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2016 Programs
2016 Program Archive
October 28 - Is the GOP "Full of Racists"?; AP Poll Show 51% of Americans Express Racist Attitudes; How Did Chinese Premier Wen's Family Accrue $2.7 Billion?
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We begin with the recent emergence of racist remarks from the Romney Campaign and assess the legacy of the GOP’s Southern Strategy and whether the overt and irrational hatred of President Obama often expressed by Tea Party Republicans is becoming more or less acceptable. Colin Powell’s former Chief of Staff Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson joins us to discuss Republican criticism of Colin Powell’s endorsement of President Obama that suggested Powell’s choice was based on race, not the reasons he enunciated. |
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Then, following a recent poll by the Associated Press that indicated racial attitudes have not improved since America elected its first black president, we continue to look into race as a factor in this election. Andra Gillespie, a Professor of Political Science at Emory University joins us to discuss how many Americans are hard-wired with racial resentment that politicians can exploit in a highly polarized society undergoing economic distress. |
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Then finally we examine the fallout from the New York Times investigation of the wealth accrued by the family of China’s out-going leader Wen Jiabao. China expert Perry Link joins us. He has been following the behind-the-scenes succession struggle going on within the Chinese Communist Party Politburo that indicates the normally bland leadership transition is deadlocked in intra-party wrangling over power, privilege and profit. |
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| MUSIC: Sam Cooke - A Change Is Gonna Come; Black Star - Thieves in the Night; My Morning Jacket - I'm Amazed; Shanghai Restoration Project - Nanking Road |
October 25 - Between Probability and Uncertainty, Pinning Down the Polls; "What's the Matter with White People?"
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We begin with Nate Silver who accurately predicted the winner in 49 of 50 states in the 2008 election. His blog FivethirtyEight.com is on the New York Times website and his articles also appear in the print edition of the New York Times. We discuss the wildly fluctuating polls as the election enters the home stretch and his new book “The Signal and the Noise: Why so Many Predictions Fail – But Some Don’t”. |
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Then Joan Walsh joins us. She is editor-at-large for Salon.com and an MSNBC political analyst and the author of a new book “What’s the Matter with White People: Why We Long for a Golden Age That Never Was”. We discuss the gender gap in our politics and what pits Americans against each other as the middle class shrinks, working families struggle and everyone falls behind except the wealthy. |
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| MUSIC: M. Ward - Rollercoaster; Greenday - American Idiot; Randy Newman - Rednecks; MGMT - The Youth |
October 24 - Standing up to Voter Intimidation, Trickery and Suppression; More Misogyny From Another Republican Senate Hopeful; Billy Graham's Deal With the Devil
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We begin with an update on an array of voter suppression and intimidation efforts underway that will culminate on Election Day. Eric Marshall, the co-leader of Election Protection joins us to discuss what voters can do to exercise their democratic rights in the face of organized intimidation, trickery and suppression. |
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Then we go to Indiana and speak with Margorie Hershey, who is a Professor of Political Science at Indiana University in Bloomington. We discuss the close Senate race and the likely impact of remarks by the Republican Tea Party candidate who defeated the Senate’s elder statesman Richard Lugar in the primary, who is now in trouble for views that he expressed in a debate yesterday on pregnancy as a result of rape being what God intended. |
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Then finally we take a broader look at the politics of abortion and how they are playing out in this election. Frank Schaeffer, the son of one of the founders of the religious right, joins us to discuss the evangelical world’s apparent determination to get Romney elected and Billy Graham’s surprise endorsement of a Mormon, in what appears to be a renouncement of the evangelist’s vow after Richard Nixon’s fall from grace, not to endorse any politicians. |
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| MUSIC: Bob Marley - Get Up Stand Up; Ben Harper - Mister; Jello Biafra - Plastic Jesus; Digable Planets - La Femme Fetal |
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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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