And in that, he reflected his creator, screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky. WNYC’s Sara Fishko offers this profile.
Highlights from Past Shows
For four years, the Bush Administration has revealed next to nothing about who it’s detaining at Guantanamo Bay. What little we know is the product mostly of habeas corpus petitions filed on behalf of the detainees. This week, Bush signed a bill that eliminates the right of detainees to pursue those petitions. Brooke speaks with Miami Herald reporter Carol Rosenberg about the implications for journalists.
Scarcely had the dust settled at the site of North Korea's supposed nuclear test before the finger-pointing began in Washington this week. Former East Asia correspondent Dan Sneider has been following the political fallout in the nation's dailies. He tells Bob we'd all be better off if the American press focused less on our own blame-game and more on how people in the region are reacting.
On the Media is funded by The Bydale Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Overbrook Foundation.
