For countries bedeviled by war crimes, genocide and all manner of trauma it’s been described as the last resort for justice - the international war crimes trial. Part media spectacle, part history lesson, part political scorecard, part attempt at truth and reconciliation the trials have evolved into a messy media phenomenon. Bob speaks with Anthony Dworkin, a former journalist who helps lawyers, journalists and the public at large understand the history, the expectations and the stakes in a modern war crimes trial.
A sudden flourishing of investigative journalism in China has created a Wild West atmosphere – crusading reporters and editors blazing away at the powers that be. But this is taking place in the authoritarian East, where communist party officials make examples of news organizations deemed too quick on the draw. That inherent conflict is apparent in the teaching of journalism in China. Bob speaks with Xiguang Li, dean of the School of Journalism, at Beijing's Tsinghua University.
On Friday, the Chinese government announced it was dropping its case against jailed New York Times researcher, Zhao Yan. His imprisonment points to the essential conflict of Chinese journalism: communist leaders trying to navigate global free markets without surrendering to the free market of ideas. Bob talks to David Bandurski, a researcher at the University of Hong Kong's China Media Project.
Caught in the anxious middle of the Knight Ridder deal are employees of the twelve newspapers scattered around the country, which have just changed ownership and will be changing hands again sometime soon. David Hanners, general assignment reporter at the St. Paul Pioneer Press, joins Bob to discuss daily journalism when you’re being bought and sold and bought again.
For years, even when it was a near monopoly, AT&T managed to do the impossible with a surprising degree of success. It managed to convince us that a huge corporation could be our friend. But despite its pioneering command of public relations, its omnipotence was never far from view. Claude Fischer, author of A Social History of the Telephone, and Lily Tomlin's erstwhile operator Ernestine guide Brooke through a century of the long arm of Ma Bell.
Keith Olbermann, host of MSNBC's Countdown, has a weekly segment called "the worst person in the world," and frequently awards that honor to Bill O'Reilly, of Fox's O'Reilly Factor. Recently, O'Reilly cracked. He said anyone who spoke Olbermann's name on his program would hear from Fox security and apparently, at least one caller to his radio program already has. We gathered actual tape of the feuding hosts, set their voices to music, and yes, embellished the tale, just a little.
Mid-term elections are starting to heat up and the press is in hot pursuit of themes around which they can organize their coverage - for example, "Democrats in disarray" or "Republicans mired in scandal." But those seem a little tired. So the media have been quick to pounce on a fresh narrative being offered - an expanding field of veterans, running for Congress as Democrats. Brooke talks with political onlookers on both sides of the spectrum about this "Band of Brothers."
The American oil industry is funneling some of its massive 2005 profits into a P.R. campaign designed to play down the size of the profits, and play up the industry's good will. First, Bob talks with Red Cavaney, president of the American Petroleum Institute, the group behind the ad campaign. Then, with Tyson Slocum, from the advocacy group Public Citizen, who says big oil is pulling a fast one on the American public.
