Media Sept. 11 TV Documentary to Challenge FCC Standards August 25, 2006 • CBS will push the limits of FCC indecency regulations when it airs a newly revised Sept. 11 documentary next month. Despite increasingly tight FCC guidelines, the program will contain raw language seldom heard on network television. Sept. 11 TV Documentary to Challenge FCC Standards Listen Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5708460/5708461" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
Sept. 11 TV Documentary to Challenge FCC Standards Listen Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5708460/5708461" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
Ahmadinejad's '60 Minutes' Interview August 15, 2006 • CBS News' Mike Wallace interviewed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for a piece that aired on Sunday night's 60 Minutes, and boy, was it intriguing television. Was it revealing journalism? That's another question. Ahmadinejad doesn't give a lot of access to the Western media. According to CBS News, USA Today was the last American news organization, back in February. This time out, Ahmadinejad was alternately prickly and elusive. He frequently turned Wallace's questions back against him. And that's where I come in. Yesterday, we ran a profile I did of an ESPN interview guru named John Sawatsky who points to Wallace's work as rife with mistakes that should be avoided. Sawatsky argues dramatic-sounding questions -- like the ones Wallace favors -- tend to antagonize people and are therefore often deflected instead of answered. Sawatsky prefers neutrally phrased ones that force people to address the subject...
Don't Miss: Arizona's Hot Politics, Age and Adventure August 15, 2006 • Are you the kind of person who goes online to find out what to listen to on the air? Really? And you think I'm going to tell you? You do? Take at least one of these and blog me in the morning: NPR reporter Mike Pesca headed to Arizona and filed this piece for Day to Day about a congressional race there where J.D. Hayworth, a Republican who's been a fixture there for the past 12 years, is facing a surprisingly strong challenge from former civics teacher and former Tempe Mayor Harry Mitchell. Pesca reports both candidates think immigration is the big issue for their voters -- not the situation in Iraq. Once-safe, seemingly conservative districts like this one may be in play -- and if they are, that spells trouble for Republicans. If not, Democratic hopes of taking over the U.S. House look slim...
A Dissonant Note August 15, 2006 • St. Petersburg Times cultural critic Eric Deggans recently wrote a long piece about the troubles affecting the NPR show News & Notes. It's suffered a 17 percent decline in its audience from the Tavis Smiley Show, which preceded it. The bigger issue raised by the piece is whether NPR and its stations can find new ways to draw greater black audiences. News & Notes was created with guidance from the African American Public Radio Consortium, which includes officials from NPR stations that serve black listeners. News & Notes host Ed Gordon told Deggans, "Sometimes, I feel this show is being allowed to die on the vine." But Deggans wrote that Gordon "nevertheless resisted notions that NPR was failing to program to black people." Officials at NPR and the African-American consortium say they have a real commitment to developing new shows that will appeal to black listeners -- while being accessible to others. "Just because we didn't get it right the first time or the second time doesn't mean we won't keep trying," Ken Stern, NPR's executive vice president, told Deggans...
Knowledge Central August 15, 2006 • On the odd occasions that I'm traveling and television beckons and I have no recourse to the Colbert Report or ESPN or a good book or a warm glass of milk with animal crackers or even a two-by-four to smack against my forehead, I'll watch The Tonight Show. And there's invariably only one bit Jay Leno does that amuses me. It's his bit where he shows photographs to people on the street, in the mall, etc. And usually it's a picture of someone fairly prominent, like, say, Vice President Cheney or the Pope, and the response rolls back, with a trace of uptalking uncertainty, something like, "Is that Gallagher?" And no, it isn't. And Leno laughs gently but he always seems slightly amazed. But he shouldn't be. And now comes proof, as if we needed it, from the number crunchers at Zogby International, a polling firm...
