On The Media is produced by:
On Tuesday night, by 9:30pm anyone who was able to add could predict Barack Obama’s victory. But as Brooke experienced firsthand, many waited to mourn or celebrate until the authoritative voices on the networks called the race. Brooke reflects back on election night.
America voted and the world celebrated. Well, most of the world. The Week's Susan Caskie says that while there was much global exuberance, editorials in the Muslim world tempered expectations with a healthy dose of skepticism.
For much of the world, the image of Barack Obama as the president-elect doesn't square with their notions about the United States. It's all resulting in a massive case of cognitive dissonance says Steven Kull, director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes.
The Barack Obama campaign's winning web strategy employed the latest in social networking to create a highly efficient update of old-fashioned politicking. Marshall Ganz designed the field-organizer and volunteer training systems that turned Obama's campaign volunteers into organizational leaders.
The progressive movement’s media presence has grown exponentially during the Bush presidency. Bob Garfield talks with Eric Boehlert, a senior fellow at Media Matters for America, about how the growth happened and what the future holds.
On Thursday, 20 or so fundraisers, grassroots organizers and political strategists met in Virginia to discuss the future of the conservative movement, soon to be in exile from the federal government. Ross Douthat, senior editor at The Atlantic and author of Grand New Party, says a split is emerging in the center-right mediasphere over what to do next.
Lee Atwater became one of the most complicated and successful Republican political operatives in history by employing a triple threat; spin when you can, change the subject when you can’t and if all else fails – mine the voters’ resentment, and fear, usually of blacks. Stefan Forbes, director of Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story, explains the dark legacy of Atwater’s Southern strategy.
Studs Terkel, who died recently at the age of 96, spent the majority of his life documenting the lives of others – very often everyday, working-class people he believed were “uncelebrated and unsung.” From coal miners and sharecroppers to gangsters and prostitutes, every American had a story to tell and Terkel wanted to hear it. Publisher Andre Schiffrin talks about Terkel's singular gift for oral history.
Highlights from Past Shows
After these many months, the campaign season is finally coming to a close. All of the angles have been explored, all the polls parsed and the candidates thoroughly vetted. Or not. Politico’s Kenneth Vogel rounds up a list of documents that the so-called candidates of change never did produce.
Everyone's speculating on whether this election will produce a Bradley effect, a phenomenon where white voters tell pollsters they'll vote for the black candidate but actually pull the lever for the white candidate. The term comes from Tom Bradley's 1982 California gubernatorial run, but Democratic and Republican strategists who worked on that campaign tell us there was no Bradley effect even for Bradley. And Nate Silver of the blog 538 says the misnamed phenomenon hasn't been observed since the early 90s.
On the Media is funded by The Bydale Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Overbrook Foundation.
