On the Media

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How a Whistleblower Changed the Course of History Jan 05, 2024

Show notes

Daniel Ellsberg, the famed whistleblower who leaked the Pentagon Papers to the Washington Post, died six months ago. On this week’s On the Media, hear about his life, how the Pentagon Papers made it to print, and the impact he had on generations of whistleblowers. Plus, the women who covered the War in Vietnam.

1. Tom Devine, legal director for the Government Accountability Project, on Daniel Ellsberg's legacy and the ways he changed public perception of whistleblowers in the U.S. Listen.

2. Les Gelb, former columnist and former Defense Department official, on his experience leading the team that wrote the Pentagon Papers, subject of the Hollywood drama, "The Post." Listen.

3. Seymour Hersh, on how he broke the story of My Lai — the massacre now regarded as the single most notorious atrocity of the Vietnam war. Listen.

4. Reporters Kate Webb, Jurate Kazickas [@juratekazickas], and Laura Palmer on how they covered the Vietnam War and why they went. Listen.

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The Reporter Who Said No to the FBI Jan 03, 2024

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On February 23, 1972, oral arguments began in the Supreme Court for a case that would shape the course of journalism. In the case known as “Branzburg v. Hayes,” the arguments rolled together three related cases that explored the reporter's privilege to protect confidential sources in the face of a legal investigation. The most important of these three cases was United States v. Caldwell. Earl Caldwell was a New York Times reporter who covered the civil rights movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s, including the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and activities of the Black Panther Party. Caldwell was approached multiple times by the FBI to give up sources and additional details surrounding his coverage of the Black Panther Party. OTM host Micah Loewinger mined oral history interviews with Earl Caldwell and spoke with Lee Levine, an attorney and media law expert who is writing a book about Earl Caldwell, to learn about legal precedents for journalists being called on to testify in federal investigations, the limits of First Amendment privileges for the press, and the sometimes tenuous relationship between journalists and the government.

Special thanks to the Maynard Institute For Journalism Education for allowing us to use its Earl Caldwell oral history.

This segment originally aired in our May 26, 2023 show, Seditious Conspiracy.

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What a Year Dec 29, 2023

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And just like that, the year is coming to a close. On this episode of On the Media, hear about the challenges that await journalists in the upcoming election in 2024. Plus, what reporters uncovered about our courts this year. And, a look back at one of the deadliest years for journalists in recent memory, in large part due to the Israel-Hamas war. With excerpts from:

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Where Did 'White Jesus' Come From? Dec 27, 2023

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During this holiday season, you likely encountered public nativity scenes depicting the birth of Jesus, presenting the family with very rare exceptions as white. And the same can be said of his ubiquitous adult portrait –– with fair skin and hair a radiant gold, eyes fixed on the middle distance. In this segment from 2020, Eloise talks to Mbiyu Chui, pastor at the Shrine of the Black Madonna in Detroit, about unlearning Jesus's whiteness. She also hears from Edward Blum, author of The Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in America, about how the image came dominate in the U.S., and psychologist Simon Howard on how White Jesus has infiltrated our subconsciouses. Lastly, Eloise speaks to Rev. Kelly Brown Douglas, womanist theologian and Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary, about the theology of the Black Christ.

This is segment first aired in our October 1st, 2020 program, God Bless.

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The Rise of 'News Avoiders,' and a Stand-Up Comedy Scandal Dec 22, 2023

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In the run up to the 2024 election, polls are frontpage news. On this week’s On the Media, a guide on which polls to pay attention to, and how to interpret them. Plus, hear about a growing segment of the population: news avoiders. What they can teach us, and what they're missing out on. And, a look at changing expectations of truth in comedy — from Lenny Bruce to Hasan Minhaj.

1. Ruth Igielnik [@RuthIgielnik] on the limitations of polls, and the insights we can draw from them leading up to the 2024 election cycle. Listen.

2. Benjamin Toff [@BenjaminToff] on the rise of news avoiders, and what they're missing. Listen.

3. Jesse David Fox [@JesseDavidFox] on the Hasan Minhaj scandal, and what it reveals about the relationship between truth and comedy. Listen.

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Who Cares About Literary Prizes? Dec 20, 2023

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This holiday season, book store displays — and Christmas stockings — will be filled with novels minted with gold and silver medals. Those gilded stamps denote recognition by literary prizes like the National Book Award, which was announced just last month. Alexander Manshel is the author of Writing Backwards: Historical Fiction and the Reshaping of the American Canon. With Melanie Walsh, he recently wrote a piece about how literary prizes have changed over the past few decades, leading to the recognition of more authors of color, for one. This week, Brooke asks Manshel how much these prizes actually matter. And according to another study he co-authored (with J.D. Porter and Laura B. McGrath, titled "Who Cares About Literary Prizes?"), the influence of literary awards is undeniable...