NPR News Agenda from the Tuesday Editors' Meeting August 15, 2006 • Usually, as you may have realized, I make this about me as much as possible. Today's news however, focuses a lot on the "I"s. First, there's Israel (and Lebanon and Hezbollah, and for that matter, the Palestinians). NPR's Eric Westervelt is preparing a story on the pullout of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon. Strife correspondent Anne Garrels is in Gaza, where Israelis are at a not-so-low-grade conflict with Palestinian combatants. (That's also where Fox News reporter Steve Centanni was abducted yesterday. The cable network has now identified the kidnapped cameraman as Olaf Wiig of New Zealand, and says negotiations are underway for their release.) Immigration. Carrie Kahn is working on a piece planned for today's All Things Considered about the rising number of illegal immigrants coming into the country from Mexico just south of San Diego. She's finding that's occurred largely because the deployment of National Guard troops to Arizona and New Mexico to intercept illegal immigrants have pushed them further west. The Indian Ocean (See? The "I"s have it.) is absorbing a spill of 1.4 million gallons of crude oil, reportedly after a cargo ship in distress and a Japanese supertanker smacked into each other. The environmental toll is not yet known. From the Sci desk (kind of rhymes with "I") we are learning the ramifications of what happens when you're NASA and you lose your wedding pictures, or, in this case, the video footage of the first steps taken on the moon...
Cooking Up a Storm August 15, 2006 • Good morning. Hope arrives in many forms. When New Orleans is involved, it's a good bet that such hope may involve food. Scott Boswell attracted a lot of attention when he became one of the first chefs there to reopen his kitchens after Hurricane Katrina. NPR senior correspondent Daniel Zwerdling, a man always in pursuit of a good tale to tell and a good meal to eat, toured one of Boswell's restaurants as he prepared to welcome back patrons. And Zwerdling recently tracked Boswell down again for a Q and A just after the award-winning cook returned from Japan. We learn: For a week, on the one-year anniversary of Katrina, you can get a signature "Stanley burger" at Boswell's Stanley restaurant along with a pickle, drink and chips for five bucks, Boswell intends to open an Asian-influenced restaurant in the Big Easy...
Cooking Up a Storm August 15, 2006 • Good morning. Hope arrives in many forms. When New Orleans is involved, it's a good bet that such hope may involve food. Scott Boswell attracted a lot of attention when he became one of the first chefs there to reopen his kitchens after Hurricane Katrina. NPR senior correspondent Daniel Zwerdling, a man always in pursuit of a good tale to tell and a good meal to eat, toured one of Boswell's restaurants as he prepared to welcome back patrons. And Zwerdling recently tracked Boswell down again for a Q and A just after the award-winning cook returned from Japan. We learn: For a week, on the one-year anniversary of Katrina, you can get a signature "Stanley burger" at Boswell's Stanley restaurant along with a pickle, drink and chips for five bucks, Boswell intends to open an Asian-influenced restaurant in the Big Easy...
National The Art of the Interview, ESPN-Style August 14, 2006 • In the opinion of at least one major television network executive, there is such a thing as a stupid question. ESPN's John Sawatsky is tipping over icons such as Larry King and Mike Wallace in expressing his philosophy of hot to conduct a good interview. The Art of the Interview, ESPN-Style Listen Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5625218/5645998" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
The Art of the Interview, ESPN-Style Listen Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5625218/5645998" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
Advocate of Conflict or Cease-Fire? August 14, 2006 • The New Yorker's indefatigable Seymour M. Hersh is presenting another controversial charge. In the latest issue, Hersh reports there's a reason the White House seemed passive early last month as public calls mounted for the administration to mediate the conflict between the Israelis and Hezbollah. He cites current and former intelligence and diplomatic sources to report that the White House was helping Israel target Hezbollah in southern Lebanon even as American officials were saying a ceasefire was palatable only if it would be "sustainable." Administration officials have not been fans of Hersh's past articles, taking pains at times to denounce them. In this case, the White House did not respond to questions, but Hersh said spokesmen for the Pentagon and State Department denied his report. A spokesman for the National Security Council told him this: "Prior to Hezbollah's attack on Israel, the Israeli government gave no official in Washington any reason to believe that Israel was planning to attack. Even after the July 12th attack, we did not know what the Israeli plans were." And with that, I hope to head out one step ahead of the law. Back tomorrow...
