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Do the media have a crush on Barack Obama? National Journal columnist William Powers thinks so. Powers says that while Hillary Clinton has to work to recast herself against a pre-written narrative, Barack Obama is virtually a media blank slate.
Campaign correspondents tread a narrow path between political analysis and outright prognostication. Once quick to predict the future (Google these words: wrong about New Hampshire), are reporters now more circumspect? And is all coverage created equal? New York Magazine’s John Heilemann weighs in.
If you still get your TV from over-the-air analog broadcast, you'll receive only static in less than a year - that is, unless you get a new TV or a converter box. The Washington Post's Rob Pegoraro says there's widespread confusion even though it's not that complicated.
Click here to get a coupon for $40 off a digital converter.
There's a new era of online community and it's challenging our notions of entertainment, activism and audience. Clay Shirky’s new book, Here Comes Everybody, depicts this online world, driven by networks that grow and act in never-before-seen ways.
This week marked the passing of editor, publisher, columnist, author and TV host William F. Buckley Jr., one of the most prominent media figures of the 20th century. But to remember Buckley as just a media phenomenon may be giving him short shrift.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the East German secret police scrambled to shred the records they'd been keeping on their citizens. German computer scientists are now digitally reassembling 600 million scraps of paper from life under the Stasi. Reporter Andrew Curry chronicled the process for Wired magazine.
The Smurfs turn 50 this year and this week the first season of the U.S. television series was released on DVD. Over the years, the little blue creatures have been criticized by feminists, embraced as Communists, and even used by UNICEF in a shocking ad campaign.
Highlights from Past Shows
In the windy realm of political oratory, boosting words or cadence or even whole sentiments is nothing new. Did it stick, then, when the Clinton campaign invoked the P-word after Obama borrowed a few sentences from Gov. Deval Patrick? Copy that!
The story of Haditha is one of a massacre of Iraqi civilians at the hands of American Marines, a low point among low points of the War in Iraq. That was the first draft. However, two of the Marines are about to face Courts Martial. And the defense will try to prove that while the results were horrifying, Marines acted within the rules of engagement. OTM talks with the director of Frontline's new special.
On the Media is funded by The Bydale Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Overbrook Foundation.
