This week saw the resignation of two prominent IRS officials after it was confirmed that the agency targeted conservative nonprofit political groups during the 2012 election. The departures were at least a partial victory for conservative bloggers. They’ve been covering the story for over a year, and they’ve been mostly alone. The Huffington Post’s Michael Calderone tells Bob about the story’s winding path, starting with its origin in the right-wing blogosphere.

In 1863, New York Tribune reporters Junius Browne and Albert Richardson were captured by the Confederate army in Vicksburg, Mississippi. What followed was an epic journey through an archipelago of Confederate prisons, a daring escape, and a perilous 300-mile trek to freedom. It's the subject of the book, Junius and Albert's Adventures in the Confederacy: a Civil War Odyssey, due out at the end of the month. Author Peter Carlson takes Bob through the highs and lows of the adventure.

Music: Jim Taylor - Bonaparte's Retreat / Bonaparte's Charge / Bonaparte's March, Eastman Wind Ensemble - Liverpool Hornpipe, Craig Duncan - Dixie, Judy Collins - Battle Hymn of the Republic, Craig Duncan - Shiloh's Hill

A company called Aereo is delivering real-time network TV on the internet with a novel technical setup which has drawn the legal wrath of all the major networks. Bob speaks Aereo CEO Chet Kanojia about how the company plans to make money in the face of legal threats from some of the most powerful media companies in the country.

Music: Joe Henry & Ornette Coleman - Richard Pryor Addresses a Tearful Nation

For as long as the newspaper industry has existed, people have been prognosticating about what it would look like in the future. Matt Novak, the author of the Gizmodo's Paleofuture blog, speaks with Bob about these predictions - some of which have been much more accurate than others.

After years of hemorrhaging money from piracy, the music industry placed its faith in online subscription services like Spotify and Pandora. But a decade on, streaming music appears to be a triumph of hope over experience. Tim Carmody, senior writer for The Verge, says that streaming services and the music industry are clinging to the belief that profitability is ... just over the next hill.

Vitamin String Quartet - Champagne Supernova

As audiences for media splinter and advertising with it, how will the journalism concerns that we've grown to know and love keep the lights on? Bob talks to Alan Rusbridger of the Guardian, Mike Perlis of Forbes, M. Scott Havens of The Atlantic, Erin Pettigrew of Gawker, Evan Smith of The Texas Tribune, Richard Toffel of ProPublica and Pam Horan of the Online Publishers Association about all the ways they're striving mightily to keep journalism financially viable.  

John Lennon - Imagine (Instrumental)

In July of 2010, a catastrophic oil spill took place in Marshall, Michigan, flooding a million gallons of oil into the Kalamazoo river. At the time, the media paid it little attention, distracted perhaps by the more dramatic Deepwater Horizon oil disaster that was just winding down in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Boston bombing has become a Rorschach blot for the media, who have tied it to everything from immigration to welfare to national security. Bob talks to The Daily Beast's Peter Beinart about the media and the culture's desire to impose meaning on tragedy.

Twitter: we all love it, but during recent breaking news stories, it's been an amplifier for rumors. Bob talks to OTM producer PJ Vogt about how Twitter could be better, and asks listeners for their suggestions. 

Head over to our blog with your suggestions. 

This week Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told law enforcement agents that he and his brother learned how to make their homemade bombs from Inspire, the English-language magazine of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Bob talks to JM Berger about the magazine, which has gone from being a late-night punchline to something much more terrifying.

Kelan Philip Cohran & The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble - Spin

Surveillance camera images of Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev catalyzed not only the manhunt which caught them, but calls for more surveillance cameras around the country. It’s worth remembering that, right now, video surveillance is a blunt tool. Bob speaks with Christoph Bregler, an NYU computer science professor, about the ways that surveillance will soon be much more effective.

Bob reads from a few of your letters and comments.

Jim James - All Is Forgiven

In a new documentary, The Kill Team, director Dan Krauss tells the story of the group of US soldiers convicted of murdering unarmed Afghan civilians. The documentary looks at the roles played by not one, but two soldier-whistleblowers. Krauss talks to Bob about the moral ambiguities of the story and the difficulty of doing the right thing in a war zone.

As a manhunt for the Boston bombing suspects unfolded in the wee hours of Friday morning, Twitter was the place to be for coverage. Brooke speaks with OTM producer Alex Goldman, who captained the late (really late) night Twitter coverage for On the Media.

Implode - Bottom Of A Well

In China, a new form of avian flu, called H7N9, has killed 10 people and infected an additional 28.  China’s gotten plaudits from the global health community for its transparency and responsiveness to this outbreak. But that's partly because many remember how China lied about SARS in 2002, a decision that killed hundreds. Public health reporter Maryn McKenna talks to Bob about what the standards are for reporting health epidemics in a wired world. 

Bonobo - Cirrus

As the Senate debates gun control for the first time in decades, we’re awash in stories we might never have heard but for Newtown. Brooke speaks with New York Times op-ed writer Joe Nocera, who's tracking gun violence daily on his blog The Gun Report. And Bob speaks with reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg about why we're stuck with anecdotes instead of data in the gun discussion.

Lúnasa - Killarney Boys Of Pleasure

Bitcoin is an online currency backed by no government, central authority or bank. Invented in 2009 as a response to the global financial crisis it's now worth over a billion dollars. Reuters financial blogger Felix Salmon talks to Bob about Bitcoin's impact on the real world and how every conversation about Bitcoin is making it a little bit stronger.

In Somalia the relative calm and stability of the last few years has resulted in a burgeoning journalism scene. But the practice is a deadly one, journalists are targeted for offending powerful interests, and most experienced journalists have fled. NPR's East Africa correspondent, Gregory Warner, talks to Bob about who's stepped in to do the incredibly risky reporting in Somalia - children.

Kronos Quartet - Mai Nozipo

On Tuesday the Associated Press eliminated the phrases "illegal immigrant" and "undocumented" from its stylebook. Previous OTM guest Jose Antonio Vargas has been campaigning for this change for months on the grounds that “actions are illegal – not people.” The AP has conceded this point of view, but it’s not because of political correctness. Bob talks to AP editor Tom Kent, who explains that the change is part of a broader overhaul of the AP stylebook.

William Tyler - We Can't Go Home Again

Anthony Lewis passed away this week at 85 after a long and storied career covering the Supreme Court for The New York Times. In a segment originally aired in 2008, Brooke spoke with Lewis about his book Freedom for the Thought We Hate, an examination of the First Amendment. He explained that the amendment that governs free speech and the press might not be as familiar as we think.

Oddisee - Frostbite