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Last week, the Obama Administration invoked the state secrets privilege for the third time in as many months when arguing that Jewel v. NSA should be dismissed. How does this square with his much-touted promise of openness and transparency? We asked Marc Ambinder, associate editor of the Atlantic and chief political consultant to CBS.
Two states have legalized same-sex marriage in the past two weeks, but when it comes to public opinion, supporters of gay marriage are still a minority. That minority is on an upward trajectory though and Scott Barclay, political scientist at the State University of New York at Albany, explains why: newspapers.
A couple of weeks ago, the New York Times Magazine published a cover story on the eminent physicist Freeman Dyson and his unconventional view on global warming. The article generated a lot of attention – much of it unfavorable. Joe Romm, physicist and fellow at the Center for American Progress says publishing Dyson’s views gives too much credence to what he deems pseudoscience. Author Nicholas Dawidoff, who wrote the piece, says Dyson is much too interesting and serious a thinker to be ignored.
This week Iran charged Iranian-American reporter Roxana Saberi with spying for the US. Saberi has been imprisoned for more than two months. OTM producer Nazanin Rafsanjani reports on the implications of Saberi's detainment for diplomatic relations and press freedom.
This week, the Associated Press fired a shot across the bow of news aggregation sites like Google and the Huffington Post. Without calling any site out by name, the AP said they would take legal action against websites that use their content without paying. Business Week's media columnist Jon Fine says news companies seem ready to ask consumers to pay for content again.
By some estimates for every 1 legally downloaded song in the U.S. another 40 are pirated. But in China some 99 percent of digital music is stolen. So last week Google announced a collaboration with the music industry to give the Chinese people what has long been anathema - more then a million songs for free. Music journalist Greg Kot explains the business sense in giving away the store.
Microsoft recently announced that they’re pulling the plug on Encarta, their once mighty encyclopedia software. Tom Corddry, who was part of the team that created Encarta, talks about designing the first digital encyclopedia, the surprising backroom negotiations that surrounded its launch, and plastic that smells like leather.
Highlights from Past Shows
For two decades, critics have argued that the Texas Board of Education's science standards have allowed creationism to creep into public schools and textbooks. Last week the board changed the language, creating the latest arena in the clash between creationists and the scientific community. Both sides explain why the subtle language change may greatly affect how evolution is taught in Texas and the rest of the country.
Last time the Obama Administration pitched its plan for economic recovery, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was ridiculed for his lack of details and shaky performance. This week, Geithner was mostly hidden from the cameras and Obama did the selling. Political reporter Peter Nicholas says the Pitchman-in-Chief was pretty much everywhere.
On the Media is funded by The Bydale Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Overbrook Foundation.
