On The Media - Media History

Sex.com (On The Media)

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 20:29 GMT

On March 18th, a public auction will be held in Midtown Manhattan. On the block? Sex.com, one of the most coveted pieces of internet real estate, ever. But be warned. Sex dot com comes with a long and troubled past. It’s all chronicled by Kieren McCarthy in SEX.COM: One Domain, Two Men, Twelve Years and the Brutal Battle for the Jewel in the Internet’s Crown.

Better Safe and Sorry (On The Media)

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:13 GMT

In recent weeks Toyota has struggled with the mechanics and the mea culpas of a successful product recall. What’s a global company to do when faced with a high profile consumer crisis-of-confidence? Veteran PR crisis manager Gene Grabowski says look no further then the ur-successful recall – Tylenol in 1982. And Japanese international relations expert Roland Kelts explains why for Toyota it’s so hard to say ‘I’m sorry.’

The Protest Psychosis (On The Media)

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:18 GMT

Schizophrenia has appeared in each edition of the DSM, but its definition has undergone significant change. While once seen as a disease for docile white women, by the 60s and 70s schizophrenia was a diagnosis increasingly used for violent black men. Psychiatrist Jonathan Metzl argues in his new book that changing cultural views and media depictions of race and violence played a large role in the evolving image of the disease.

Pulp Non-Fiction (On The Media)

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 04:14 GMT

For five scandal-ridden years in the mid 1950’s, Confidential was the most popular, pulpiest, dishiest, Hollywood-shaking, gossip rag in the nation. And it insisted that its stories, no matter how sensational, be true. Confidential defied the studios, exposed the foibles of Hollywood brightest stars and laid the groundwork for our modern 24/7 celebrity culture. Henry Scott, author of a new book Shocking True Story, tells Confidential’s story.

Game Changer (On The Media)

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:53 GMT

25 years ago the Russian computer programmer Alexey Pajitnov created the ur-video game Tetris. Simple to play, hard to win and ubiquitous, the game continues to frustrate and entertain the masses. We speak with Pajitnov about how he started the shapes falling.

Tip Calculator (On The Media)

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 19:21 GMT

In a recently published memoir, a New York Times Washington-Bureau editor makes a shocking revelation: the Times had a scoop about the Watergate story months before Woodward and Bernstein. Amazingly, and mysteriously, the Times never followed up on the tip. Robert M. Smith, the Times reporter who received the tip says that until the memoir was published, he had protected his source for 37 years.

Pulp Fictions (On The Media)

Tue, 05 May 2009 16:50 GMT

Throughout journalism there have been the inevitable errors of omission, errant mistakes and occasional misstatements of fact. And then there have been the flat-out, large-scale flagrant lies. Eric Burns, author of All The News Unfit to Print, reintroduces us to a number of prominent journalists who, finding the news lacking, simply made it up.

Yellow Fever (On The Media)

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 20:55 GMT

Last week, Slate’s press critic Jack Shafer wrote in praise of yellow journalism: “At its best it was terrific, at its worst it wasn’t that bad.” So, does the yellow stuff deserve its tawdry reputation? We asked W. Joseph Campbell, author of Yellow Journalism: Puncturing the Myths, Defining the Legacies.

Chain Rule (On The Media)

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 21:21 GMT

We all know that Orson Welles drew his inspiration for the film “Citizen Kane” from the life of William Randolph Hearst. But over time, the character called Kane has become so conflated with the man named Hearst that we tend to think of the movie as a biopic. Kenneth Whyte’s The Uncrowned King: The Sensational Rise of William Randolph Hearst separates the myths from the reality.

The Apple, Jacked (On The Media)

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 20:45 GMT

Twenty years ago this week 60 Minutes introduced much of the country to Alar, a chemical used to make apples ripen on time. They argued that Alar was also an unregulated carcinogen, after which a panic ensued. Food journalist Michael Pollan argues that the fallout from the Alar scare is still all around us and the real story of what happened is in need of retelling.

Orwell and the English Language (On The Media)

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 20:50 GMT

Best known for his novels 1984 and Animal Farm, George Orwell's mastery of clear language is nowhere more evident than in his essays. New Yorker staff writer George Packer, who has compiled some of these shorter works into two volumes, says Orwell's voice was irascible and witty and, above all, direct.

Hear more of Brooke's conversation with George Packer

Writers On the Rolls (On The Media)

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 19:41 GMT
Economic misery has spread to journalism and newspeople everywhere are being laid-off. But The New Republic's Mark Pinsky has found hope for reporters in a previous economic downturn. He advocates a resurrection and re-imagining of the Work Progress Administration's Federal Writers' Project.

