Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the Supreme Court’s rejection of New York Times reporter James Risen’s claim of First Amendment protection of a source which means the government can now compel the reporter to reveal his source or face jail time. Lisa Graves, the Executive Director of the Center for Media and Democracy and a former Deputy Attorney General in the Justice Department joins us to discuss the upholding of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Virginia’s decision denying the existence of any reporter’s privilege in the First Amendment or common law and the Attorney General’s recent remark that under his watch no reporter doing his job is going to jail.

Part 2

Then we look into the Obama Administration’s plans to address climate change with the EPA’s new rules unveiled Monday to reduce CO2 emissions from coal-fired electrical generating plants by 30% from 2005 levels over the next 15 years. David Freeman, the former head of the Tennessee Valley Authority, New York Power and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power joins us to discuss the political cost to Democrats in the coal states and whether eliminating coal plants and replacing them with natural gas-fired plants will reduce the current 40% of emissions from power plants that cause climate change, given the doubts about how much seepage of methane from the natural gas grid offsets the advantage of the smaller carbon footprint from burning natural gas.

Part 3

Then finally we talk with Jeremy Rifkin, the author of “The Zero Marginal Cost Society: The Internet of Things, the Collaborative Commons, and the Eclipse of Capitalism”. He joins us to discuss the Third Industrial Revolution underway where Germany is already generating 27% of its electricity from renewable energy and China is investing an initial $82 billion in an alternative “Energy Internet” in which prosumers can make and share their own green energy. We also discuss his latest article at The Huffington Post “Beyond Obama’s Plan: A New Economic Vision for Addressing Climate Change”. 

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the exclusive interview that NBC’s news anchor Brian Williams had with Edward Snowden and get an analysis of both what was said by the NSA whistleblower and what was not asked by Brian Williams. Sean Wilentz, Professor of History at Princeton University, who wrote an article at The New Republic “Would You Feel Differently About Snowden, Greenwald and Assange If You Knew What They Really Thought?”, joins us. We discuss the holes in Snowden’s story and the tepid questions by Brian Williams that reflect how the mainstream press, who have been beneficiaries of the leaks, have bought into the Snowden narrative without questioning the source and who might be behind the source.

Part 2

Then we speak with Amatai Etzioni, University Professor and Director of the Institute for Communitarian Policy Studies at George Washington University.  We discuss his article at The Huffington Post “Freedom of the Press in the Post-Snowden World” and who should have authority to render the final decision on what to publish when a nation’s secrets, like Snowden’s cache, are delivered to selected journalists and a select few newspapers and editors who alone have the responsibility to weigh the people’s right to know against the government’s need to keep secrets.

Part 3

Then finally we go to Brazil’s capitol, Brazilia and speak with Paulo Sotero, the director of the Brazil Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center and the former Washington Correspondent for Estado de Sao Paulo, a leading Brazilian newspaper. We look into the anti-World Cup demonstrations ahead of the June 12 opening game and the record-breaking $11.5 billion price tag that is dampening the expected celebration of national pride that could hurt or harm President Dilma Rousseff ahead of the October elections that are clearly politicizing the increasingly charged atmosphere surrounding the World Cup.