Bob Garfield

It’s commonplace for print journalists to record a subject then work from that tape to write their article. Typically that’s the end of the story. Long taped interviews of which only small portions were used in the final piece sit idle in journalists’ offices and storage rooms. The podcast Blank-on-Blank excerpts the best moments from those forgotten interviews and releases them for everyone to hear. Bob speaks with founder and executive producer of Blank-on-Blank David Gerlach.

Nathan Salsburg - Eight Belles Dreamt the Devil Was Dead

Last Monday, Jeremy W. Peters' article on the front page of The New York Times opened up a conversation about the surprisingly common practice of 'quote approval' - wherein journalists send quotes back to campaign members and government officials after interviews for approval. Dan Rather called it 'jaw-dropping.' Bob investigates why journalists agree to the arrangement and what the press can do to push back.

This week saw both news organizations and the Romney presidential campaign arguing over the veracity of claims made by the Obama administration about Romney's tenure at Bain Capital, the financial services company Romney co-founded. Political scientist and media critic Brendan Nyhan says that part of the problem is that the media has fallen down on the job in properly reporting this story.

Bob reads from a few of your letters and comments.

Buying a cheap knock-off is not just a problem with watches and hand bags—if you go onto Amazon's website to buy the latest bestseller, you might accidentally end up with an imitation book. Bob speaks to Fortune senior editor Stephen Gandel, who looked into the knock-offs on Amazon, and found a number of books that he says were clearly meant to confuse people by trading off of more popular titles.

Original Air Date - April 20, 2012

Last month, the Association of American Publishers announced a milestone. 2012 is the first year that adult eBooks have outsold adult hardcover books. For the book industry, those sales are especially valuable because they bring in not just revenue but data. As you read from your Kindle, Nook or iPad, the device transmits all the details of how you do your reading – data that is beginning to shape the way books are written. Wall Street Journal reporter Alexandra Alter tells Bob that the new data is a big deal for an industry that has traditionally been unable measure its audience.

The Pew Research center recently disclosed that America is more divided along partisan lines than at any other time in the past 25 years. As a society, research reveals, we’re more divided by politics than we are by class, race, or gender. Developer Pascal Rettig has created a website called Political Screaming Match that's supposed to help fix by pairing visitors via telephone with someone on the other end of the ideological spectrum. Bob talks to Rettig about his invention.

Rebecca Gates - Suite Sails

Bob watched the first three seasons of Breaking Bad (33 episodes) in three days. Season Five starts this Sunday. (Will Bob finish season 4 in time?) Finally able to turn away from the TV, Bob speaks with Slate's Jim Pagels who says he's cheating himself by watching that many episodes that quickly. 

In the past few weeks, two NPR reporters have interviewed New Jersey small business owner Joe Olivo. What both reporters neglected to note was Olivo's affiliation with the lobbying organization The National Federation of Independent Business. Bob talks to Olivo, and NPR Ombudsman Edward Schumacher-Matos about whether disclosing Olivo's relationship with the NFIB was necessary context for listeners of those stories.

Smog - Held

The website Buzzfeed is a compendium of internet clickbait – a picture of an 800 pound shark, Mitt Romney looking goofy on a jet ski, 11 Ways To Get Inspired Right Now. But while the content may be trivial, but the website is quite lucrative, so much so that it's begun to hire actual journalists. Slate tech writer Farhad Manjoo decided to try to figure out how the site is able to produce such great content.

When CNN incorrectly reported the fate of the individual mandate they fell into a long tradition of being first but not being right. Journalists have always wanted to report something first, but the benefits of doing so aren't clear -- especially for news consumers. Bob reports on the phenomenon and folly of being first.

According to a transparency report released by Twitter on July 2, US law enforcement has requested information from the company 679 times this year.  Malcolm Harris had been fighting to keep New York prosecutors from accessing his twitter information. Earlier this week, a judge compelled Twitter to turn over data from Harris' account. Aden Fine of the American Civil Liberties Union talks to Bob about how this ruling could be detrimental to future tweeters.

The Hundred in the Hands - Recognize

Bob talks to Buzzfeed founder Jonah Peretti about how the site works and how it decides how to credit previously existing work.

Quantic & Alice Russell - Una Tarde en Mariquita

Barry Becher, co-creator of the Ginsu knife and the master of the hard sell TV pitch died recently. In memory, we are re-airing an exploration of the world of television pitchmen by erstwhile OTM producer Mike Vuolo.

Weird Al Yankovic - Mr. Popeil

Last Friday, a thunderstorm in Virginia temporarily crippled part of Amazon’s ‘cloud’ computing service. After a series of back-ups failed, popular sites like Netflix, Pinterest, and Instagram were unavailable for several hours. Bob speaks with Nicholas Carr about the benefits and risks of cloud computing.

Latin Playboys - Crayon Sun

The NBA finals, between the Miami Heat and the Oklahoma City Thunder, are going on this week and next. The Heat and the Thunder are singular because they have reached the championship series -- but are also singular because they are not plural. And for copy editors that presents a very serious challenge. Bob speaks with Deadspin Managing Editor Tom Scocca about the grammatical dilemma.

It is not illegal to film police, but there have been several instances of citizens being arrested because the police didn't want to appear on camera. Bob talks to Mickey Osterreicher, general counsel for the National Press Photographers Association, who has been doing workshops with police around the country about the right to film police in the line of duty.

The Replacements - Kids Don't Follow

When demonstrators from the Minneapolis occupy movement posted video depicting what looked like a series of unprovoked arrests, the Minneapolis Police Department posted their own video showing several warnings to the crowd. Bob talks to incoming police chief Janee Harteau about the department's decision to post video of their own officers at large public events.

On May 27^th a Pentecostal pastor who handles poisonous snakes as part of his religious tradition was bitten, and in the absence of any medical attention, he died.  One of those who witnessed his death and decided not to call for help was Lauren Pond, a photojournalist who had been documenting Wolford for over a year.  Bob talks to Pond about where journalistic responsibility and respect collides.

Four Tet - 128 Harps

The New York Times reported this week that the Assad family employs Western PR firms to polish its image for the rest of the world. A few years ago, Harper’s contributing editor Ken Silverstein went undercover and approached PR firms as a fake representative of a tyrant who needed to improve his image. He talks to Bob about what he learned.