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A good portion of 21st-century news consumers no longer believe in objectivity. They know it isn't possible. And yet the public expects reporters to always play it down the middle, delivering the facts and only the facts, unencumbered by bias. But to what lengths should reporters go? Can they report fairly on beats that encroach on their personal lives? Should they vote? Brooke canvassed an array of (objective) sources and compiled this report.
On the opening night of the Republican convention, Fox News Channel made television history by drawing more viewers than any of the Big Three broadcast networks. It could be the latest sign that the network dinosaurs are gradually conceding news coverage to the feisty cable news channels. Brooke talks to Brian Stelter, editor of TVnewser.com, about what that means for overall convention coverage. Plus, Brooke reads from listeners’ letters, and updates our recent story about press freedom in China.
While 15,000 journalists were assigned to cover the events inside Madison Square Garden, outside on the streets of New York City another story was unfolding, as hundreds of thousands of people congregated to protest against the Bush administration. But you may not have noticed the demonstrations if you were only watching cable news.
Since the sixties, the role of the protester has been fairly static. Disaffected citizens assemble en masse to chant and carry signs. Police corral protesters with threat of force. Sometimes violence erupts, sometimes it doesn’t. But this week in New York, it seemed that the Republicans were prepared to play any disruption to their own advantage. Enter a new brand of activists, who are using humor and street theater to take back the story of dissent from the powers that be. Brooke talks to two such pranksters, Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno – aka “The Yes Men.”
By Wednesday evening, the RNC podium was practically dripping with partisan invective. But the week started out with one Republican whose appeal crosses America’s political divide. John McCain has been heralded by the left as a true compassionate conservative while the media have touted his straight-talking style. Now he’s vigorously stumping for the president and his erstwhile fans are stunned. But why? He’s been a Republican all along. Brooke investigates the conundrum with Slate’s Will Saletan.
A recent Bush administration report attributing climate change to human activities got a fair amount of coverage in the media. But the press hasn’t always been up to the task of covering the climate change issue. Ross Gelbspan, author of the new book Boiling Point, tells Brooke how industry-funded “greenhouse skeptics” have stymied the global warming debate right under journalists’ noses.
Since the Bush Administration took power three and a half years ago, it has drastically reshaped federal policy on health, worker safety, the environment, and energy. But many of these changes have gone unnoticed, largely because they have been instituted as regulation, rather than legislation. The Washington Post recently published an extensive three-part series exploring the administration’s anti-regulatory agenda. Reporter Rick Weiss contributed to the series, and talks with Brooke about the difficulties of covering regulation.
Just in time for the end of summer, OTM reaches back into the vaults to retrieve this day-in-the-life tale of struggling public radio station WACLU. The extended parody chronicles the tribulations of WACLU ("87.1 - All the way to the left"), which broadcasts its news-and-dulcimer music format from small studios in the bowels of a suburban mall. Considering the financial straits the station is constantly mired in, and the quirks of the WACLU news department, it's a miracle "Blandon Park Edition" ever gets on the air. An OTM encore production.
