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Last weekend in Memphis, the organization Free Press hosted the National Conference for Media Reform. Throughout the weekend, the civil rights movement was frequently invoked. OTM producer Megan Ryan made the trip, and returned with this postcard.
For several years now, there’s been nothing but bad news for the newspaper business. But Marketplace correspondent Dan Grech reports that 2006 was the year that journalists finally saw the writing on the wall.
Since the fall of Communism in Albania, its press has flourished. But that doesn’t mean the country’s media are truly independent. Megan Williams reports from Albania on one news show that’s bucking the trend of government control.
During his 20 years at NBC, Warren Littlefield experienced both the highs and lows of television programming. His early years were forged during the network’s single least successful lineup, but then Littlefield went on to oversee much of NBC’s 80s and 90s renaissance. He speaks with Brooke about the necessity of creating must-see TV.
For people who spend a lot of time online, "network neutrality" is one of the most important issues pending in Washington. But the question of whether to create a "premium lane" on the information superhighway also has a lot of bearing on TV, too. This Wednesday, Rick Karr will examine the future of the Internet for PBS' Moyers on America. He gives us a preview of what's at stake.
Last weekend's $1.6 billion deal between Google and YouTube left some people scratching their heads over the enormity of the price-tag. New media consultant Rishad Tobaccowala tells Bob why the online video site is worth that much., despite the giant obsticles Google will face in making YouTube a money-maker.
Lawyers aren’t the only ones whose livelihoods are helped along by public scandals. There are also crisis management firms, who trade on their ability to work the media and influence public perceptions. Richard Levick runs one such firm, and has been called in to finesse such P.R. nightmares as the church sex-abuse scandal and the e-coli spinach scare. He discusses the Foley fallout with Brooke.
A little under a year ago, it was revealed that the Lincoln Group had been contracted by the Pentagon to pay for good press in the Iraqi media. Details were sketchy, but this month Harper’s published an account by Willem Marx of his summer in Baghdad interning for the Lincoln Group. Marx talks to Brooke about when the news is too good, and too lucrative, to be news at all.
