This week on the media takes a look at how the media looks at lunacy. A new program called Wonderland has critics raving, but has some in the mental health profession concerned. Also, a visit to the press pool following Elian Gonzalez and the FCC's licensing of lower power stations. That's this week on NPR's On the Media.

1 - THE ELIAN GONZALEZ SAGA CONTINUES
As Presidential hopeful and current Vice President Al Gore welcomes Elian's extended family to join him in Miami, media crews and reporters swarm his current residence hoping his daily actions, going to school, playing with the puppy will give them their big scoop...Elian kicked the dog details at eleven.
Reporter: Tracy Fields

2 - ABC IN LOCO PARENTIS
Does ABC really want us to believe that they interviewed Elian in front of millions of viewers in order to model attuned play therapy for the U.S. government? Commentator Janna Malamud Smith thinks not.
Commentator: Janna Malamud Smith, psychotherapist; author, Private Matters: A Defense of the Personal

3 - LOW POWERED RADIO'S HIGH POWERED DEBATE
A bill was introduced in Congress this week that would undue a recent FCC decision to make room on the FM dial for non-commercial, community-based low-power radio. Many broadcasters, including NPR and the National Association of Broadcasters, lobbied against the current FCC plan, believing low-power radio could cause significant signal interference. On the Media takes a look at the latest dispute between the Congress and the FCC. Guests:
Representative Billy Tauzin, Chairman, House Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade and Consumer Protection
William Kennard, Chairman, Federal Communications Commission


4 - LISA AND BROOKE
MSNBC's Internet correspondent, Lisa Napoli discusses news from the World Wide Web.
Guest: Lisa Napoli, Internet Correspondent, MSNBC

5 - CREATIVE VIOLENCE
Author of the upcoming book "Power Play" and comic book writer Gerard Jones posits that fantasy violence is actually not bad for children and acts as a catharsis. Guest host Brooke Gladstone and Jones discuss recent media stories about violent youth and what causes these deadly incidents.

6 - WONDERLAND: THE MENTAL HOSPITAL AS METAPHOR
The asylum has often been in film and television used as a metaphor, the inner craziness and angst within the hospital held up as a mirror to greater societal problems. But what does a psychiatric drama, following Who Wants to be a Millionaire in ABC's Thursday night lineup, say about our society today?
Guests:
Jeanine Basinger: Professor of Film Studies and American Studies, Wesleyan University
Peter Berg: Executive Producer, Wonderland
Laurie Flynn: Executive Producer, National Alliance for the Mentally Ill
Robert J. Thompson, head of The Center for the Study of Popular Television, S.I. Newhouse School of Communications, Syracuse University

7 - A PATIENT REVIEWS WONDERLAND
Elizabeth Wurtzel, author of Prozac Nation, sees parallels between her frustrations with her own therapy hour and the hour of Wonderland she reviewed on Thursday night.
Commentator: Elizabeth Wurtzel, author, Prozac Nation and Bitch

8 - NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO MERGES WITH CBS! (As if!)
A seemingly authentic, yet somehow apocryphal story is stopped midstream to examine the deleterious effects of April's Fools inspired Chicanery in this helter-skelter media environment. Including blind acceptance of Onion as Gospel, and NPR's own time bomb, detonating on the New York Times one year later.

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