In the last days of 2005 the Justice Department announced it was launching an investigation into who leaked that the President had authorized the National Security Agency to wiretap people in the United States without court warrants. Whether the source was a leaker or a whistleblower, a traitor or a patriot, is unknown. What the future holds for the story's lead author, the New York Times' James Risen, is unknown too. University of Chicago Law Professor Geoffrey Stone joins Brooke to discuss the possibilities.
Leaks, part and parcel of the Fourth Estate, were and are a tremendous irritant to the Bush Administration. Back in the early days of the War on Terror, Bob produced this piece on the pros, cons and mechanisms of the ever-present, and indispensable, Washington leak.
The OTM 5th anniversary celebration continues as Senior Producer Katya Rogers presents some of the very best and very worst of On the Media through the years. You'll laugh, you'll cry.
One year ago this week, an earthquake under the Indian Ocean triggered a massive tsunami that left huge swaths of death and destruction across South and South East Asia. In the Indonesian province of Aceh, everything was devastated, including the media. Bob talks to Kathleen Reen of Internews about how Aceh and its press are rebuilding, twelve months later.
2005 was a year of self-examination for the media. There were questions about journalistic accuracy and reporting styles, and about the reporting on Hurricane Katrina and the lead-up to war in Iraq. Craig Silverman tracks media mistakes on the website "Regret the Error," and joins Brooke for a recap of the year's inaccuracies, both serious and not-so.
Fiction authors spend a lot of time contriving the perfect title for their books – efforts usually unavailing, as most novels more or less wind up on the worst-seller list. But now there’s a way to improve a novel’s chances. Lulu.com, a company that helps authors self-publish their books, has created a new tool for determining the prospects any given title. The company’s marketing director Peter Freedman unpacks his research with Bob.
You may not be able to judge a book by its cover, but maybe you can judge a person by the books he steals. Brooke speaks with New York Observer columnist Ron Rosenbaum about the particulars of literary thievery.
With Christmas just a week away, every gear, gadget and gizmo company on the NASDAQ is vying for your dollars. Wondering which digital camera is best? The tech expert on your local news might be able to help. What you won't learn from these segments, however, is that some "experts" are paid by manufacturers to plug their products. WABC-TV's tech guru Sree Sreenivasan tells Bob why stations sometimes look the other way.
