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In his second White House term, George W. Bush will be surrounded by new faces, and not just in his Cabinet. There will be changes in the White House press corps, most notably that of the Washington Post, which is being completely revamped. White House correspondent Dana Milbank joins Bob to reflect on his time in the press briefing room.
When high-ranking government sources refuse to go on the record, what's a reporter to do? All too often, they're given no choice but to dub the official with the perennial anonymous catchall: "senior administration official." So how is a reader to deduce which official is which? Harry Jaffe, national editor at Washingtonian magazine, penned a field guide to the names behind the phrase, and shares it with OTM's own "senior administration official," Brooke Gladstone.
Journalists are only as good as their sources, which is why their potency is often measured by the size of their rolodexes. Why is it then, that so few experts are called upon again and again for quotes in scores of newspaper articles and TV news appearances? Maybe it has to do with going to that Rolodex too much for the same old sources. Bob looks into the practice of Rolodex journalism.
Few headlines will top the New York Post's 1983 classic, "Headless Body in Topless Bar." But that doesn't keep tabloid editors from trying, every day of the year. A few years ago, veteran tabloid journalists Michael Shain and Mike Pearl created "Man Bites Dog," a card game that brings the lurid world of sensational journalism to living rooms across the country. Bob speaks with Shain.
Who penned the words you are reading now - a man, or a woman? With the help of a newly developed computer algorithm, you'd have a good chance of guessing correctly. The program analyzes a writer's use of simple words like "you," "the," and "with" - and has an 80 percent rate of accuracy. Brooke talks to technology writer Clive Thompson about the so-called gender-detector.
Six years ago, fresh from yet another disappointing visit to his local Blockbuster, Bob decided to take matters into his own hands. Armed with little more than an original treatment for a serious film set in the former Yugoslavia, Bob flew west. Here is the story of his mission to save the soul of Hollywood.
Highlights from Past ShowsA jury in California this week decided that Scott Peterson should be executed for murdering his wife Laci, who was eight months pregnant. Reversing years of tradition, the media in this case have tended to refer to the second victim as Peterson's "unborn child," not as a "fetus." The Chicago Tribune has opted for "fetus," but that too will soon be changing. Brooke talks to Tribune deputy editor Randy Weissman and public editor Don Wycliff about language usage on a political tightrope.
When it comes to informing the public, President Bush and his Cabinet have tended to avoid what Bush calls the media "filter." But an embedded reporter in Kuwait this week slipped through the administration’s filter, by planting one of his own questions with a soldier at a Q&A session with Donald Rumsfeld. Reporters had been banned from the event, but Rumsfeld was forced to address an issue he’d previously ignored. Bob and Brooke mull it over.
On the Media is funded by The Bydale Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Overbrook Foundation.
