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Since they were first broadcast some four decades ago, “How The Grinch Stole Christmas,” “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” have become as much a part of the season as tinsel and mistletoe. Reporters Alex Goldmark and Rachel McCarthy explore what makes the classic Christmas specials so... special.
Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert has nominated himself to represent “You,” the winners of Time Magazine's person-of-the-year honors. He kids of course, but Brooke suggests there is some truthiness to it, too.
Watch out BBC, CNN, and Al Jazeera, there’s a new 24-hour news channel in town. “France 24” launched this week. Journalism professor Jack Doppelt talks about the commercial viability of exporting Frenchness to the world.
Increasingly, print journalists are joining TV's ranks of talking heads. Punditry comes easy to some reporters. But not everybody is born to bloviate. And so one Washington P.R. firm is training journalists with little or no TV experience for their star turns as pundits. OTM's John Solomon attended one class to see if he had what it takes.
Andrea Batista Schlesinger is somewhat obsessed with CNN’s Lou Dobbs. As executive director of the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy, she shares many of Dobbs’ concerns about the middle-class squeeze. After writing him an open letter earlier this year, she was invited to be a guest on his show. It didn’t go well. She tells Bob the story.
Lou Dobbs has his story, and he’s sticking to it. Every evening, the host of CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight features reports under headings like “Broken Borders” and “War on the Middle Class.” And people are responding – in the past three years, his audience has skyrocketed. Dobbs makes no apologies for his strong viewpoints on illegal immigration. But what’s such an outspoken advocate doing behind CNN’s anchor’s desk? Bob puts the question to Dobbs.
Move over, BBC – there’s a new game in town. This week, Al Jazeera finally launched its new English-language service. Al Jazeera English has correspondents stationed all over the world, and is fronted by some very well-known newsmen. But that wasn’t enough to win it a cable deal in the United States. Bob takes a look at the channel’s prospects with AJE anchor Dave Marash and Arab media scholar Marwan Kraidy.
If viewers of Comedy Central's Daily Show tend to be "stoned slackers," at least they're informed stoned slackers. That's the upshot of a recent study from Indiana University. It found that at least as far as hard news is concerned, the "fake news" show is every bit as substantive as the network newscasts. WFIU's Adam Ragusea reports.
