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Try as they might, political journalists just can't seem to get past the horse race. There's been just as much (if not more) tactical coverage this year as ever. But there is one bright spot this time around, and that's the proliferation of fact-checking. Brooks Jackson, founder of factcheck.org, joins Bob to discuss whether the truth-squadding has at all diminished the volume of lies generated in Campaign '04.
Two weeks ago, Sinclair Broadcasting Group unleashed a hornet's nest when it ordered its 62 local TV stations to air a documentary attacking John Kerry's anti-Vietnam War activities. Advertisers pulled out in the face of a boycott threat, and Sinclair's stock plummeted. This week, Sinclair appeared to backtrack, announcing it would only air segments of the film as part of a larger documentary about…political documentaries. Brooke talks to Legg Mason managing director Blair Levin about the dubious wisdom of Sinclair's politically-oriented business model.
Have you ever watched the candidates slip up at the stump, and concluded that if given the chance, you could do better? Whether it's Bush talking about the "hard work" of the presidency or Kerry invoking the phrase "global test," many of us have imagined ourselves in the driver's seat of the campaign. Imagine no more - a new crop of Sims-like video games allow players to run their own White House campaign. Slate.com contributor Clive Thompson reviews the games for Brooke.
Throughout the last few weeks of hotly-contested presidential debates, a quieter debate has centered on the media's role in covering the stage shows. Slowly but surely, journalists have started checking the candidates' claims against the facts. But are all misrepresentations born equal? A recent internal memo at ABC News urged staffers not to "reflexively and artificially hold both sides 'equally' accountable when the facts don't warrant that." Conservatives saw the memo as proof of liberal media bias, but others, like Washington Monthly's Kevin Drum, took the advice to heart. Drum and Bob discuss the measure of mistruth.
The presidential race dominated the news in the American media last week. Newspapers in Europe were following the race as well. Brooke gets an international perspective from Ed Finn, who writes about the foreign press for Slate.com.
Japan has the world’s second largest economy and a flourishing democracy. But one thing this democracy lacks is a responsible press. The country’s dailies provide little more than government-approved press releases, and the weekly tabloids offer shocking exposes of dubious truth. That’s according to the new book “A Public Betrayed: An Inside Look at Japanese Media Atrocities and Their Warnings to the West.” Brooke talks to the authors, Adam Gamble and Takesato Watanabe.
Whether tort reform is good social and economic policy is a legitimate political issue. But it's also a serious journalistic concern. Investigative reporter Morton Mintz, who broke the Thalidomide story during his many decades as a staffer at The Washington Post, tells Bob how court records from civil litigation are critical to shedding light on major problems otherwise hidden from public view. And why trial lawyers don't deserve the denigration they're receiving of late.
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.