The Stories They Carried (On The Media)

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 19:49 GMT
The Federal Writers' Project put thousands of people to work including Zora Neale Hurston, Stetson Kennedy, and John Steinbeck. They recorded oral histories, folkways, music and wrote everything from state guides to children's books. Jerrold Hirsch, author of Portrait of America describes the legacy of "introducing America to Americans," and how the program upended the American story.

The Dirty South (On The Media)

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:29 GMT
Lee Atwater became one of the most complicated and successful Republican political operatives in history by employing a triple threat; spin when you can, change the subject when you can’t and if all else fails – mine the voters’ resentment, and fear, usually of blacks. Stefan Forbes, director of Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story, explains the dark legacy of Atwater’s Southern strategy.

Take It As Red (On The Media)

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 22:28 GMT
Founded in 1924, the Daily Worker – which ceased to be a daily 50 years ago – was the de facto house organ of American Communism. Historian Vernon Pedersen says the paper was strident and ideological, yes, but also an important cultural artifact.

Race Beat (On The Media)

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 17:23 GMT
In the 1950s, the mainstream American press had very little experience covering segregation and its impacts. In The Race Beat, Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff tell the story of how the civil rights struggle gradually made its way onto the front pages.

Sister Christian (On The Media)

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 17:24 GMT
Nearly a century ago, Aimee Semple McPherson became the model of the modern, self-made media sensation. In a biography, Matthew Avery Sutton argues that ‘Sister’ Aimee’s savvy brand of religion brought Christian evangelicalism into the mainstream.

The Gun Heard Round the World (On The Media)

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 17:27 GMT
The AK-47, one of Russia’s most popular exports, turned 60 this year. Michael Hodges, author of AK47: The Story of the People’s Gun, says that the weapon Mikhail Kalashnikov invented to defend his motherland has become a symbol of Third World revolutionary struggle and Islamic jihad.

The X Factor (On The Media)

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 18:17 GMT
For over 50 years, outlaw American radio broadcasters exploited a legal loophole and aired powerful pirate radio from the Mexican side of the border. So called ‘border blasters’ - or ‘X stations’ - were true innovators whose influence continues to be felt today. OTM’s Jamie York tells the story.

Textbook Tug-of-War (On The Media)

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 18:34 GMT
High school history textbooks have long been the subject of controversy both within and between nations. Which is why they’re now the subject of a comparative analysis project by Stanford University’s Asia-Pacific Research Center. Associate director Daniel Sneider says that we’re creating separate memories of the past.

Keeping Secrets (On The Media)

Mon, 13 Aug 2007 18:36 GMT
New York Times reporter William L. Laurence was a firsthand witness to the development of the atomic bomb, which he agreed to keep secret until Fat Man was deployed over Nagasaki (which he also saw firsthand). Author David Goodman explains that that wasn’t the only secret Laurence kept.

Eating Crow (On The Media)

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 19:43 GMT
From Aunt Jemima to the Frito Bandito, there’s a long tradition of racially-fraught spokescharacters in American food marketing. Reporter David Segal says that Uncle Ben is really an Uncle Tom, despite his recent promotion.

The Obscenity Defense (On The Media)

Mon, 09 Apr 2007 17:49 GMT
When Leaves of Grass was deemed obscene in 1882, Mark Twain wrote a defense of Walt Whitman’s “noble work.” Now, Twain's essay is being published for the first time, in the Virginia Quarterly Review. University of Iowa professor Ed Folsom calls it classic Twain satire.

Dead Reckoning (On The Media)

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 23:36 GMT
For decades, journalists like Jerry Mitchell were the only ones shedding light on cold civil rights-era murder cases . Now the FBI and Congress are taking another look. Mitchell explains why, when it comes to civil rights, the past isn’t past.

The Race Beat (On The Media)

Wed, 27 Dec 2006 21:27 GMT
In the 1950s, the mainstream American press had very little experience covering segregation and its impacts. In a new book, The Race Beat, Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff tell the story of how the civil rights struggle gradually made its way onto the front pages.

Operation Colombo (On The Media)

Mon, 18 Dec 2006 19:43 GMT
In the wake of Augusto Pinochet’s death, U.S. media are debating how the dictator should be remembered. The National Security Archive’s Peter Kornbluh discusses an especially sinister chapter in Pinochet's dealings with his own country's media.

Black, White & Red All Over (On The Media)

Mon, 27 Nov 2006 21:28 GMT
On November 10, 1898, a mob of white supremacists ransacked the city of Wilmington, North Carolina, and toppled its biracial government. 108 years later, The Charolotte Observer and Raleigh’s News & Observer are apologizing for their role in fomenting the violence. Duke historian Tim Tyson tells Bob how newspapers turned neighbor against neighbor and helped usher in Jim Crow.

The Angry Man (On The Media)

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 22:11 GMT
In "Network," an anchorman erupts and calls on viewers to join him in the now iconic primal scream: "I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore!" And in that, he reflected his creator, screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky. WNYC’s Sara Fishko offers this profile.

