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The benevolent search engine-that-could was showered with boos this week, after it agreed to cooperate with Chinese government censors. To many, the move signaled a complete turnaround from the principled stand Google has taken against the U.S. government. But even in that skirmish, legal scholar Tim Wu was less than impressed with Google. He tells Bob how the company made itself vulnerable to government intrusion in the first place.
With Google subpoenas and NSA wiretaps in the news, the struggle begins in earnest for what has long been privacy advocates' Holy Grail: online anonymity. The latest advance in "computer cloaking" was unveiled this month at a hacker convention in Washington, D.C. Brooke speaks with Wired News reporter Quinn Norton about the new technology and the kind of information it is designed to protect.
In its debut on the political stage, Hamas swept to a landslide in this week's Palestinian elections. But the group best-known in the West for its suicide bombings didn't campaign on its long-standing goal of eradicating Israel, but rather under the slogan "Reform and Change." Brooke takes a closer look at whether, for the sake of politics, Hamas has really reformed or changed.
The broadcast spectrum became a little less crowded this week. The owners of the fifth and sixth networks - UPN and The WB - announced they're joining forces to create a single network: The CW. When UPN and The WB were born, the idea was to target urban youth. But the new network will focus simply on youth. What will that mean for the future of programming created by African-Americans? As media scholar Kristal Brent Zook tells Brooke, not as much as you may think.
Brooke and Bob have an update about the case against two civilians charged with leaking, and a bit of news about a lawsuit against one of our recent interviewees.
Newspapers around the world reprinted sections of Pope Benedict's first encyclical this week. No problem. But if you'd like to use a portion of the Pope's writing in a book you're working on - get ready to pay up. The Vatican publishing house will henceforth enforce copyright fees on the reprinting of its texts. Bob discusses the implications with John Allen, Vatican correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter.
When careful observers noticed Dick Cheney wearing mismatched shoes recently, they took it as a clue about the Veep's health. But don't expect straight answers from the White House - the executive branch has rarely been forthcoming about the health of our leaders. Dr. Robert Gilbert, author of The Mortal Presidency: Illness and Anguish in the White House, tells Bob that fitness in the White House is often not what it appears to be.
After seven years, NBC will retire The West Wing in May. From the beginning, the show that brought the Oval Office into your living room was unusual network fare - the dialogue a little faster, and the characters a little smarter than nearly anything else on the air. Time magazine TV critic James Poniewozik joins Brooke for a West Wing "exit interview."
Highlights from Past ShowsThe NSA’s warrant-less wiretapping program has generated the first of what are likely to be many legal challenges. The ACLU accuses the government of violating the constitutional rights of a group of academics, activists, and journalists, all of whom believe they may have been monitored. But lawyer Jonathan Turley tells Brooke that while the plaintiffs may generate sympathetic headlines, they are far less likely to succeed than are several accused terrorists who are also challenging the NSA program.
Watching Samuel Alito's confirmation hearings, we were impressed by their relative lack of media histrionics. Alito was probed on precedent, TV experts argued case law, and senators bickered over committee procedure. In sum, it was both more informative and more entertaining than the nominee's actual answers. Bob parses the coverage with Tony Mauro of Legal Times & American Lawyer Media magazines.
On the Media is funded by The Bydale Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Overbrook Foundation.
