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If you control the language, do you control the debate? Choosing "freedom fighter" over "terrorist" or "insurgency" over "civil war" has the power to sway a political debate in either direction. But why? Bob speaks with Geoffrey Nunberg, a linguist at Stanford University and author of Going Nucular, about the role language plays in any political discussion.
In May, Al Jazeera plans to launch Al Jazeera International, an English-language version of the popular Arabic satellite network. Among the on-air talent will be several people recognizable to viewers in the West, including BBC veteran David Frost and former Nightline correspondent Dave Marash. Bob talks with Marash about his new gig.
Vice President Cheney was at the center of several serious stories this week. The one about how he shot his friend and didn’t tell the press definitely won the most coverage, but it also became a symbol for the other more complicated stories about cherry-picking intelligence in the lead-up to war and authorizing the dissemination of classified information. Murray Waas, a writer for The National Journal, joins Brooke to recap the Veep’s big week in the press and assess whether the news media took aim at the right story.
When news photographers point and shoot at the White House they are casting a journalistic eye on the scene. Conversely, when the White House offers a handout photo, we see only what the White House puts in the frame. Susan Walsh is the president of the White House News Photographers Association. She searched through archives and determined that in five years of the Bush presidency there had been more than 500 photo handouts…compared with 100 over the entire eight years of the Clinton Administration. Walsh talks with Bob about her findings and the meaning of the image in making history.
Last year, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas relinquished direct control of the state media. This week, with Hamas preparing to take over in Parliament, he changed his mind.
The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is one of the most difficult to cover and controversial-when-you-do stories out there. Media watchdog groups are common on both sides of the divide, waiting for news organizations to use a word or image that appears to favor the other side. What about the Israeli and Palestinian journalists, working for the local media, covering a conflict that hits close to home? Brooke talks to local reporters in the West Bank and Israel about how they cover the conflict…and each other.
The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is one in which the key players can't even agree on the terms -- important events and places have different names on each side of the divide. What are the various terms applied to the "structure" the Israeli government is currently constructing? At times, it's called a wall, a fence or a barrier, with descriptors like "separation" and "security" often attached. Which word or words one chooses reveals everything about one's political opinion. Brooke examines the impact of the words used on both sides of the conflict.
After days of violent protests over provocative political cartoons, the old familiar phrase - CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS - kept roaring back. With two satellites dishes, seven or eight Arabic-language newspapers and a number of Internet magazines, Cal State political science professor As'ad AbuKhalil is awash in media from the Middle East. AbuKhalil, who blogs under the name Angry Arab, knows more acutely than most what our respective media are saying. He joins Bob for some analysis.
