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This weekend, as an estimated 15,000 reporters head to Denver for the Democratic National Convention, Slate’s Jack Shafer asks, why? There hasn’t been a contested nomination since 1976, he argues, and news organizations’ resources would be best put to use elsewhere. Brooke puts his arguments to the test.
It’s an age old competition at the Olympics, between those who think the games should include a little context and those that think they should be solely a showcase for sport. The Washington Post's Paul Farhi’s been watching the Beijing games as a fan, but he argues that in Beijing there’s no excuse for the lack of context in the coverage.
Jerome Corsi's bestseller "The Obama Nation," published by an imprint of Simon&Shuster, leaves much to be desired when it comes to fact checking. Radar Online's Charles Kaiser says the lack of facts in the book says something worrying about the publishing industry.
"The Obama Nation" contains incendiary charges against Barack Obama. But unlike Corsi’s 2004 bestseller "Unfit for Command" about John Kerry, his claims don’t seem to be sticking to the candidate this time around. Media Matters' Eric Boehlert says that's partly because liberals have learned from the past.
The 'micro-blogging' service Twitter gives you 140 characters to answer the question "What are you doing?" The answers, or tweets, are then broadcast to friends. It's a simple premise but internet consultant and author Clay Shirky argues as the service continues to grow, it's creating a complex and influential new way to communicate.
Some journalists have added Twitter as a reporting tool, both to gather and broadcast the news. Julio Ojeda Zapata, a technology columnist for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, explains how non-stop twittering affects his reporting.
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili is an American-educated Bush Administration protégé. He has served as a compelling mouthpiece for his country in press coverage of the current conflict. David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker and former Moscow correspondent for The Washington Post gives his analysis of the Russia/Georgia clash.
During his resignation speech, former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf touted his country's flourishing independent media as one of his accomplishments. But although Musharraf initially expanded media freedoms, he tried to squelch them near the end of his rule. The Christian Science Monitor’s Shahan Mufti describes Musharraf’s mixed media legacy.
When Pervez Musharraf traded in his military uniform for a suit and tie, or Castro embraced an Addidas track suit, it was that rare moment when dictatorial politics and the sartorial sweep of history collide. OTM takes this idea one step too far with Project Runway: Strongman Edition.
Highlights from Past Shows
We devote the show this week to the illustrious past and perilous future of investigative reporting. How will investigative stories fare in an era of layoffs and slashed newsrooms budgets? Reporter and UC Berkeley professor Lowell Bergman, Stephen Engelberg of the investigative nonprofit ProPublica and The City University of New York's Jeff Jarvis discuss the past, present and potential future of this core journalistic enterprise.
Biodefense researcher Bruce Ivins committed suicide last week after he was informed by the FBI that he would likely face charges in connection with the 2001 anthrax attacks. Salon's Glenn Greenwald believes, regardless of Ivins' guilt or innocence, media have failed to cover this story skeptically.
On the Media is funded by The Bydale Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Overbrook Foundation.
