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This week, NBC started referring to the violence in Iraq as “civil war.” The New York Times cautiously edged closer to that terminology. NYT executive editor Bill Keller explains the editorial and political reasons for allowing reporters and editors to call it as they see it.
Last month, Sunni-run TV channel al-Zawraa was banned by Iraqi authorities. After a few weeks, it returned to the air as an explicitly anti-Shiite pirate broadcast. McClatchy Newspapers correspondent Hannah Allam describes the civil war that’s playing out on the airwaves.
Listen to examples of English-language propaganda being broadcast on Al-Zawraa:
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Can a TV station be a terrorist entity? Mark Dubowitz of the Coalition Against Terrorist Media says the State Department was right to ban transmission of Al Manar, the media outlet of Lebanon-based Hezbollah. Worried about the First Amendment? You’re not the only one.
Since the fall of Communism in Albania, its press has flourished. But that doesn’t mean the country’s media are truly independent. Megan Williams reports from Albania on one news show that’s bucking the trend of government control.
The Justice Department wants to see the phone records of two New York Times reporters. The paper has resisted but this week the Supreme Court refused to intervene. Lawyer Jonathan Turley says this is why we need a federal shield law, and now.
For years, journalist Ann Louise Bardach has been writing about accused anti-Castro terrorist Luis Posada Carriles. Now the Feds are demanding she turn over her research materials… three years after destroying their own evidence of his terrorist acts.
In 1960, Nancy Dickerson became CBS News’ first female correspondent, and a familiar face to many Americans. But to her son John, now Slate's political columnist, she largely remained a mystery. It was only after he decided to write a biography of her, years after her death, that he really came to know her.
Highlights from Past Shows
In considering Turkey’s application for membership, the European Union has identified a number of stumbling blocks. Among them is Article 301 of the Turkish penal code, which criminalizes “insulting Turkishness” and is often used to prosecute writers and journalists. Bob traveled to Istanbul this month and brought back this report on Turkey’s commitment to freedom of expression.
Lou Dobbs has his story, and he’s sticking to it. Every evening, the host of CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight features reports under headings like “Broken Borders” and “War on the Middle Class.” And people are responding – in the past three years, his audience has skyrocketed. Dobbs makes no apologies for his strong viewpoints on illegal immigration. But what’s such an outspoken advocate doing behind CNN’s anchor’s desk? Bob puts the question to Dobbs.
On the Media is funded by The Bydale Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Overbrook Foundation.
