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A reporter in Providence, Rhode Island this week joined the ranks of reporters facing jail time for refusing to disclose a confidential source. Reporter's Committee for Freedom of the Press executive director Lucy Dalglish weighs in on what it portends for the health of American journalism.
Last week, a photographer for a Missouri student newspaper was assigned to cover a campus political rally. During the event, she inadvertently photographed a theft in progress. The student offered to show the image to the police, but instead, they confiscated her camera. And with that, the incident entered the annals of conflict between media and law enforcement. Mark Goodman, executive director of the Student Press Law Center, discusses the case with Bob.
Most of the time, trial lawyers don't ever make it to trial. Personal injury lawyer Len Gabbay often serves his clients' interests by keeping them out of court. And he does it with the help of a video camera. Gabbay compiles documentaries on the suffering of the plaintiff, and screens it for the defendant. He tells Brooke that nine times out of ten they settle, and everyone is spared the ordeal of a trial.
Months after it punished a New York Times reporter for unflattering coverage, the Brazilian government is again under fire for a new measure to keep the press in check. Lawmakers are debating a proposal for a Federal Journalism Council that would have the power to "orient, discipline, and monitor" reporters, and could theoretically bar reporters from the profession if they violated a new code of ethics. Brazilian journalist Antonio Brasil discusses the controversy with Bob.
Do you like how the public airwaves are being used? FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, for one, emphatically does not. As the Republicans gathered last month in New York, Copps decried the networks' skimpy convention coverage. And in condemning the general state of broadcast television, he heartily bit the hand that feeds him. Copps bares his teeth for Brooke.
A judge found five reporters in contempt of court this week for refusing to divulge their sources for information besmirching the reputation of Chinese-American scientist Wen Ho Lee. And journalists were slapped with yet more subpoenas in the investigation into the outing of former CIA agent Valerie Plame. Media reps are outraged, but what think people on the other side of the leaking equation? Mike gets an answer from preeminent leaker Daniel Ellsberg.
The media issues at stake in the presidential campaign have thus far mostly centered on which candidate reads more newspapers. But recently John Kerry hinted that he also has big plans for shaking up the FCC. Mike talks to Editor & Publisher reporter Mark Fitzgerald about what national media policies would look like under President Kerry.
Most of us still remember the old weekly test of the Emergency Broadcast System. Its ungodly tone and stern warning that "this is only a test" was a nice way to say “no, the ICBMs are not on the way." In the post-Cold War era the possibility of nuclear war has been replaced by terrorist attacks and other localized emergencies. Bill McConnell of Broadcasting & Cable magazine tells Bob that the FCC's first major overhaul of the Emergency Alert System in decades will rely on cutting edge technology.
