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Supreme Court nominee John Roberts gave what most observers agreed was an ace performance on the Hill this week. But it often seemed that his Senate interrogators were trying to steal the spotlight for themselves. In the Republic's earlier days, was the process any less theatrical? Bob discusses the history of confirmation hearings with University of Connecticut law professor David Yalof.
Brooke muses over the word that takes its meaning from a onetime Supreme Court nominee, whose unsuccessful bid for the bench earned him a place in Webster's: to bork.
Despite a relatively high casualty number among Iraq-based journalists, major U.S. news outlets feel compelled to remain in the region. Loren Jenkins, senior editor for NPR's foreign desk, tells Brooke that he's never seen a situation quite this dangerous for the media. And former ABC News correspondent Richard Gizbert talks about his refusal to report from Iraq… and his subsequent firing.
While one journalist may have lost his job for refusing to report from a war zone, another is making a virtual career of it. For its first venture into original journalism, Yahoo! has teamed up with battle-hardened correspondent Kevin Sites, who will travel the world's war zones for one year and post his dispatches. Sites spoke with Bob the day before he shipped out.
Veteran reporter Chris Hedges tells Brooke about his addiction to the drug he calls war. In his 15 years of reporting, Hedges was imprisoned in Sudan, expelled from Libya, ambushed in Central America, and shot at in Kosovo. His book, War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, explores how the myth of war shapes a country and its politics.
Before suspects were taken into custody in the July 21st London bombings, the media frenzy was well under way. But immediately after the arrests, civil liberties groups complained that the sensational coverage was jeopardizing the suspects' right to a fair trial. The fact that Fleet Street capitulated to those complaints is largely due to Britain's sub judice law, which allow courts to effectively gag the press. Media attorney David Hooper explains the law to Bob.
In an interview last year on WNYC, Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk was optimistic about the democratizing effects on Turkey of a possible entry into the European Union. Until last month, that is, when Pamuk was arrested for speaking about his country's role in the Armenian genocide and its struggle with Kurdish separatists. Jonathan Sugden monitors press freedoms for Human Rights Watch, and talks with Bob about the case.
Lolita follows the travails of an older man obsessed with a young girl, and was first published … in 1916? 42 years before Vladimir Nabokov's novel, a short story by Heinz von Lichberg titled "Lolita" was published in Germany. Was Nabokov a plagiarist? Or did he suffer from cryptomnesia? Brooke talks to New York Observer columnist Ron Rosenbaum about the line between appropriation and regurgitation.
Highlights from Past ShowsIn the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the National Association of Black Journalists called on media outlets to refer to people fleeing New Orleans as "evacuees," rather than "refugees." Many complied, but others, after consulting their dictionaries and style guides, decided the new term lacked the scope befitting a national catastrophe. Bob examines the debate and discovers that even in the midst of a crisis, language can be critical.
Early in the week, discussions began online about the way much of the TV coverage of Katrina's impact was ignoring obvious questions of race and class. On Wednesday, Slate media critic Jack Shafer accused TV news of skirting one of the most visually clear aspects of the story – that blacks in New Orleans were more directly hurt than whites. Mark Jurkowitz, media analyst for the Boston Phoenix speaks to Bob about the questions left largely unasked and unanswered.
On the Media is funded by The Bydale Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Overbrook Foundation.
