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2012 Program Archive
October 23 - "Was Obama too Relentless on Romney?"; Blurring the Line Between News and Propaganda; The Future of Print Journalism in the Digital Age
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We begin with an analysis of last night’s third and final presidential debate from Alan Schroeder, a Professor of Journalism at Northeastern University and author of “Presidential Debates: 50 Years of High-Risk TV”. We discuss the final act in a dramatic see-saw and how much style trumps substance, and whether as Alan Schroeder’s article at CNN suggests “Was Obama too Relentless on Romney?” |
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Then Lisa Graves joins us. She is the Executive Director of the Center for Media and Democracy and was formally a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Justice Department. We discuss the blurred line between news and propaganda and the post debate spin and analysis, in particular Fox News’s cynical use of a so-called focus group arranged by Frank Luntz that claimed to be former Obama voters who had been swayed into switching to Romney. |
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Then finally, with the recent news that Newsweek is ending its print edition and that Rupert Murdoch is vying to buy the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune, we speak with a former senior editor at Newsweek and editor-in-chief of BusinessWeek Stephen Shepard. He is the author of a new book “Deadlines and Disruption: My Turbulent Path from Print to Digital”, and we discuss the changing nature of the news business and the future of print journalism in the digital age. |
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| MUSIC: The Platters - The Great Pretender; John Lennon - Gimme Some Truth; David Bowie - Changes |
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October 22 - How Much Does Foreign Policy Matter?; What You Won't Hear Tonight; Sorting Out the Polls
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Ahead of tonight’s third and final presidential debate on foreign policy, we begin with a discussion of how much foreign policy matters in this election and how much the candidates might steer their answers towards domestic issues. David Rothkopf, the Editor-at-Large for Foreign Policy magazine joins us. He has an article at Foreign Policy “How Foreign Policy Came to Matter in This Election”. |
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Then Professor of International Affairs at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, Stephen Walt joins us. He has an article at Foreign Policy.com “Top Ten Questions You Won’t Hear at Tonight’s Debate” and we examine the issues likely to be overlooked since the debate will probably be dominated by China-bashing and further recriminations that the Romney campaign have seized upon over what happened at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. |
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Then finally we try to make sense of the latest polls with Margie Omero, the president and founder of Momentum Analysis, a Democratic public opinion research firm whose clients include Democratic candidates, party committees and non-profits. We examine the divergent polls to try to determine the likely outcome of an election that has narrowed but still seems to give the incumbent an advantage in the Electoral College. |
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October 21- Remembering George McGovern; In Spite of Romney's Surge, Will Obama Still Win?; Now a Political Football, a Reality Check on Libya
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We begin with the news of the death today of George McGovern and speak with Richard Parker who was a political advisor to the former Democratic presidential nominee who in 1972 lost to Richard Nixon. We discuss McGovern’s life and legacy and whether a candidate of the left like McGovern could be elected in today’s right wing political and media environment. |
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Then we look at the polls that are all over the place and talk with someone who has accurately predicted the winner of the all the past presidential elections since 1984. The Distinguished Professor of History at American University Allan Lichtman joins us to discuss why in spite of Romney’s surge in the polls, he feels Obama will still be re-elected to a second term. |
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Then finally, following the death of American diplomats in Libya, a tragic incident that has been blown up into a presidential election issue, we speak with Abubaker Saad, a former Libyan diplomat from Benghazi. We discuss the chaos that has become a political football in a country that is essentially lawless, with groups on militias and tribes vying over regional control with little to no national army or police. |
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October 18 - The "Perversion Files" and Romney's Biggest Donor's Efforts to Stop the Exposé; China-bashing as Their Middle Class Grows and Ours Shrinks; Stopping the Serial Killer Leading Sudan
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We begin with the release today of the so-called “perversion files” that the Oregon Supreme Court forced the Boy Scouts of America to make public. Peter Zuckerman, who broke the story of child sex abuse in the Boy Scouts for the Idaho Falls Post Register joins us. Peter was hounded by Idaho’s richest man who tried to stop publication of the expose by outing the reporter and his partner. That man, Frank VanderSloot, is now one of Mitt Romney’s biggest donors and the National Finance Committee co-chair of the Romney for President Campaign. |
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Then we examine the China-bashing that went on in the last presidential debate with Clyde Prestowitz, who is the former counselor to the Secretary of Commerce and the founder and president of the Economic Strategy Institute. We discuss why China’s middle class is growing and ours is shrinking and Clyde Prestowitz’s article at CNN “Can iPhones and iPads be Made in the USA?” |
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Then finally we discuss the likely outbreak of a war between the world’s newest country South Sudan and its northern neighbor Sudan, that is run by a serial killer General Omar al Bashir, the only world leader indicted by the International Criminal Court. David Phillips, the Director of the Program on Peace-building and Rights at Columbia University’s Institute For the Study of Human Rights and author of the new eBook “Liberating Kosovo: Coercive Diplomacy and U.S. Intervention” joins us. |
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October 17 - Fact-checking the Liar-in-Chief; Breaking Records for Negativity; Science Gets Short Shrift in Debate
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We begin with George Zornick, a Washington-based reporter for The Nation. He has an article at The Nation “Romney’s Seven Biggest Debate Lies” and we fact-check the howlers from last night’s debate that came thick and fast from a cynical candidate apparently operating on the assumption that a lie will go around the world before the truth has time to tie its shoelaces. |
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Then, as billions are starting to pour into last-minute attack ads that will carpet-bomb the swing states, we look into how effective negative ads are with John Geer the Chair of Political Science at Vanderbilt University and the author of “In Defense of Negativity: Attack Ads in Presidential Campaigns”. We discuss how much presidential debates can alter opinions created from months of negative advertizing in a political climate where facts seem to matter less and less. |
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Then finally we discuss perhaps the most challenging issue facing the planet that was not mentioned or brought up in last night’s debate, global warming. New York Times reporter Andrew Revkin, the creator of the Time’s Dot Earth blog joins us to discuss what wasn’t discussed and critique what was discussed; cheap gas, clean coal, more pipelines, more drilling and more jobs. |
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