The Sawatsky Method August 14, 2006 • I first heard about John Sawatsky about 18 months ago and was hooked from the get-go. He's a former Canadian investigative reporter who studied the art and craft of journalism after becoming a professor. He studied transcripts and tapes to understand why some questions worked and others didn't. And then, two years ago, he was hired once again by the sports media giant ESPN. ESPN Executive Vice President John Walsh thought his reporters were missing key moments, getting tripped up by jocks' cliches or non-answers. And he found a kindred spirit in Sawatsky, who thinks the best-known American television journalists are getting it all wrong -- he names names and explains why. This summer, Sawatsky finally yielded to my requests to attend a mandatory seminar for all ESPN journalists. The resulting story runs today on All Things Considered. And you can hear Mike Wallace of CBS's 60 Minutes and Larry King of CNN's Larry King Live fire back. This story is a brilliant tour-de-force, a dazzling masterpiece, a gorgeously crafted... Oh, right. It's mine. I get carried away sometimes. And as Sawatsky would emphatically say, it's not about me. Give a listen, if you like -- and check out some of those extras online. (Bonus points for those who remember the scene from Bull Durham.)
Journalists Abducted August 14, 2006 • Scary news for the media: Two Fox News journalists were kidnapped by Palestinian gunmen today in Gaza City, the cable network confirmed. (It had originally posted its own story about the incident, but that has since been removed.) The Associated Press and other news services are reporting the two journalists are Fox News correspondent Steve Centanni and an unidentified cameraman from New Zealand. Palestinian security officials put police on alert. "This is not acceptable at all," said Palestinian Interior Ministry spokesman Khaled Abu Hilal. It's exceptionally dangerous to cover the conflict in Iraq --- but as this survey by the Committee to Protect Journalists shows, reporting in other contested lands carries risks, too.
The 'Voice' Finds its Voice August 14, 2006 • The long national nightmare is over. All right, it's not national. And it may not have even been a nightmare. But the Village Voice finally has a new editor. It's David Blum, an accomplished magazine writer and editor who has worked at the Wall Street Journal, New York magazine, Esquire, and the New York Times magazine. He's also written extensively about the media -- a point of particular interest for Michael Lacey. Lacey is the executive editor for Village Voice Media, the new name for the venerable alt-weekly's new owners at the New Times chain. A lot of people were purged at the Voice or quit after Lacey & co. took over -- including such lumnaries as Pulitzer-winner Sydney Schanberg and James Ridgeway. More are likely to be forced out as well, as sources say budget cuts will be required to fulfills promises to the investors who financed the purchase of the Voice and its sister papers. But Lacey makes a forceful case that changes are needed at the Voice. He says it has lost its vitality in the Internet age and needs to rely more on hustle and original reporting and less on reflexive bashing of President Bush and other conservatives...
An Inconvenient Tube August 14, 2006 • Let's leave aside less weighty matters like, say, the fate of the planet. Is it possible Al Gore was right about something far more consequential? Here, we're talking about television. The San Francisco Chronicle has a piece today about Current TV, the digital cable channel that was seen as a vanity exercise by former Vice President Gore. (And you thought he was a electoral wanna be. Gore's partner, Joel Hyatt, is a Democratic businessman who lost when he ran for his retiring father-in-law's Senate seat in Ohio -- and lost -- back in 1994. Good year for Republicans. Not so good for Hyatt.) As the Chron recounts, (not re-count, Al, sorry 'bout that), Current was derided as a dopey experiment when Gore and Hyatt announced a year ago it would rely on material submitted by its viewers. But that's the philosophy that propelled YouTube.com to success -- and Current appears to have started turning a profit. CNN and the CW are both now experimenting with consumer-generated content as well.
New Media Moguls August 14, 2006 • Two personalities are taking their bows in new media gigs: Washington Post columnist and humorist Tony Kornheiser and Iranian president and Holocaust denier Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. One has published screeds against Baltimore Ravens coach Brian Billick. The other routinely rants against the United States. (I'll leave you to guess which is which, though it helps to read Farsi.) First off, Kornheiser is set to make his debut tonight at Monday Night Football as the paid third-wheel. Consider him the off-color guy. (Look, he's the one making Mel Gibson jokes in his bloggish columns about the new Monday Night Football job for the Post, not me. Granted, I did that myself the last time I blogged, but still.) It might be claimed that Kornheiser's arrival is the reason that Monday Night Football was shifted from network television on ABC to cable sibling ESPN, but I wouldn't take a cheap shot like that. He would. But I wouldn't. I've been sold on him ever since I read a column he wrote about Lorena Bobbitt back in 1837 or so. On Friday, Iran's Ahmadinejad took his bow as a blogger, and, in his typical uncontroversial way, asked readers in an online poll this question: "Do you think that the US and Israeli intention and goal by attacking Lebanon is pulling the trigger for another wor[l]d war?"
