Back in January, OTM reported on an FCC proposal that would require local television stations to disclose political ad buys online. According to an article by ProPublica, the National Associations of Broadcasts has sued to block the proposal from taking effect.

In February, I sent out numerous Freedom of Information Act requests to different government agencies to see if they had any information on me in their files.  I received my response letters from most of the agencies, and they're on the one hand fairly anticlimactic, and on the other hand illuminating of how potentially weak FOIA can be.

On this week’s show, we have a few stories exploring the subject of transparency. Inspired by the story of a woman who discovered the FBI had a 436-page report on her after sending in a bunch of personal FOIA requests, I decided to make the government get transparent with me as well.

In the aftermath of the News of the World phone hacking scandal, British Prime Minister David Cameron declared that a public government inquiry would look into the practices and ethics of the British press. For weeks now, the Leveson Inquiry has been hearing testimony from witnesses like Hugh Grant, J.K. Rowling and the parents of Milly Dowler, the 13-year-old murder victim whose phone was hacked by NOTW back in 2002.

On Tuesday, one of the most shocking and eye-opening testimonies was given by former NOTW deputy features editor Paul McMullan, who openly talked about some of the questionable techniques he utilized as a tabloid reporter, like posing as a teenage prostitute to entrap a priest. We managed to track down McMullan, who spoke to Brooke by phone from the cellar of a pub he owns in Dover, England.

Your weekly dose of recommendations from the staff of OTM.  Give us some of your own down in the comments section and enjoy!

Here is this week's list of picks from the OTM staff.  If you want to recommend your own picks, please do so down in the comments section!

Time for another round of On the Media staff picks. Feel free to make some of your own recommendations or give us feedback in the comments section!

Time for another round of OTM staff recommendations.  If you have anything to you want to recommend to us, feel free to comment below!

Time for another round of On the Media staff picks.  Feel free to make some of your own recommendations or give us feedback in the comments section!

This has not been a very good week for the press in Egypt.

Time for another round of On the Media staff picks.  Feel free to make some of your own recommendations or give us feedback in the comments section!

Yesterday, as I was sitting at my desk in the WNYC offices, I experienced a moment I never thought I would in my lifetime. The events taking place in Libya right now are historic, but for my family they are life changing.

A few weeks ago, WNYC’s own John Keefe appeared on our program and wrote a blog about how easily he hacked into the voicemails of AT&T and Sprint cell phones. Now it appears that AT&T is changing the default setting on new phones, so that users will automatically have password protection on their voicemails unless they turn the feature off.

Apparently the reason regular people don’t look like the models and celebrities in cosmetics ads is because cosmetics ads are photoshopped. Who knew? Well, actually, everyone knew. But still, there is something alluring about the possibility that the product advertised could work for you. Perhaps that’s why the Advertising Standards Authority, which regulates advertising in the UK, has banned two makeup ads from future publication in Britain.

The satirical newspaper The Onion has yet to win the coveted Pulitzer Prize, despite its self-proclaimed status as “America’s finest news source.”  A new campaign launched by the non-profit organization Americans for Fairness in Awarding Journalism Prizes is lobbying the Pulitzer committee to recognize The Onion’s excellence in journalism, with testimonial videos from fans and celebrities alike. Onion Features editor Joe Garden sat down with Brooke to discuss the new campaign.

After the jump, take a look at our favorite celebrity Onion testimonial videos, including our very own Brooke Gladstone.