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Last week, The New York Times reported that the National Security Agency has been eavesdropping on American citizens for the past four years. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act allows the government to conduct such operations, so long as it obtains a warrant from the FISA court. So why didn’t the NSA get the necessary paperwork? washingtonpost.com blogger William Arkin tells Brooke that the Administration offered two reasons: time and technology.
In this new era of media transparency, many expected a fuller explanation from The New York Times about why it held its NSA spying scoop for more than a year. What we do know, however, is that editors routinely accede to government demands that they withhold certain information. Scott Armstrong helps facilitate dialogues between intelligence agencies and the media, and talks to Bob about the process.
While excoriating the Times for disclosing the NSA’s surveillance program, President Bush trotted out an old chestnut about the danger of leaks. He cited a 1998 newspaper story that disclosed Osama Bin Laden’s use of a satellite phone, and claimed –as many have before – that the disclosure led Bin Laden to stop using his phone. Brooke wonders if we can really blame the media for the failure to capture Bin Laden.
The money trail of indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff last week led reporters to a couple of prominent Washington opinion makers. It turns out that for years, Abramoff has been paying two think-tankers, Doug Bandow and Peter Ferrara, to write op-ed pieces favorable to Abramoff’s clients. Bob talks to blogger Joshua Marshall about opinions for sale.
Since 1928, the New York-based newspaper Irish Echo has chronicled the lives of Irish immigrants and their descendants. But as the economy of the “Celtic Tiger” booms, some Irish-Americans are returning to the motherland. And so for the first time in its history, the Irish Echo is now being printed and distributed in the Emerald Isle. Brooke talks to the editor Sean MacCarthaigh about his paper’s homecoming.
Fiction authors spend a lot of time contriving the perfect title for their books – efforts usually unavailing, as most novels more or less wind up on the worst-seller list. But now there’s a way to improve a novel’s chances. Lulu.com, a company that helps authors self-publish their books, has created a new tool for determining the prospects any given title. The company’s marketing director Peter Freedman unpacks his research with Bob.
You may not be able to judge a book by its cover, but maybe you can judge a person by the books he steals. Brooke speaks with New York Observer columnist Ron Rosenbaum about the particulars of literary thievery.
Highlights from Past ShowsEven before Syria pulled its last soldier out of Lebanon, Gebran Tueni had been an outspoken critic of the occupation. This week, Tueni was killed by a car bomb, becoming the third prominent journalist in Lebanon to be targeted for assassination since Syria's withdrawal. Michael Young, opinion editor for Beirut's Daily Star, tells Bob why he thinks the Lebanese media still pose such a threat to Damascus.
The trial of Saddam Hussein was back in session this week. Here we saw brief excerpts of courtroom theatrics. But in Baghdad, viewers followed the trial's every twist and turn on TVs throughout the city. Brooke talks to L.A. Times correspondent Borzou Daragahi about the spectacle of the Saddam trial as well as its larger backdrop - the heated campaigning of candidates in next week's parliamentary elections.
On the Media is funded by The Bydale Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Overbrook Foundation.
