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If you turned down the sound on your TV this week, it might have seemed like you were watching Campaign ’04, not Campaign ’06. Politicians took turns inveighing against John Kerry and George W. Bush, and their relative support for the troops. Washington Post national political editor John Harris is as disgusted as the next guy with the airtime the dust-up consumed, but that didn’t keep him from leading his paper with it on Thursday. Brooke asks him why he followed the pack.
Going into the final days before the election, national Republicans remained as confident as ever about their prospects for victory. Never mind that poll after poll shows Democrats in a good position to retake the House, and possibly even the Senate. Are the GOP’s internal polls showing something different? Bob puts the question to "Mystery Pollster" Mark Blumenthal.
Haters have been predicting that as soon as YouTube had any GoogleCash, content owners would start slapping the company with copyright lawsuits. Much of what can be found there, of course, is pirated material. But Columbia Law School professor Tim Wu explains to Brooke why YouTube isn’t likely to be sued anytime soon, and is actually the embodiment of a whole new model of copyright law.
Print journalists are accustomed to getting paid according to the length of their articles. But writers at the monthly magazine Business 2.0 are now being compensated on the basis of their popularity, as well. At least when it comes to their online output. Will giving journalists the same incentives as publishers have threaten editorial integrity? Business 2.0 editor Josh Quittner gives Bob an emphatic "no."
Will Wright, creator of “The Sims,” has a brand new game on the way. In “Spore,” gamers begin as a single-cell organism, and evolve, over time, by earning and spending DNA points. John Seabrook wrote about the game in this week’s New Yorker, and joins Brooke to discuss it.
For booksellers, hotel guests, and the faithful, one book remains a mainstay – The Bible. But despite the book’s unending popularity, for many, it remains a daunting read. Enter Slate columnist David Plotz, who has decided to read the book from cover to cover, and blog about it for the unread laity among us. Plotz explains to Brooke why he’s brought his take on the testaments online.
We’re all used to hearing all about celebrity marriages, breakups, and adoptions on TV “news” shows. But when serious journalists interview explicitly fictitious characters, do they cross a new and unacceptable line in info-tainment? Bob thinks so. He speaks with journalism ethicist Kelly McBride and film reviewer Lewis Beale about the strange willingness of news organizations to play along with Borat, the TV & movie persona of Sacha Baron Cohen.
Highlights from Past Shows
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.
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.
On the Media is funded by The Bydale Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Overbrook Foundation.
