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This week former Vice President Dick Cheney and President Barack Obama went head to head, toe to toe, and back to back. It was the ultimate battle, at least in the coverage. PEJ's Mark Jurkowitz explains why the media love a showdown like this one.
This week a federal court ruled against Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington in a case involving lost White House emails. CREW's Chief Counsel Anne Weismann says that while the case involved emails from the Bush Administration, the Obama Administration has yet to live up to its promise of transparency.
Civilian casualties have always been a PR problem for American military and intelligence forces, but outrage in Pakistan and Afghanistan from recent death tolls threatens to further destabilize the region. Amid criticism of air strikes, reporters are getting unprecedented access to one of the more controversial weapons in the U.S. arsenal – the unmanned drone. Noah Shachtman, contributing editor for Wired magazine, was invited by the military to see for himself how it works.
This month saw the launch of a multimillion dollar ad campaign meant to sink President Obama’s as yet unannounced health care plan. James Fallows covered the first round in the fight over health care in 1994. He says the 1994 plan failed in large part because of a single wildly inaccurate magazine article.
Three weeks before a "60 Minutes" report on oil giant Chevron aired, one with a similar look and feel popped up on YouTube - this one by former journalist Gene Randall who was hired by Chevron to tell its side of the story. Randall says that those who object to his report are forgetting he's a former journalist.
It seems the lowly infomercial is finally enjoying its moment in the sun. So far this year it has garnered a book, a reality show and even a television documentary by CNBC. We asked our producer Mike Vuolo to find out what is so compelling about the hard sell.
Highlights from Past Shows
The Obama Administration announced this week that it would not release photos documenting the abuse of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan, fearing that doing so would jeopardize the safety of U.S. troops. Jane Mayer, New Yorker writer and author of The Dark Side, says the photos are crucial evidence that should be made public.
In light of yet another bad week for newspapers, it seems appropriate that a Senate committee held a Future of Journalism hearing. Publisher of the Dallas Morning News Jim Moroney testified there. He explains one idea he raised at the hearing: giving newspapers anti-trust exemption so they can collaborate on pricing and payment schemes.
On the Media is funded by The Bydale Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Overbrook Foundation.