The Man Time Forgot (On The Media)

Tue, 31 Oct 2006 16:15 GMT
The name Henry R. Luce is firmly enshrined in the annals of American publishing. But few remember the legendary Time editor’s erstwhile partner, Briton Hadden. And it was Hadden, not Luce, who conceived of the idea not only for Time, but of the “newsmagazine” itself. Brooke talks to Isaiah Wilner, author of a new biography of the man Luce wiped off the face of history.

The Man Who Knew Too Much (On The Media)

Tue, 31 Oct 2006 16:16 GMT
In 1965, Vietnamese reporter Pham Xuan An went to work for Time. He was a tireless writer, with an unerring sense for facts amidst the fog of war, and became an invaluable source of information for American readers. Turns out he was simultaneously an invaluable source of information for the North Vietnamese, moonlighting for more than 30 years as a spy. Thomas Bass profiled An last year in The New Yorker. He tells Bob about the spy who loved us.

Picturing the Worst (On The Media)

Tue, 31 Oct 2006 17:57 GMT
The assault this week in Pennsylvania’s Amish country was the sixth deadly school shooting in as many weeks. Media commentators are pointing to the possibility of a copycat effect, but few are examining the media’s own complicity therein. School violence researcher Loren Coleman tells Bob that a little more restraint on the part of the media wouldn’t hurt.

A Rose Is Not a Rose (On The Media)

Tue, 31 Oct 2006 18:28 GMT
Iva Toguri died this week, though you probably don’t recognize the name. She was commonly, and erroneously, known as Tokyo Rose, a propagandist broadcasting against the Allied side during WWII. An article in 1976 by then Tokyo Bureau chief Ron Yates of the Chicago Tribune uncovered the story of how the FBI framed her for treason. Yates recalls her saga with Bob.

Strong to the Finish (On The Media)

Tue, 31 Oct 2006 18:49 GMT
When E. coli made its way into a California spinach field, it brought down a vegetable that has enjoyed a remarkable run in the popular imagination. But how did the vegetable acquire its reputation as the leafy-green-that-could? Brooke speaks with food writer Michael Pollan about the spinach industry’s successes – and failures – in creating the super food.

Unplug It! (On The Media)

Tue, 31 Oct 2006 18:39 GMT
In 1971, Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times. Now, with bellicosity about Iran in the Beltway air, Ellsberg is renewing his call for insiders to leak. He and Brooke discuss the tension between government employees’ contract to keep secrets and their oath to uphold the Constitution.

Strong to the Finish (On The Media)

Tue, 31 Oct 2006 18:45 GMT
When E. coli made its way into a California spinach field, it brought down a vegetable that has enjoyed a remarkable run in the popular imagination. But how did the vegetable acquire its reputation as the leafy-green-that-could? Brooke speaks with food writer Michael Pollan about the spinach industry’s successes – and failures – in creating the super food.

Qapla! (On The Media)

Mon, 11 May 2009 15:56 GMT
In September 1966, Gene Roddenberry dispatched the crew of the starship Enterprise on its maiden voyage through space and time and into the American living room. It was an inauspicious start, but forty years later the Star Trek universe is still expanding. Brooke explores the various television incarnations of the franchise and the infinitely powerful engine behind it all: the fan.

Straits Flush (On The Media)

Tue, 31 Oct 2006 22:20 GMT
Over the past 20 years, the U.S. has spent half a billion dollars to beam anti-Castro propaganda into the homes of Cubans via Radio and TV Martí. Earlier this year, Congress boosted the stations’ budget, and in the midst of Fidel’s convalescence, the stations have increased their programming hours. All this despite the fact that hardly anybody in Cuba is tuning in. Bob talks to Penn State communications professor John Nichols about the broadcasting boondoggle.

Perilous Times (On The Media)

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 18:34 GMT
What does George W. Bush have in common with John Adams, Abraham Lincoln, FDR, Harry Truman, JFK, and Lyndon Johnson? Each is a wartime president who took measures to quell dissent at home in the name of an American victory. And all of them, according to Geoffrey R. Stone’s book Perilous Times, went too far. Stone and Bob discuss what happens to the First Amendment when the nation is at war.

Keeping Secrets (On The Media)

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 18:36 GMT
New York Times reporter William L. Laurence was with American troops in a plane over Nagasaki when the atomic bomb was dropped. He won the Pulitzer Prize for a series of stories he subsequently published, many of which included details about the development and production of the bomb that he had previously kept secret. But it turned out those weren’t the only secrets Laurence was keeping; he was also on the payroll of the U.S. War Department. Bob speaks with author David Goodman about Laurence’s dueling allegiances.

