This Olympic week was ideal for The Onion-esque absurdity in real life. An Olympic celebration choreography malfunction left London’s mayor suspended from a zip wire holding tiny British flags. Multiple badminton teams were suspended for not trying hard enough. Each one of these stories prompts the refrain: “It sounds like an Onion headline!” We called former Onion editor Joe Garden to ask him why these real life headlines don't quite pass muster. 

Also, we're running a contest: submit your real life Onion headlines to onthemedia@wnyc.org. Best entry gets one of our glorious, glorious On Caffeine mugs. 

Beth Orton - (Four Tet Remix) Carmella

In the new farcical sci-fi book Year Zero, aliens, having discovered how wonderful Earth music is, learn that they owe the all the money in the universe to the United States because of its harsh copyright penalties. Brooke talks to author Rob Reid about taking the great copyright debate to absurd new heights.

Over the past few years, a global pact meant to curb online piracy and the trade of counterfeit goods called the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA, has been negotiated in secret. After popular outcry it seems ACTA may not materialize. While 9 countries and 22 European Union member states have signed on, none have ratified it, and last month, the EU parliament roundly rejected it. Brooke asks Harvard Law Professor Jonathan Zittrain if ACTA is actually dead.

With limited foreign media on the ground in Syria, our picture of the conflict is being assembled largely through citizen videos posted online and Syrian government television. Added to the mix is a new type of video made by rebels, aimed at getting funding from donors abroad. Brooke speaks to NPR Middle East correspondent Deb Amos about making videos in order to get weapons.

The Weeknd - Thursday

Ryan Holiday is a media strategist and author of the new book Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator. Brooke speaks to Ryan about what it is like to bribe the media on behalf of bestselling authors and billion dollar brands.

Califone - Alice Marble Gray

On Atlantic.com this week Alexis Madrigal described watching sports without sound as "eating an orange when you have a stuffy nose." But how do the TV sports producers actually mic the games? Brooke speaks with Peregrine Andrews who produced a documentary called "The Sound of Sport" which details the extreme lengths sound engineers go to to make sports sound like sports.

Here's Peregrine's great blog post about his doc.

The London Olympics will feature some of the strictest rules yet for protecting the Games’ corporate sponsors. And organizers will have people to monitor and enforce those rules—both on the ground and online. Brooke speaks to The Guardian's Esther Addley about the unprecedented steps being taken to protect the Olympics' corporate sponsors.

As the country waits for Mitt Romney to choose his running mate, OTM looks back at the textbook case for the importance of vetting vice presidential nominees. For 18 days in 1972, Thomas Eagleton was presidential candidate George McGovern's running mate–until the press dug up some information on his personal life. In this interview from 2007, Brooke speaks to Clark Hoyt, the cub reporter for Knight Ridder that broke the story and abruptly ended Eagleton's bid for office.

Original Air Date – March 9, 2007

In Afghanistan and Yemen, armed drones have become an effective military tool. In the US, unarmed drones have become a tool of domestic law enforcement. Brooke speaks with Star Tribune military affairs reporter Mark Brunswick about the use of an unarmed drone to help end a dispute over six missing cows in North Dakota.

With every new online service we participate in—from mobile banking to the latest social networking site—more and more of our personal information is being stored online—and for privacy advocates, that is a scary trade off. Now the state of California is taking steps to make sure that this consumer data stays protected, with the creation of a new Privacy Enforcement and Protection Unit. Brooke speaks with California Attorney General Kamala Harris about enforcing privacy rules.

The Obama and Romney campaigns have been slugging away at each other this week about transparency and disclosure. And yet Tuesday, the Disclose Act, which would have allowed you to better know the people behind superpacs was smothered in the Senate by filibuster without earning a single Republican vote. Huffington Post reporter Dan Froomkin explains to Brooke what happened.

It's been predicted that this election season will produce a record number of political ads. Wouldn't it be nice if you could simply wave your phone in front of an advertisement on the TV to find out what group is behind it and how much they're spending this on ads? Brooke talks to Dan Siegel, co-creator of the forthcoming SuperPacApp, which will allow you to do just that.

White Rabbits - Back for More

It’s possible for the average person to collect and analyze unprecedented amounts of data about themselves.  What was once the province of extreme athletes and dieters has been democratized and the resulting movement is called ‘The Quantified Self.’  Brooke speaks with Gary Wolf who coined the term, a number of self-quantifiers and MIT professor Deb Roy about what all this personal data really tells us about ourselves.  

The immense amounts of data collected by local, state and federal government agencies can be an incredibly valuable trove for enterprising journalists.  It can also be a pointless slog. NPR's StateImpact project database reporting coordinator Matt Stiles and computational journalism professor at Duke Sarah Cohen explain how they find good stories in a sea of government data.  

Surprising and exciting scientific findings capture our attention and captivate the press.  But what if, at some point after a finding has been soundly established, it starts to disappear?  In a special collaboration with Radiolab we look at the 'decline effect' when more data tells us less, not more, about scientific truth.

Correction: An earlier version of this short incorrectly stated that Jonathan Schooler saw the effect size of his study fall by 30% on two different occasions. In fact, he saw it fall by that amount the first time he repeated the study and saw a general downward trend thereafter. The audio has been adjusted to reflect this fact.

Correction: An earlier version of this short incorrectly attributed a statement to Jonathan Schooler’s advisor. The statement was actually made by his colleague. The audio has been adjusted to reflect this fact.

Veracruz, home of the bloody Zeta cartel, is now the most dangerous place in Mexico to be a journalist. Nine journalists have been killed in the last 12 months alone. Brooke travels to Veracruz to talk to journalists about reporting under a constant threat of violence.

Elizabeth - Soy Loca Por Ti

Brooke and WNYC reporter Marianne McCune report from Mexico City about how the Mexican media is grappling with the country's upcoming presidential elections, and the youth movement that is tired of business-as-usual.

Los Lobos - El Gusto

"Alejandra," a reporter who was threatened by the Zeta cartel, began to publish news on place mats that she sold to local restaurants. Brooke talks to "Alejandra" about her determination to report in the face of threats to her and her family.

Brooke talks to Mike O’Connor of the Committee to Protect Journalists about the risks that reporters face in a country beset by drug-violence, often targeted at the media.  

Mexico has an image problem around the world, exacerbated by stories of violence and corruption —not to mention lingering stereotypes from the era of the Frito Bandito. Brooke talks to a number of people grappling with Mexico's image problem.

Paco de Lucia & Rámon Algeciras - Cielito Lindo