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Do you like how the public airwaves are being used? FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, for one, emphatically does not. As the Republicans gathered last month in New York, Copps decried the networks' skimpy convention coverage. And in condemning the general state of broadcast television, he heartily bit the hand that feeds him. Copps bares his teeth for Brooke.
A judge found five reporters in contempt of court this week for refusing to divulge their sources for information besmirching the reputation of Chinese-American scientist Wen Ho Lee. And journalists were slapped with yet more subpoenas in the investigation into the outing of former CIA agent Valerie Plame. Media reps are outraged, but what think people on the other side of the leaking equation? Mike gets an answer from preeminent leaker Daniel Ellsberg.
The media issues at stake in the presidential campaign have thus far mostly centered on which candidate reads more newspapers. But recently John Kerry hinted that he also has big plans for shaking up the FCC. Mike talks to Editor & Publisher reporter Mark Fitzgerald about what national media policies would look like under President Kerry.
Most of us still remember the old weekly test of the Emergency Broadcast System. Its ungodly tone and stern warning that "this is only a test" was a nice way to say “no, the ICBMs are not on the way." In the post-Cold War era the possibility of nuclear war has been replaced by terrorist attacks and other localized emergencies. Bill McConnell of Broadcasting & Cable magazine tells Bob that the FCC's first major overhaul of the Emergency Alert System in decades will rely on cutting edge technology.
This week, Howard Stern, the self-proclaimed King of All Media, announced that he'll soon be leaving Infinity Broadcasting. In fact, he'll be leaving terrestrial broadcasting altogether and taking his act to Sirius Satellite Radio, where the FCC can't touch him. Sirius is betting $100 million a year on the deal in hopes that legions of listeners will follow Stern to pay radio. Bob discusses the deal with Scott McKenzie, editor in chief of Billboard's Radio Monitor.
Simon Haselock was the head of media development and regulation for the former Coalition Provisional Authority. He has been criticized for taking a heavy hand in creating the FCC-like Independent Media Commission to regulate the Iraqi media. Now Haselock is worried that all the checks and balances he had suggested will be undone with the creation by the Iraqi government of the Higher Media Commission which would regulate against, among other things, criticizing the new president. Bob gets the scoop.
In China, the bold and hugely successful tabloid, The Southern Metropolis Daily, made journalistic history last year when it affected actual change with one of its exposes. But good things come to an end and now the paper's crusading editor is sitting in jail awaiting charges. Meanwhile, two of his colleagues have been hit with 6 and 8 year sentences for what appear to be trumped up charges of corruption and bribery. Bob talks with Washington Post's Beijing bureau chief, Philip P. Pan.
Medical reporters play a vital role in documenting hospital practices, but the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA is making it increasingly difficult for them to do so. Andrew Holtz is a freelance medical reporter based in Portland, Oregon and was the former head of the Association of Health Care Journalists. He tells Brooke how HIPAA is giving hospitals the power to shut out journalists.
