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On Wednesday, a sacred Shiite shrine in Samarra was bombed for the second time. The first bombing famously triggered a wave of reprisals, and thus became a turning point in the war. Or did it? Washington Post reporter Thomas Ricks says that narrative was mostly Bush Administration spin.
One of the most active fronts in the Pentagon’s "War on Terror" is Somalia. But you’d never know it from the news coverage. The International Crisis Group’s Colin Thomas-Jensen talks about why Somalia is often overlooked by U.S. media.
35 years ago, five men were caught breaking into the Watergate Hotel. The burglary would give Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein the story of a lifetime, and help change the role of the press. Alicia Shepard, author of a new book on Watergate, discusses the fact & fiction of "Woodstein."
In its reporting on Watergate, the Washington Post made Barry Sussman its special editor on the scandal. We asked him about the current scandal roiling Washington -- the firing of the "Gonzales Eight." Sussman says the press faces a similar problem now as it did then: how to keep the public interested.
Recently, whistle-blowers converged for their first ever conference in the capital. The festivities celebrated the evolution of whistle-blowing from a solitary act-of-conscience to a veritable subculture. New Republic editor Eve Fairbanks brings us news from the front lines of informing.
Thanks to Google, we now have instant access to detailed photographic images of nearly every street in New York, Las Vegas, Miami and San Francisco. Tech and business consultant David Evans weighs in on whether “street view” is expanding our world or paving the way for Big Brother.
In viewership terms, Google-owned YouTube is now competitive with TV networks. But with new media comes new questions, like how will Google define the separation between editorial and ad content? Political analystPeter Leyden says the answer is being determined as the campaign itself unfolds.
Between 1929 and 1976, Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi, AKA Hergé, penned the Tintin series. On the occasion of Hergé’s 100th birthday, cartoonist R. Sikoryak talks about why the books, hugely popular around the world, never gained a mass following in the U.S.
Highlights from Past Shows
A new video released by the militant group, Islamic State of Iraq, is one example in a new trend of insurgent videos, a move away from gore and toward highly stylized dramatization. The Washington Post’s Philip Kennicott explains that the video shows a profound awareness of pacing, dramatic effect, and American media imagery.
This week marks the 40th anniversary of one of Israel’s major conflicts with its Arab neighbors. Here and in Israel, it’s known as the Six-Day War. But Palestinians call it an-Naksah, or “the Setback.” The New Yorker’s Jeffrey Goldberg discusses the event that became Year Zero for subsequent Middle-East coverage.
On the Media is funded by The Bydale Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Overbrook Foundation.
