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For many years, Garland Robinette and his now former wife anchored New Orleans’ local CBS evening news. Long retired, Robinette happened to be filling in for a sick friend on a local AM radio station last year when Hurricane Katrina hit. But since then, he has been a permanent fixture on the broadcast waves, a must listen for the city and its diaspora. Robinette tells Brooke about being angry when everyone is listening.
There are about 800 million radio sets in the U.S. and while some of them may be new, they are all so…old. The latest technology is digital or high definition – HD radio, for short – and without static. In New York and many other cities you can listen to this very broadcast in HD – that is, if you already have a pricey HD radio receiver. Phil Redo, former vice president of station operations at WNYC, joins Bob to explain.
Video News Releases are pre-produced PR products paid for by corporations or government agencies but made to look like original reported news pieces, which is how they’re often slipped into your local news with no disclaimer. The practice has been around for years, but before now nobody has quantified how pervasive and sophisticated it’s become. Diane Farsetta, a senior researcher for the Center for Media and Democracy has authored the first study of VNR’s and she explains to Bob how much of your local newscast may be an ad in news clothing.
Every Sunday, millions of Americans tune into the big three networks’ Sunday talk shows to hear from some of the nation’s most powerful. Considering the balance of power in Washington, it’s no surprise that these days, the guest list tends to skew right. But according to a new report from liberal watchdog Media Matters for America, conservatives and Republicans dominated the shows even before Bush took office. Brooke speaks with Paul Waldman, who authored the report.
Eretz Nehederet, translated from Hebrew as “A Wonderful Country,” is Israel’s leading program of comic political commentary. Regarded by critics as widely influential, the program is best known for bare-knuckled satire. Where will it find laughs in the rise of Hamas and the political death of Sharon? How is it covering the upcoming Israeli elections and civil strife in the Palestinian territories? Brooke sits down with the show’s writers to find out.
The televised car chase is a phenomenon bound up in the very being of freeway-tangled Los Angeles. Why are there so many police pursuits in L.A., and how did they become such a popular spectacle? Xeni Jardin speaks with New Yorker staff writer Tad Friend about how history, technology and geography conspire to produce the thrill of the chase.
The broadcast spectrum became a little less crowded this week. The owners of the fifth and sixth networks - UPN and The WB - announced they're joining forces to create a single network: The CW. When UPN and The WB were born, the idea was to target urban youth. But the new network will focus simply on youth. What will that mean for the future of programming created by African-Americans? As media scholar Kristal Brent Zook tells Brooke, not as much as you may think.
After seven years, NBC will retire The West Wing in May. From the beginning, the show that brought the Oval Office into your living room was unusual network fare - the dialogue a little faster, and the characters a little smarter than nearly anything else on the air. Time magazine TV critic James Poniewozik joins Brooke for a West Wing "exit interview."
