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Apart from opinion columns and magazine pieces, news outlets tend to place any mention of civil war in the mouths of sources, or qualify it with phrases like “on the brink of” and “risks descending into.” Brooke asks New York Times Deputy Foreign Editor Ethan Bronner why.
We revisit the question with Larry Diamond, a former advisor to the Coalition Provisional Authority, argues to Bob that the term insurgency misrepresents the reality in Iraq. And Peter Galbraith, an American advisor to the Kurdish government, maintains that Iraq will never be a stable, unified country.
Chicago Tribune reporter Paul Salopek has had a distinguished, often dangerous, career as a far-flung correspondent. Working on a freelance assignment for National Geographic last month, Salopek was apprehended for espionage in Sudan, a charge that could carry 20 years. Bob speaks with Salopek about his arrest and release, 34 days later, and why he'll be going back.
In the early ’90s, a grassroots campaign of everyday Americans formed the Advancement of Sound Science Coalition. Only it turns out it was a faux grassroots campaign – one that crafted a media message casting doubt on global warming. It's been long known that Big Oil helped fund the skeptics, but Brooke speaks with the Guardian’s George Monbiot about why it was Big Tobacco that gave "sound" science its biggest push.
Corporations aren’t the only ones with a stake in manipulating the coverage of science. Vincent Kiernan, writer for the Chronicle of Higher Education and author of Embargoed Science, has found that science journals themselves often embargo stories they release to the press. Kiernan tells Bob that having journalists hold stories until an agreed upon date helps prevent responsible reporters from getting scooped.
In 1971, a young air force sergeant in Saigon broadcast a pirate radio show from a secret room in a brothel and regaled his comrades with off-color musings on sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll. After a mere 21 days on the air 35 years ago, Dave Rabbit remains a bit of a cult figure. So he’s decided to resurrect his old persona from Iraq. Rabbit spoke with Brooke on Tuesday before shipping out.
Iva Toguri died this week, though you probably don’t recognize the name. She was commonly, and erroneously, known as Tokyo Rose, a propagandist broadcasting against the Allied side during WWII. An article in 1976 by then Tokyo Bureau chief Ron Yates of the Chicago Tribune uncovered the story of how the FBI framed her for treason. Yates recalls her saga with Bob.
Highlights from Past ShowsWith tensions escalating between Washington and Tehran, and the IAEA trying to cut through both sides’ spin, some in the intelligence community are getting an eerie sense of déjà vu. Guest host Mark Jurkowitz talks to McClatchy Newspapers foreign affairs correspondent Warren Strobel about what journalists can do this time to avoid the mistakes they made in the lead-up to the Iraq war.
It was billed as a non-partisan reflection on the fifth anniversary of 9/11. But scarcely was the president’s speech over on Monday before the media lit up with arguments over its political content. As for us, we were hardly surprised to hear a politician talking politics – especially in the midst of an election season. But did the reflexive quality of the ensuing debate obscure a level of vitriol that was newsworthy in itself?
On the Media is funded by The Bydale Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Overbrook Foundation.
