Brooke and Bob read feedback from our listeners.
In November of 1967, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 242, which called for the “withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict.” The “recent conflict” was a six-day war between Israel and its Arab neighbors, and the UN resolution asserted that Israel - in exchange for a recognized right to security and sovereignty - should give back the occupied land. This week, the world’s media covered the departure of Jewish settlers, sometimes forcibly, from the Gaza strip, as Israel withdrew from the territory. Brooke talks with J.J. Goldberg, editor of The Forward, about coverage in the Israeli and Jewish press.
If the Israeli press focused mostly on the plight of the evicted settlers and the future of their State, it wouldn’t be surprising to learn that the Arab press had cast its attention elsewhere. Bob speaks with Michael Young of the Beirut-based Daily Star about the Arab press’ reaction to the Israeli pullout from Gaza.
The founders of happynews.com wanted to provide an antidote to the daily doom and gloom that abounds in the media. So they formed their own website. Bob talks to cheery founder Byron Reese, who says there’s more good stuff happening out there then you might think.
Hip hop mixtapes began as documents of street parties in 1970’s New York. Over time, they evolved, making use of unreleased music, sometimes leaked by the music industry itself, to keep fans ahead of the mainstream and build street buzz for new songs and new artists. But as a result mixtapes occupy a shadowy realm very close to the industry - approved piracy – and present an uneasy contradiction for a business on a high horse about music theft. Brooke speaks with journalist Oliver Wang about mixtape culture.
Music has always been part of a soldiers’ life in wartime, from the fife and drums of the Revolution to the rock and roll of Vietnam. Soldiers have made their own contributions over the years, and those serving in Iraq are no different. This time though, it’s coming directly from the war zone. Brooke speaks with Sergeant Neal Saunders, who constructed his own studio and produced a brutally honest hip hop album while stationed in Sadr City, Baghdad.
Highlights from Past Shows
The news media took time out this week to honor one of its own. As news organizations pondered the life and legacy of Peter Jennings, there seemed to be one especially recurrent theme. Jennings was the last of the big three, we were told, and with him passes the Era of the News Anchorman. But might this obituary within the obituary be premature? Bob reflects on the enduring power of the human messenger.
When the atomic bomb exploded over the port city of Nagasaki, Japan in the late morning of August 9th, 1945, tens of thousands of civilian Japanese died immediately. By October, many thousands more were dying of a mysterious disease, but journalists were barred from the affected areas so few accounts of the suffering would reach readers here at home. Brooke talks with Editor& Publisher's Greg Mitchell about the very first reporter on the scene, George Weller, who wrote a series of articles that were never published, until this year.
On the Media is funded by The Bydale Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Overbrook Foundation.
