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Five years ago, some media investors saw a big opportunity in sub-Saharan Africa. With the help of the World Bank's International Finance Corporation (IFC), they created TV Africa, a pan-African entertainment and education network. But a mere three years later, the plug was pulled on TV Africa. Brooke talks to IFC senior investment officer Darren Massara about the difficulties of building transnational media from scratch.
There was a time that novelist Jim Lewis favored the wide publication of graphic war photos. Like many others, he believed that they accurately conveyed the real horrors of war. But after photographing the aftermath of a horrific atrocity in Congo, Lewis changed his mind. In the wake of the killing of American contractors in Fallujah last year, he told Bob why he no longer thinks images of suffering and death help anyone to understand the real story.
It’s a ritual of diplomacy we’ve all come to expect - foreign dignitary visits White House, and the two leaders hold a press availability. But when Afghan president Hamid Karzai dropped in this week, many White House reporters took a pass. White House staffers reportedly scrambled to fill empty seats with interns. Did it signify newfound spine on the part of reporters? Brooke speaks with Ron Hutcheson, president of the White House Correspondents Association.
Newsweek lied, people died. At least that has seemed to be the shorthand adopted by many news organizations in the aftermath of Newsweek's retracted item about alleged abuses at Gitmo. Cable news pundits have gone apoplectic over what they see as the latest in a long line of media indiscretions, even while it remains unclear how responsible Newsweek was for the violent protests. Media war... or culture war? Brooke weighs in.
Last year, it was revealed that a number of prominent newspapers were exaggerating their circulation numbers to boost advertising revenue. Faced with a crisis, some of those newspapers assigned their own newsrooms to the story unfolding in their boardrooms. Others stayed mum. Bob speaks with media reporter James Madore of Newsday, one of the papers that chose to report on its own dirty laundry.
The Dallas Morning News is caught up in a circulation scandal of its own. But that paper, and its parent company Belo Corporation, have hardly embraced Newsday's model of self-examination. Jim Schutze of the weekly alternative Dallas Observer tells Bob that ignoring the problem doesn't always make it go away.
Last fall, a committee at the New York Times set out to examine how the paper could increase its readers' trust. This week, it released its final recommendations. With just under a week to digest the committee's findings, NYT executive editor Bill Keller joins Brooke to talk about improving accuracy, reducing the use of anonymous sources, interacting with readers, and responding to critics.
Last week, the esteemed American Jesuit magazine America announced that its editor-in-chief, Thomas Reese, was being replaced. It's become clear that Reese was forced out by Vatican officials unimpressed with the magazine's discussion of debates on everything from gay marriage to the ordination of women. Bob talks to National Catholic Reporter editor Tom Roberts about the prognosis for dissent in today's Church.
