On The Media is produced by:
The celebrity endorsement is not exactly new to politics, but then there’s never been a celebrity quite like Oprah Winfrey, who, until now, has never publicly backed a politician. USC history professor Steve Ross says that Barack Obama may have won over the most influential voter of all.
Oprah may have an air of gravitas, but what about the campaign coverage itself? National Journal columnist William Powers argues that – for a variety of reasons – the soft feature has become the entrée of political reporting and the hard policy story, the side dish.
When advertising companies team up with pharmaceutical companies, the result can be sickening. For example, when the sleep drug Lunesta hit the market, so did an epidemic of sleeplessness. In her new book, Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer, Shannon Brownlee deconstructs direct-to-consumer drug marketing.
Good myths die hard. Recent psychological studies suggest journalists' attempts to set the record straight may in fact be perpetuating falsehoods. Shankar Vedantam, columnist at the Washington Post, explains.
Tensions in Pakistan between Islamic extremists and President Pervez Musharraf's coalition of so-called "enlightened moderates" may be coming to a head. The Christian Science Monitor's Shahan Mufti says that a new hit movie, "In the Name of God," represents both the clash and a wider renaissance in Pakistani film.
A few months ago, Universal Music Group filed suit in federal court against California resident Troy Augusto, who makes a living selling used CDs on eBay. Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney Fred von Lohmann explains why the suit threatens a century-old tenet of copyright law known as the First Sale Doctrine.
A group of Russian computer hackers, called the Dream Coders Team, are selling a user-friendly hacking kit. It’s called M-Pack and comes complete with one year of customer service. Are the days of the underground, anti-establishment, renegade hacker over? Technology reporter Robert Lemos says that the hobby is increasingly becoming a commercial enterprise.
From early photography to the VCR to streaming video, innovations in communications technology have often been driven by porn. But sex and tech Wired correspondent Regina Lynn argues that porn may be losing its innovation mojo, at least online.
Highlights from Past Shows
As reported in Roll Call Monday, Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) was arrested mid-June on suspicion of lewd conduct in an airport restroom. Since the early 1980s, rumors of Craig’s sexuality, and honesty, have followed him everywhere – everywhere, that is, but the Idaho Statesman. Managing editor Bill Manny explains why his paper held the story.
In the parlance of Republican-primary politics, “sanctuary” – as in sanctuary city – has become a bad word. In our occasional series we call Word Watch, ABC News political correspondent Jake Tapper and linguist Geoffrey Nunberg explain how a term rooted in religion was turned into an epithet.
On the Media is funded by The Bydale Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Overbrook Foundation.
