On The Media is produced by:
Biodefense researcher Bruce Ivins committed suicide last week after he was informed by the FBI that he would likely face charges in connection with the 2001 anthrax attacks. Salon's Glenn Greenwald believes, regardless of Ivins' guilt or innocence, media have failed to cover this story skeptically.
Dr. Bruce Ivins wasn't the first 'person of interest' revealed to the media by the FBI and the Justice Department. Former suspects Richard Jewell, Wen Ho Lee and Steven Hatfill have all undergone the trial by media only to be found innocent after the damage is done. Former ABC reporter and current FBI spokesperson John Miller explains the deliberation behind naming names.
A few weeks ago, Slate's music critic Jody Rosen received an email suggesting his article had been printed under a different name in a small alternative weekly in Texas. Rosen dug around the paper's website, and says that he couldn't find anything that wasn't plagiarized.
Our segment about website comments provoked a heated response. We read a few of your letters.
For reporter David Carr it's the story of a lifetime: a hard charging journalist works his way up to The New York Times, all while recovering from a crack addiction and a life of abuse and crime. The story is Carr's own and for his memoir, The Night Of The Gun, he sets about to report his past.
With movie-ticket sales flat, the film industry is looking for a way to entice audiences back into the theater with new digital 3-D technology. Big name directors and major studios all have 3-D projects in the works, but Portfolio Magazine's Kevin Maney says many hurdles remain before 3-D becomes commonplace.
In 1952, "Bwana Devil" began a decade-long boom in 3-D movie-making that has sputtered along ever since. Ray Zone, author of "3-D Filmmakers: Conversations with Creators of Stereoscopic Motion Pictures," walks us through some of the Hollywood's landmark attempts.
Highlights from Past Shows
A report released Monday by Amnesty International alleged that Chinese media repression, arrests of dissidents and other human rights abuses have not eased in anticipation of the world's focus on Beijing. These embarrassments would seem to undermine China's dream of showcasing its economic miracle for the world. But the Asia Society's Orville Schell says that to know China's history was to see this behavior coming.
All three network anchors and dozens of other reporters followed Barack Obama on his whirlwind tour through the Mideast and Europe this week, sparking humor-infused complaints from the John McCain campaign. Project for Excellence in Journalism Director Tom Rosenstiel says there's nothing new about hating on the media, but that Obama has in fact enjoyed a disproportionate amount of 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.
