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This week, as the 'auto-body-count' in France grew ever higher by night, anxiety in the press grew by day. In the U.S., headlines read “Paris is Burning” and commentary ranged from criticism of French authorities to warnings of a “clash of civilizations” that could at any moment sweep the globe. The Week’s Susan Caskie joins guest host Daljit Dhaliwal for a review of the coverage elsewhere in the world.
Since its passage after September 11th, the USA Patriot Act has become institutionalized in law enforcement, especially at the FBI. The Bureau relies on relaxed legal requirements for issuing National Security Letters, a form of secret subpoena introduced in the 1970s to track transactions of suspected terrorists. The Washington Post’s Barton Gellman recently reported on this investigative tool and discusses it with Bob.
The Washington Post reported last week that the CIA is operating secret terror-suspect detention facilities in eight countries around the world, including two Eastern European democracies. One immediate reaction from Republican leaders in Congress was not to express outrage at a CIA prison archipelago, but to find out who leaked the story to reporter Dana Priest. National Security Archive analyst Peter Kornbluh talks to Bob.
Bob talks with Miller about weapons of mass destruction, erstwhile Capitol Hill staffer Scooter Libby and a heck of a lot more.
For years, Wal-Mart has been accused of destroying Main Street, exploiting employees and raping labor markets of the developing world. With the premiere this week of an anti-Wal-Mart documentary film, the company’s PR response includes a “war room,” staffed with political operatives, to get out the good news and counter the bad. New York Times reporter Steven Greenhouse tells Daljit that one goal is to win the hearts and minds of middle-class consumers.
If you’re looking for information about local candidates for office, you’d better not waste your time with local TV news. But one watchdog group thinks programmers can do better. The Media Access Project is asking the FCC not to renew the licenses of stations in Milwaukee and Chicago, pointing to new data showing paltry local election coverage by those stations. Bob talks to Robert Lichter, president of the group that compiled that data
Broadcasters are legally required to serve “the public interest.” But as long as the FCC equates “public interest” with “local interest,” the result is likely to be hours upon hours of crime reporting, which only exacerbates implicit racism in viewers. At least that’s what UCLA law professor Jerry Kang thinks. He lays out his argument for Daljit.
Highlights from Past ShowsThe BBC World Service has announced plans to close ten of its foreign language services, almost all of them in Eastern Europe, in order to start an Arabic TV service in the Middle East. Is the move purely a response to marketplace considerations? Or are there other factors at work too? Bob puts the question to Jerry Timmins, who runs the organization's operations for Africa and the Middle East.
Journalists in Iraq face an increasingly dangerous situation every time they step outside their hotels. On Monday, what little sense of refuge remained inside their hotels was shattered when suicide bombers attacked the Palestine and Sheraton Hotels, home to many foreign correspondents. Reporter Mark Danner joins Brooke to discuss the insurgents and their new "media strategy."
On the Media is funded by The Bydale Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Overbrook Foundation.
