TopicsOn The Media is produced by:
Ariel Sharon has been a public figure in Israel for most of the state's history, so his relationship with the national media runs deep. The likely final chapter began this week, as the press covered his exit from power and started wrestling with his legacy. The Jerusalem Post's Amotz Asa-el joins Brooke to reflect on how Sharon shook his image as a belligerent young "Tarzan" and developed a working relationship with the media.
Before there was Senator John McCain, there was Senator William Proxmire. Like McCain, he often stood apart from his party, favored campaign finance reform… and was a media darling. Proxmire died on Thursday at the age of 90. Brooke reminisces about the Wisconsin Senator's long career of media stunts, born of equal parts tenacity and conviction.
In May, we spoke to the editor of the Spokane Spokesman-Review, which had just netted the city's mayor in an online sex sting. This week, Spokane voters recalled Mayor Jim West in a special election.
When Supreme Court Justice Scalia spoke recently at Time Warner headquarters, he insisted it be "off the record." And so gossip columnist Lloyd Grove, who attended the event, published a "hypothetical" account, describing what Scalia "might have said." Bob and Lloyd discuss his end-run around the rules.
As the nation mourned the death of Rosa Parks this week, most obituaries focused on the story we all know: how the humble seamstress changed history by refusing to give up her seat on the bus to a white man. But while that account is accurate, it's only part of her story. Bob talks to University of Wisconsin historian Tim Tyson about the construction of an American hero.
The news media took time out this week to honor one of its own. As news organizations pondered the life and legacy of Peter Jennings, there seemed to be one especially recurrent theme. Jennings was the last of the big three, we were told, and with him passes the Era of the News Anchorman. But might this obituary within the obituary be premature? Bob reflects on the enduring power of the human messenger.
Ever since Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide was deposed last year, violence has wracked the country. At least 600 people have died at the hands of armed gangs in the past year, and in recent months, random kidnappings have been common. Most end with a ransom payment, but not in the case of the popular Haitian journalist and poet, Jacques Roche. Michael Kavanagh reports from Port-au-Prince that outrage over Roche's death has calmed the spasms of violence in the capital - at least for now.
This week, the L.A. Times ran a five part series, telling the story of a young boxer as she fights the odds to victory. The series looks to narrative non-fiction for its structure, reading like a novel and placing the he-said, she-said of attributions in footnotes at the end. Bob talks to reporter Kurt Streeter, the series' author, about defying readers' expectations.