Journalist, Inc. (On The Media)

Mon, 05 Mar 2007 20:30 GMT
Earlier this year, New York Post gossip columnist Jared Paul Stern was accused of trying to extort his sources in exchange for favorable coverage. He hasn’t been charged with a crime, but if it does turn out Stern is guilty he wouldn’t be the first person to cash in on the power of the pen. Columbia University journalism professor Robert Love tells Bob about a few of Stern’s seedy antecedents.

Middle Child Syndrome (On The Media)

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 19:11 GMT
This week marks the 10th anniversary of MSNBC and MSNBC.com. A longtime ratings loser, the cable news network may be celebrating quietly. But the website, a leader in online news, has many happy returns to toast. Brian Stelter, who writes the blog TVNewser, joins Brooke for cake and a piñata.

Civil Libertine (On The Media)

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 19:16 GMT
John Wilkes was an 18th century libertine, philanderer and author of what has been called the dirtiest poem in the English language. He was also a civil liberties pioneer, one of the first stalwarts of the free press. Brooke probes Arthur H. Cash, author of John Wilkes: The Scandalous Father of Civil Liberty about Wilkes’s illustrious, debaucherous career.

This Little Light of Mine (On The Media)

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 20:27 GMT
In the 40 years since President Johnson signed the Freedom of Information Act, it has been both a revelatory tool and a beleaguered statute. Historians, journalists and proponents of open government have filed millions of requests, and increasingly lawsuits, to uncover what the government does in the name of its citizens. Brooke looks back and forward with a number of FOIA experts, including PBS’ Bill Moyers, who was press secretary for Johnson at the time of the signing.

Black, White, & Red All Over (On The Media)

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 21:37 GMT
On November 10, 1898, a mob of white supremacists ransacked the city of Wilmington, North Carolina, and toppled its biracial government. But last week, the 1898 Race Riot Wilmington Race Riot Commission concluded that it was not so much a riot as an insurrection, orchestrated by prominent local Democrats and their allies in the media. Bob speaks with Duke historian Tim Tyson about how newspapers turned neighbor against neighbor and helped usher in Jim Crow.

Chaos, Revisited (On The Media)

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 21:51 GMT
A little while ago, Bob took out his crystal ball, and looked into the brave new media future. What he saw didn’t bode well for traditional keepers of the broadcast universe: viewers using DVRs to tune out commercials, and networks bypassing affiliates with online content streaming. A year later, Bob’s “chaos scenario” appears to be in full swing, at least according to BuzzMachine blogger Jeff Jarvis. While proof may not be in the pudding just yet, says AdAge editorial director Scott Donaton, this year’s annual “upfronts” market may be one of the last. And, Bob hears from media consultant Terry Heaton about what all of this means for local affiliate stations.

The Arizona Project (On The Media)

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 21:53 GMT
Journalists have long been among the casualties of foreign wars, and Iraq is no exception. But we’re less accustomed to reporters dying in the line of duty here at home. Which may be why the death of The Arizona Republic’s Don Bolles still resonates. He was covering organized crime when his car exploded in Phoenix 30 years ago last week. KJZZ’s Steve Goldstein reports on the Arizona Project, a collaboration of dozens of reporters who converged upon Phoenix to finish Bolles’ work.

Founding Propagandists (On The Media)

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 21:54 GMT
All lofty pretensions aside, American journalism was actually founded by a combination of crusading publishers, government leakers, and opinion writers who never used their real names. That’s according to the new book, Infamous Scribblers: The Founding Fathers and the Rowdy Beginnings of American Journalism. Author (and Fox News host) Eric Burns speaks with Brooke about an early American press that didn’t care much about fairness, balance, or accuracy.

Doin’ the Hustle (On The Media)

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 22:10 GMT
Perhaps the surest way to gauge “community standards” is to run afoul of them. That’s what Hustler publisher Larry Flynt did in Cincinnati in the 1970s. And in New Hampshire in the 1980s. And again in Ohio in the 90s. The story is chronicled in a new book by one of Hustler’s longest employees, Allan MacDonell, who worked his way up from deckhand to editorial captain of Larry Flynt Publications. He shares some recollections with Brooke.

Cribbing Through the Ages (On The Media)

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 22:31 GMT
Plagiarism is constantly in the news these days, most recently with the scandal surrounding Harvard student Kaavya Viswanathan’s How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got A Life. But, as we know, claims of literary plagiarism go back centuries. So why do people still get so worked up about it? Mike Pesca reflects on the past, present and future of plagiarism.

Everyone's A Critic (On The Media)

Thu, 09 Nov 2006 20:28 GMT
Five years ago this week On the Media was re-launched as a nationally distributed, pre-produced hour hosted by Bob and Brooke. To mark this auspicious occasion Brooke looks back at the earlier incarnations of the show and how the media criticism beat has grown up over these years. Media crit bigwigs Howard Kurtz and Mark Jurkowitz weigh in, as do former OTM hosts Brian Lehrer and Alex Jones.