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Climate Delay-ism and the Real Goals of the Book Banning Movement Dec 15, 2023

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An unprecedented deal on transitioning away from fossil fuels was struck at the United Nations’ COP 28 summit, but many scientists say the timeline is too slow. On this week’s On the Media, hear how climate denialism is being replaced by the increasingly popular climate delayism. Plus, a pulse check on the book-banning movement.

1. Tim McDonnell [@timmcdonnell], energy and climate editor for Semafor, and Michael Mann [@MichaelEMann], climate scientist and geophysicist at the University of Pennsylvania, on the deal made at COP 28, and how climate denialism has turned to "delayism." Listen.

2. Adam Laats [@AdamLaats], professor of education and history at Binghamton University, on the long history leading to Moms For Liberty. Listen.

3. Jennifer Berkshire [@BisforBerkshire], lecturer at Yale’s Education Studies Department, on why Moms for Liberty election losses are not a reason to ignore the group's power. Listen.

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Celebrating Norman Lear Dec 13, 2023

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Norman lear the veteran writer and producer behind such hit TV shows as All in the Family and The Jeffersons, died last week at the age of 101. Back in 2015, Anna Sale, host of the podcast Death, Sex and Money interviewed Lear at his luxury apartment in Manhattan. He told Anna he wanted to make sure his kids would never be "desperate for a dollar" — but what "desperate" meant has fluctuated along the way. "I guess now it’s 60 billion," he deadpanned, adding, "That’s a joke."

Lear's own childhood had a degree of desperation: When Lear was nine, his father, Herman, was sent to jail for selling fake bonds. Lear's mother scrambled to make ends meet. "My mother tried to warn him," he said. "But nobody ever told Herman anything." When his father returned from prison three years later, tensions remained high. "I used to sit at the kitchen table and I would score their arguments," he says of his parents. "I would give her points for this, him points for that, as a way of coping with it."

Lear has been married three times, and has six kids — ranging in age from 28 to 77. That range of ages has presented its own challenges. "My middle daughter was ... hoping, wishing, trying to be pregnant," he says. "And her dad is suddenly married to a younger woman, and in a year’s time or less, she’s pregnant. That was not an easy time."

He spoke about the lessons he’s continued to learn over the years, how he’s managed to bring his family closer together despite their differences, and what he’s anticipating for the final stage of his life.

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How Media Fueled a Shoplifting Panic, and an AI-Journalism Experiment Gone Wrong Dec 08, 2023

Show notes

This holiday season, media outlets across the country are raising the alarm about an apparent crisis in retail crime. On this week’s On the Media, how the data about shoplifting don’t back up the alarmist coverage. Plus, the cost and consequences of media outlets turning to AI to generate stories.

1. Daphne Howland [@daphnehowland], senior reporter at Retail Dive, traces how one baseless data point about retail crime spread unquestioned in media. Listen.

2. Nicole Lewis, engagement editor at The Marshall Project, digs into the data that supposedly proves a shoplifting crisis. Listen.

3. Jeff Asher [@Crimealytics], co-founder of AH Datalytics, explains why perception of crime is often out of step with reality. Listen.

4. Jay Allred [@jayallred651], CEO of Source Media Properties, explains how a collaboration with Gannett and a non-generative AI model went wrong. Listen.

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Happy One Year Anniversary Since George Santos Became a Thing! Dec 06, 2023

Show notes

This month marks the anniversary of when most of us first heard about George Santos and his ever-expanding list of lies from a New York Times report published after the midterm election, but a local newspaper called the North Shore Leader was sounding the alarm months before. The New Yorker staff writer Clare Malone took a trip to Long Island to speak with the Leader’s publisher, Grant Lally, and its managing editor, Maureen Daly, to find out how the story began. “We heard story after story after story about him doing bizarre things,” Lally told her. “He was so well known, at least in the more active political circles, to be a liar, that by early summer he was already being called George Scamtos.” Lally explains how redistricting drama in New York State turned Santos from a “sacrificial” candidate—to whom no one was paying attention—to a front-runner. At the same time, Malone thinks, “the oddly permissive structure that the Republican Party has created for candidates on a gamut of issues” enabled his penchant for fabrication. “[There’s] lots of crazy stuff that’s popped up in politics over the past few years. I think maybe Santos thought, Eh, who’s gonna check?”

This story first ran on the New Yorker Radio Hour in January of this year.

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