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Journalists in Iraq face an increasingly dangerous situation every time they step outside their hotels. On Monday, what little sense of refuge remained inside their hotels was shattered when suicide bombers attacked the Palestine and Sheraton Hotels, home to many foreign correspondents. Reporter Mark Danner joins Brooke to discuss the insurgents and their new "media strategy."
Soldiers are not necessarily known for their acting skills. And so it was hard not to see through what was billed as a conversational "back and forth" between the president and a small group of his troops this week. Any remaining doubts about its scripted nature were dispelled when news organizations broadcast tape of the videoconference's rehearsal. Bob and Brooke reflect on one of the least slick P.R. maneuvers of the Bush presidency.
A federal judge recently ordered the Defense Department to release a second batch of photos from Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. But the Pentagon maintains that the pictures will only inflame Anti-Americanism and endanger soldiers overseas. Bob discusses the FOIA case with Senator John McCain, sponsor of a new measure that would standardize policies for military interrogation techniques.
Al-Jazeera correspondent Taysir Allouni covered the U.S. war against the Taliban and the Coalition invasion of Iraq, and even secured an interview with Osama Bin Laden shortly after the 9/11 attacks. But did he get too close to his sources? A Spanish court convicted Allouni this week of collaborating with al Qaeda. James Badcock, who covered the trial for Spain's El País, tells Bob the case was largely circumstantial.
Despite a relatively high casualty number among Iraq-based journalists, major U.S. news outlets feel compelled to remain in the region. Loren Jenkins, senior editor for NPR's foreign desk, tells Brooke that he's never seen a situation quite this dangerous for the media. And former ABC News correspondent Richard Gizbert talks about his refusal to report from Iraq… and his subsequent firing.
Veteran reporter Chris Hedges tells Brooke about his addiction to the drug he calls war. In his 15 years of reporting, Hedges was imprisoned in Sudan, expelled from Libya, ambushed in Central America, and shot at in Kosovo. His book, War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, explores how the myth of war shapes a country and its politics.
In an interview last year on WNYC, Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk was optimistic about the democratizing effects on Turkey of a possible entry into the European Union. Until last month, that is, when Pamuk was arrested for speaking about his country's role in the Armenian genocide and its struggle with Kurdish separatists. Jonathan Sugden monitors press freedoms for Human Rights Watch, and talks with Bob about the case.
This week, grieving mother Cindy Sheehan’s protest outside the President’s ranch in Crawford, Texas became the news media’s late summer blockbuster of choice. Demonized, sanctified, and punditized, she made headlines all week long. Brilliant media strategy? Clearly. Unprecedented? Not by a long shot. Brooke speaks with Professor Jean Elshtain of the Divinity School at the University of Chicago, Million Mom March organizer Donna Dees Thomases, and NYU professor Diana Taylor, about the history of the immovable Mom.
