July 29, 2000

Weekly Edition
Listen to the entire program
Requires the free RealPlayer 2.0 or higher.

An index of this week's stories:

Civil Rights Museum- NPR's Debbie Elliott reports Southern states that for a long time were ashamed of their role in the history of civil rights are now discovering it's a great source of tourism dollars. Alabama was the first state to promote its Black Heritage sites. Now virtually every state in the South is following Alabama's lead. 7:27

Graceland - Graceland is another installment of NPR's 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century. Graceland, of course, represents Paul Simon's American songcraft inspired by South African music. When Graceland came out in 1986, it was praised as groundbreaking and criticized as colonialist. Today the former opinion prevails. NPR's Elizabeth Blair reports. 11:22

Convention- NPR's Andy Bowers looks at how some internet companies will be covering this year's political conventions. In 1996 some dot coms covered the conventions but had to watch as their broadcast and print counterparts were given preferential treatment. This year, not only have many internet companies been given equal access, but both the Republicans and Democrats are broadcasting their own coverage over their web sites. 5:00

E-mail- Commentator Andrew Lam remarks on the substance of e-mail conversation. He says a friend of his complains that, although she hears from him more by e-mail now, she misses him more and knows him less than when he wrote letters. Their conversation is shallower. There's a high price for digital communication; language is streamlined and intimacy lost. 3:15

Failure- A new magazine debuted today on the World Wide Web. It's called Failure, and that's the subject: Disaster and decline -- in history, sports, technology and the arts. Ironically, Failure is coming out not long after the century old magazine Success went belly-up. May be the very concept of failure is changing. What with all the high-risk start-ups on the World Wide Web, it could be that failure has lost its stigma and turned into... something else. NPR'S Brooke Gladstone reports. 6:12

Internet Lawsuits- Internet message boards increasingly are used by investors to trade information about companies and executives running them. Often the messages are highly critical and may even include inflammatory opinions. Some executives claim their stock value has been ruined by such attacks and their personal reputations shattered. Now some are seeking to sue these anonymous message board authors for libel but first must win access to the identity of the critics. The dispute raises questions about freedom of speech on the internet. NPR's Phillip Davis has a report. 4:23

All Songs- Host Tom Gjelten talks with All Things Considered Director Bob Boilen about his new Internet music show All Songs Considered. 5:45

Some stories do not link to audio files because of Internet rights issues.

Copyright© National Public Radio, 1999, all rights reserved.