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Cable news covered and perhaps smothered the historic Democratic National Convention this week. Brooke emerged from the coverage with a bit of a headache.
Fannie Lou Hamer, Shirley Chisholm, Barbara Jordan and countless other black women fought at great risk to make their voices heard in our democracy. Princeton University African American studies professor Melissa Harris-Lacewell says Barack Obama would have been wise to acknowledge their words and their deeds.
For years now, psychologists at universities across the country have been studying bias, and tests show that we're often unaware of our own hidden agenda. Professor Tony Greenwald describes the Implicit Association Test.
Remember Harry and Louise? They were really worried about the Clinton health care plan in 1993. They're worried again! But this time, for entirely new reasons. WNYC's Fred Mogul explains.
Energy independence should be a topic for wide-ranging discussion about science, economics and lifestyle. But David Fiderer, an energy banker and Huffington Post blogger, says reporters are allowing politicians to hijack the conversation, making it about left and right all the while leaving reality out of the picture.
After months of competition and weeks of Bob going shirtless the OTM T-shirt contest has finally concluded. Phil Mastman is our proud winner and he joins us to bask in the white-hot glory and explain his design.
There's no shortage of contests that outsource the design process to the masses. But the website Cafe Press has become the open-source catalog for t-shirts, posters and a variety of merchandise stamped with designs thought up by the people. Cafe Press co-founder Fred Durham explains how the designs are a good indicator of where the national dialog is headed.
Amid coverage this week of the DNC were remembrances of another historic gathering of Democrats – 40 years ago in Chicago. Mark Kurlansky, author of “1968: The Year that Rocked the World,” remembers the prevailing narrative of the day.
In the Works
The winner of our very first OTM T-shirt design contest is Phil Mastman from Cincinnati, Ohio. Click Here to see Phil's winning design. You can buy the T-shirt during WNYC's fall pledge drive.
Highlights from Past Shows
This weekend, as an estimated 15,000 reporters head to Denver for the Democratic National Convention, Slate’s Jack Shafer asks, why? There hasn’t been a contested nomination since 1976, he argues, and news organizations’ resources would be best put to use elsewhere. Brooke puts his arguments to the test.
We devote the show this week to the illustrious past and perilous future of investigative reporting. How will investigative stories fare in an era of layoffs and slashed newsrooms budgets? Reporter and UC Berkeley professor Lowell Bergman, Stephen Engelberg of the investigative nonprofit ProPublica and The City University of New York's Jeff Jarvis discuss the past, present and potential future of this core journalistic enterprise.
On the Media is funded by The Bydale Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Overbrook Foundation.
