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With the choice of Federal Judge Sonia Sotomayor for the US Supreme Court this week the machinery of advocacy groups, pro and con, was sparked into action. Defying and supporting a supreme court nominee has become a veritable cottage industry for these groups and for the next six weeks we’ll watch them stir up public opinion and the press. Lawyer Tom Goldstein, founder of ScotusBlog, says any High Court nominee is but fuel for the politics industry.
In a recently published memoir, a New York Times Washington-Bureau editor makes a shocking revelation: the Times had a scoop about the Watergate story months before Woodward and Bernstein. Amazingly, and mysteriously, the Times never followed up on the tip. Robert M. Smith, the Times reporter who received the tip says that until the memoir was published, he had protected his source for 37 years.
Some argue that a key factor in the economic meltdown was credit rating agencies giving high ratings to worthless bonds. In lawsuits, the agencies often use the First Amendment as a defense. S&P's legal council Floyd Abrams explains this reasoning while securities lawyer David Grais says a bond rating isn't always like a newspaper editorial.
In a lawsuit last month against drug manufacturer Merck, the plaintiff introduced a 'peer reviewed journal' strongly supportive of Merck drugs. The ‘journal’, it turned out, was paid for by Merck and its peer-review status was a fraud. Since then, six other journals have been revealed – all falsely identified as peer reviewed. Dr. Peter Lurie of Public Citizen explains how journal publishers and drug companies work together.
It seems like every week a city in America loses its newspaper. We decided to focus on one, Seattle, to find out what happens afterwards. In March, the 146-year-old Seattle Post-Intelligencer shuttered its print edition. We talk to alt-weekly staffers, neighborhood bloggers, online-only reporters, and the editor of the P-I's old rival to find out the shape of Seattle's new media landscape.
A local TV news segment from 1981 resurfaced on YouTube recently. It examines a promising new prospect: getting newspaper content through the home computer. Bob reflects on how this quarter-century-old news spot was eerily prescient.
Highlights from Past Shows
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.
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.
On the Media is funded by The Bydale Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Overbrook Foundation.
