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Rarely does a debate over free speech include as many people, in as many different countries, as has the Danish "cartoon controversy." In the months after a series of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed were published in Denmark, Muslims in Europe and the Middle East have responded with boycotts and angry demonstrations. This week the tension escalated, after several European newspapers reprinted the images. Bob discusses the flap with Susan Caskie of The Week.
Iran may not be the safest place for journalists, but that hasn't prevented the growth of online expression there. There are now more than 100,000 Iranian bloggers, and Persian is by one count the blogosphere's third most common language. Outside observers see the thriving blogosphere as a catalyst for political change, but New Republic columnist Joseph Braude disagrees. He tells guest host Xeni Jardin why he thinks the Internet might actually serve to maintain the repressive status quo.
It was that time of year again this week - on Tuesday, the POTUS made his way over to Capitol Hill for the latest installment in the annual rite known as the State of the Union address. But a brief look at history will show that it was not always thus. Xeni Jardin talks to Slate political correspondent John Dickerson about the evolution of a media spectacle.
The past year has been a tumultuous one for administrators of public broadcasting, and programmers have had to fend off accusations of political bias. Into the embers of the skirmish steps Paula Kerger, who's just been chosen as the new president and CEO of the Public Broadcasting Service. Bob speaks with Kerger about the challenges ahead.
The televised car chase is a phenomenon bound up in the very being of freeway-tangled Los Angeles. Why are there so many police pursuits in L.A., and how did they become such a popular spectacle? Xeni Jardin speaks with New Yorker staff writer Tad Friend about how history, technology and geography conspire to produce the thrill of the chase.
Listeners write in about presidents - real and fictional, as well as our coverage of the coverage of the Jack Abramoff scandal.
Over the years, Bob Garfield has been many things. Shoe-leather beat reporter. Itinerant NPR storyteller. Acerbic columnist and take-no-prisoners critic; media and advertising big-shots cower at the rattle of his pen. He's aspired to country music stardom and Hollywood fame, and still, he doesn't rest. And so when the call went out last month for the Funniest Reporter on the Planet, Bob didn't miss a beat. Listen as he recounts his quest for the title.
Highlights from Past ShowsThe 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.
The 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.
On the Media is funded by The Bydale Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Overbrook Foundation.
