Sunday, October 25, 1998

The Microsoft trial: What's it all about? This week, On the Media looks into the meaning of the courtroom battle. Also: Disney's ABC spikes a story about - Disney. Is it self-censorship? And: are sports reporters reporters who happen to be fans? Or fans who happen to be reporters? That's this week on NPR's On the Media....

Microsoft Suit
The federal government is taking aim at the corporate behemoth of our age, Microsoft. What is at stake in this attempt by the government to reign in the ever-changing world of technology? What does this case mean to the the industry, the company -- and the consumer? Guests Amy Cortese, software editor for Business Week magazine, and Carl Howe, Director of Computing Strategies for Forrester Research, explore this issue.

Covering Pinochet's Arrest
Steve Rendall of Fairness and Accuracy in Media on the media reaction to the arrest of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and it's how it remembers...or forgets...the U.S.-backed coup that put him in power.

Conflict of Interest: Disney, ABC, and Brian Ross's 20-20 Story
When a news organization spikes a story about its parent company - a story reported by one of its top correspondents - what does that tell us about the influence of huge conglomerates on the news we get? Is there a chilling effect? Guests are Arthur Kent, former NBC Correspondent and author of "Risk and Redemption" and Deni Elliott, the Director of he Practical Ethics Center at the University of Montana.

OTM Listeners Weigh In On Media Matters

Numbers in the News, Math in the Media: Does it add up?
How the media use and misuse numbers and statistics. With K.C. Cole, writer at the LA Times and author of "The Universe and the Teacup: The Mathematics of Truth and Beauty," Harcourt Brace, 1998.

Brooke and Brian take on Media Issues
NPR Media Correspondent Brooke Gladstone brings Brian and listeners up-to-date on media stories, including on-line magazine Salon's new campaign to ask readers for donations and studies that show the American people don't care much about press scandals.

Sports Reporting: Fair or Foul, Foul or Fair?
Sports Writing is simultaneously the most literate and the most vitriolic form of journalism. Would sports reporters stand up to the same scrutiny they apply to the athletes they cover? Today's guests are Dan Shaughnessy, sports columnist for The Boston Globe, and Rick Telander, sports columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times and contributing writer for ESPN.

Brian on Watching Baseball
How video is changing the way fans watch baseball, both at home and at the ballpark.

WNYC archives id: 24016