On the Media

The Panama Papers is by sheer volume of documents the largest whistle-blower leak in history. With over 100 news organizations from over 80 countries involved it is also the largest journalistic coll…

This week President Obama criticized journalistic irresponsibility in a speech, but critics note that he has consistently worked to block press access. We take a look at the plight of public informat…

How do our assumptions about people affect our assumptions about their food? And how do their assumptions about our food affect how we feel about ourselves?

What happens when chefs cook a cuisine the…

European Union leaders declared this week’s attack in Brussels an act of war; one former ISIS hostage says those declarations play into the terrorist group’s game plan. We look at what’s behind an un…

A jury in St. Petersburg, Florida, found that Gawker Media must pay $140 million in damages to the wrestler Hulk Hogan (real name Terry Bollea). The case is about Gawker publishing an excerpt of a ta…

For the first months of the Trump campaign, the media wondered incredulously, "What kind of person thinks he can act like that and get elected?" Now that Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee, …

In 1993, the photojournalist Paul Watson took three photographs of Somali dragging the body of an American soldier through the streets of Mogadishu. As he took the shots, he thought he heard the sold…

A special hour on the publishing industry and the resurgence of print--from Amazon’s flirtation with brick-and-mortar bookstores to the success of wholesale suppliers shilling books by the foot as de…

Political commentators have repeatedly, reliably, been wrong this election season. There was the improbable Bernie Sanders. The inevitable Jeb Bush. The passing-fad Donald Trump. Now that we've lande…

President Obama's latest attempt to close Guantanamo Bay prison has been met with fierce opposition from Congress. We look at what the prison has come to mean to the American public...and what it mea…

A political battle is raging over Justice Scalia's replacement on the high court. But what does the public really know about how the court operates? We revisit our special hour on the Supreme Court, …

The threat of the Zika virus has been covered extensively, but the reality is still largely unknown. A look away from the panicked headlines at what we know and don't know about the virus, as well as…

A former reporter turned opposition researcher offers an insider’s perspective on the work of unearthing political dirty secrets. Also, the real story of the Dean Scream-- the unforgettable, unscript…

A certain candidate was conspicuously absent from this week's Republican debate. But Donald Trump's presence on conservative talk radio has never flagged. We look at the influence of Rush Limbaugh an…

Why did it take so long for Flint's water crisis to be acknowledged by local officials, let alone the national media? Plus: how '13 Hours' frames partisan discussion about Benghazi; and how the polit…

A Mexican journalist reacts to Sean Penn's interview with the drug kingpin El Chapo; Bob offers his own thoughts, too. Plus: We check back in with the Pentagon on rules concerning journalists in wart…

President Obama began the year with a plea for "common sense" gun safety but admitted that it won't be easy. We examine the myths and messages that surround, and often obscure, the national conversat…

What if, either by the slow creep of technological obsolescence or sudden cosmic disaster, we were cut off from our electronic records? 

On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM b…

What you hear about the Paris climate agreement depends on whom you ask. We sort through the competing messages about what was achieved. Plus, how to spot an accurate election poll as the primaries e…

When diseases like Swine Flu and Ebola infect cable news, panic takes over. We put together a template to help the discerning news consumer see through the media's over-the-top coverage.

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