The NFL called it offensive and inappropriate. CBS says the network is angry and embarrassed. FCC Chairman Michael Powell called it classless, crass and deplorable. We refer, of course, to the show-stopping exposure of Janet Jackson's breast during this year's Superbowl. But other than indignant huffing, how much can federal ...

This week, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal of the Bush Administration's secret detention of more than a thousand people in the weeks following September 11th. The decision represented a defeat for several groups who had sued for access to information about the detainees, some of whom were charged ...

When journalists refuse to disclose anonymous sources, they usually do so to protect those sources. But what happens if the sources agree to be named? That dilemma could soon face columnist Bob Novak, who last year outed the wife of former ambassador Joe Wilson as a CIA operative, after receiving ...

Wen Ho Lee was accused of telling secrets. The government is charged with creating far too many of them. Brooke speaks with Steve Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists’ Secrecy Project, birddogs the government’s tightening grip on information in his newsletter Secrecy News. He says that while the ...

After the FCC decided this summer that media companies would be allowed to reach 45% of the national TV audience, many lawmakers objected, insisting that the cap should remain at 35%. This week, Congress and the White House agreed on a compromise ownership limit of 39%. But many critics, including ...

Britain's royal family is once again embroiled in scandal, but this time the Queen's subjects haven't been able to get the lurid details from their mainstream media. Under the UK's strict libel laws, British media are barred from reporting on the allegations that Prince Charles was caught in a sexual ...

After a long week analyzing the media, Bob and Brooke like to unwind with a good sing-a-long. They wanted to share this one about the FCC, with you.

In 1949, the FCC decided that broadcasters, as "public trustees," were responsible for airing a diversity of viewpoints on controversial issues of public importance. But in the deregulatory sweep of the 80s, the so-called "Fairness Doctrine" went out the door. What would happen if the Doctrine were revived today? Brooke ...

Television viewers have a right to know when an ad is an ad. Schemes like product placement make the lines between a character trait and a paid advertisement very blurry. The organization Commercial Alert wants to clear it up. Brooke talks with co-founder Gary Ruskin about their latest petition. He ...

This week, the FCC signaled that it would approve a controversial merger between the nation's largest Spanish language TV network and the biggest Spanish language radio network. Critics have argued the deal will allow Univision to unfairly dominate the Spanish language media market. But Univision counters that there really isn't ...

Big Media. In this age of media consolidation, the phrase carries an ominous, minor-key ring. But does big media necessarily mean bad media? Newsweek columnist Robert Samuelson doesn't think so. He tells Brooke why he thinks the FCC's recent relaxation of media ownership rules won't spell the end of choice ...

If the media see themselves as under siege from all sides - government, Wall Street, and public opinion - there is relief at least on one front: the courts. At least in the arena of libel and privacy law, the pressure seems to be steadily easing. According to a new ...

Ever since the FCC voted to relax media ownership rules, congressional opponents of deregulation have been working to reverse the changes. But because the leader of a key House committee opposed the effort, nobody thought it would get very far. Undaunted, deregulation opponents took an alternative tack, and were vindicated ...

Criticizing the FCC's recent loosening media ownership regulations has become something of a new sport recently. The Senate Commerce Committee is getting into the act, proposing legislation to essentially undo the FCC's ruling. The bill has earned praise, but whether it has any chance of passing is another story. Bob ...

Now that the (de) regulators have acted, some members of Congress are taking it upon themselves to re-regulate the media industry. Republican Senator Conrad Burns tells Bob why he is co-sponsoring legislation that would roll back some of the changes that the FCC approved this week.

There were few surprises when the FCC finally voted this week on the relaxation of media ownership limits. But the commission's two dissenters were somewhat vindicated two days later at a Senate hearing in which lawmakers delivered a bipartisan spanking of the FCC decision. Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein talks to Bob ...

While people still argue about the successes and failures of the war in Iraq, there's no disputing that the Fox News Channel emerged from the fighting as a clear victor over its cable competitors. In a recent issue of The New Yorker, Ken Auletta profiled the relatively young channel, and ...

On the eve of perhaps the most important FCC vote in decades, opponents of media deregulation are flooding the commissioners with mail. But is anybody listening? Apparently not, wrote Eric Boehlert recently in Salon.com. He joins Bob to discuss the responsiveness - or lack thereof - of the FCC to ...

With only weeks left until the FCC vote, those on both sides of the deregulation debate are furiously trying to win the hearts and minds of Congress and other key players. The result has been some last-minute bargaining and unlikely alliances. Cable World Senior Editor Alicia Mundy gives Bob a ...

The Federal Communications Commission is poised to make sweeping changes to its restrictions on media ownership. The rules were created to promote a diversity of voices on the airwaves and in the papers, and many fear that the changes, should they pass, could undermine that goal. OTM's Paul Ingles reports ...