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More plot twists this week in what's been called the CBS "Docu-Drama." Dan Rather apologized for his network's irresponsibility, rumors swirled about the origins of the forged documents, and CBS created a panel to investigate. Bob gives a sampling of the response to our own coverage of the scandal, and Brooke fills in the picture.
When high-ranking government sources refuse to go on the record, what's a reporter to do? All too often, they're given no choice but to dub the official with the perennial anonymous catchall: "senior administration official." So how is a reader to deduce which official is which? Harry Jaffe, national editor at Washingtonian magazine, penned a field guide to the names behind the phrase, and shares it with OTM's own "senior administration official," Brooke Gladstone.
This week, the PBS series "Wide Angle" will broadcast a new documentary on the inner workings of the Iranian news media. "Red Lines and Deadlines" takes viewers behind the scenes at Shargh, one of the country's few remaining reform newspapers. Director Taghi Amirani tells Brooke how the year-old paper has quickly learned to walk a perilous political tightrope.
If you'd like to cleanse your country of a minority population and prevent the media from getting the word out, you may want to talk to Omar al Bashir. He's the president of Sudan, which, according to Secretary of State Colin Powell, bears responsibility for the systematic killing of tribal Africans in the Darfur region. Refugees International president Kenneth Bacon tells Bob why the world press was late to give the story the play it deserved.
Ever since the Beach Boys sang about losing their T-Bird, consumer products have often appeared in pop music lyrics. But artists weren’t paid for those product placements (though songs like Run DMC’s “My Adidas” resulted in lucrative backend deals). Lately, the negotiating has crept into the creative process itself. Bob talks to Advertising Age reporter TL Stanley about the increasingly intimate relationship between the music and advertising industries.
In the throes of the Beslan hostage catastrophe last week, the Russian government reverted to the standard procedure employed in previous crises: it lied. But is it possible that the latest embarrassment, which met with harsh criticism from much of the media, will finally coax the government into more honesty with its people? The Christian Science Monitor's Fred Weir tells Bob not to hold his breath.
Hurricane season is only half-over and already dozens of Americans have been killed by two powerful storms. Now a third, nicknamed Ivan, is hurtling towards Florida, causing consternation on the part of everyone in its path. Everyone, that is, except for the media. Every hurricane season, local TV stations respond to competitive pressure with a toolbox full of clichés and hysterics. Journalist and novelist Carl Hiaasen joins Bob to itemize the silliness.
Last year, as the last hurricane with an "I" name bared down on the Carolina coast, TV viewers across the country could follow its every move. But why exactly did news organizations nowhere near Isabel's path feel the need to dispatch reporters to the center of the gale? Bob put the question to Larry Silbermann, news director of WTOC in Savannah, Georgia.
