Media Matters with Bob McChesney
Sundays at 1 pm Central on AM580
Media Matters features host Bob McChesney in conversation with a variety of guests. Listeners may call with comments or questions.
Robert W. McChesney is the Gutgsell Endowed Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "The media are central to all our lives," he says. "Yet the media are the most frequently misunderstood parts of our lives. We want to help people understand the role of media in society."
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Media Matters programs & archives:
Sunday, November 27, 2011
News for All the People: The Epic Story of Race and the American Media
Bob's guests are Juan Gonzalez and Joseph Torres, authors of News for All the People: The Epic Story of Race and the American Media, a sweeping account of the class and racial conflicts in American news media, from the first colonial newspaper to the internet age. It chronicles key government decisions that created our nation’s system of news, major political battles over the role of the press, and the rise of media conglomerates and epoch-defining technologies. The book reveals how racial segregation in the media distorted the news and unearths numerous examples of how publishers and broadcasters actually fomented racial violence through their coverage. And it illuminates how Black, Latino, Asian, and Native American journalists fought to create a vibrant yet little-known alternative and democratic press and then, beginning in the 1970s, forced open the doors of the major media companies.
The writing is fast-paced, story-driven and replete with portraits of individual journalists and media executives, both famous and obscure, the heroes and the villains. It weaves back and forth between the corporate battles and government policies that built our segregated media system— as when Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover gave a radio license to a notorious KKK organization in the nation’s capital—and those who rebelled against that system, such as Pittsburgh Courier publisher Robert L. Vann, who led a national campaign to get the black-face comedy Amos ’n’ Andy off the air.
http://www.VersoBooks.com
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Sunday, November 20, 2011
Lawrence Lessig joins McChesney on Media Matters with Bob McChesney
Join Bob and Professor Lawrence Lessig on Sunday at 1pm for a live show. Call and comment.
Lawrence Lessig is the Director of the Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics at Harvard University, and a Professor of Law at Harvard Law School.
Prior to returning to Harvard, Lessig was a Professor of Law at Stanford Law School (where he was founder of Stanford's Center for Internet and Society), Harvard Law School (1997-2000), and the University of Chicago Law School. Lessig clerked for Judge Richard Posner on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals and Justice Antonin Scalia on the United States Supreme Court.
For much of his academic career, Lessig has focused on law and technology, especially as it affects copyright. He is the author of five books on the subject — Remix (2008), Code v2 (2007), Free Culture (2004), The Future of Ideas (2001) and Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace (1999) — and has served as lead counsel in a number of important cases marking the boundaries of copyright law in a digital age, including Eldred v. Ashcroft, a challenge to the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, and Golan v. Holder.
His current academic work addresses the question of "institutional corruption" — roughly, influences within an economy of influence that weaken the effectiveness of an institution, or weaken public trust. His current work at the EJ Safra Lab oversees a 5 year research project addressing institutional corruption in a number of institutional contexts.
http://www.lessig.org
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Sunday, November 13, 2011
Glenn Greenwald, former Constitutional and Civil Rights Litigator joins McChesney on Sunday
Glenn Greenwald is a former Constitutional and civil rights litigator and is the author of two New York Times Bestselling books on the Bush administration’s executive power and foreign policy abuses. His just-released book, With Liberty and Justice for Some, is an indictment of America’s two-tiered system of justice, which vests political and financial elites with immunity even for egregious crimes while subjecting ordinary Americans to the world’s largest and most merciless penal state. Greenwald was named by The Atlantic as one of the 25 most influential political commentators in the nation. He is the recipient of the first annual I.F. Stone Award for Independent Journalism, and is the winner of the 2010 Online Journalism Association Award for his investigative work on the arrest and oppressive detention of Bradley Manning.
http://www.salon.com
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Sunday, November 06, 2011
Leo W. Gerard, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union, AFL-CIO, CLC
The son of a union miner and activist, Gerard went to work at a nickel smelter in his hometown of Sudbury, Ontario, at age 18. As a young man, he studied economics and political science at Laurentian University, where he later received an honorary doctorate of laws degree. Gerard was awarded a second honorary doctorate of laws degree, this one from the University of Guelph in Canada, in recognition of his contributions to social justice.
Gerard was appointed International President on Feb. 28, 2001 by the USW’s International Executive Board to succeed the late George Becker, who had retired. That November, Gerard was elected by acclamation in union-wide elections.
Previously, Gerard was the union’s International Secretary-Treasurer (1994-2001), the National Director for Canada (1991-1994) and Director of District 6 in Ontario (1986-1991).
In 2005, Gerard led a ticket of International Officers and District Directors who, for the first time in the union’s history, were elected without opposition. He was again re-elected by acclamation in 2009 and was installed in his current term on March 1, 2010.
Call and Comment during this Live Program
http://www.usw.org
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Sunday, October 30, 2011
Van Jones joins McChesney on Media Matters Sunday, October 30th
Van Jones has emerged as a leading champion of smart solutions for America's middle class. As an advisor to the Obama White House, he helped run the inter-agency process that oversaw $80 billion in green recovery spending. A Yale Law School graduate, he has a 20-year track record as a successful, innovative and award-winning social entrepreneur. He is a co-founder of three successful nonprofit organizations: the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Color of Change, and Green For All.
He is a globally recognized, award-winning pioneer in human rights and the clean energy economy, and a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and American Progress Action Fund. He holds a joint appointment at Princeton University as a distinguished visiting fellow in both the Center for African American Studies and in the Program in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
Van is on the board of several organizations and non-profits, including Demos, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, and the Campaign for America's Future.
TIME magazine called him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2009. He is also the best-selling author of the definitive book on green jobs, The Green Collar Economy. He's comfortable leading the charge both on the ground and on the airwaves, and his vast connections can unite organizations and high profile individuals in ways that would otherwise be difficult. This is a recorded program, so sit back and let Bob and Van Jones do the work! vanjones.net
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Sunday, October 23, 2011
Special Two Hour Pledge Drive Sunday
McChesney and Nichols once again team up for a Pledge Drive show on Sunday at 1pm on WILLAM580. McChesney and Nichols are committed to NPR and recognize it's importance in providing accurate coverage of news and events around the world. Special guests include a participant calling from the Occupy Wall Street protest. Join Media Matters with Bob McChesney and pledge your support for this show and all your other favorite NPR programs by calling (800) 244-9455.
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Sunday, October 16, 2011
Laura Flanders and Greg Mitchell talk about Occupy Wall Street with McChesney
Laura Flanders is the host of GritTV and Greg Mitchell writes for The Nation Magazine. Join Bob and his two distinguished guests in their discussion about Occupy Wall Street this Sunday at 1pm on WILL.
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Sunday, October 09, 2011
Susan Saladoff - Filmmaker - "Hot Coffee"
Susan Saladoff (Producer, Director) spent twenty-five years practicing law in the civil justice system, representing injured victims of individual and corporate negligence. She stopped practicing law in 2009 to make the documentary, HOT COFFEE, her first feature-length film. She began her career as a public interest lawyer with the law firm of Trial Lawyers for Public Justice, now known as Public Justice, an organization that, for the last 25 years, has been at the forefront of keeping America’s courthouse doors open to all. Susan was recognized by her peers as an Oregon Super Lawyer for five consecutive years from 2006 to 2010. She is a graduate of Cornell University and George Washington University Law School, and has frequently lectured at the state and national levels on the importance of the civil justice system. Order advance copies of the DVD at hotcoffeethemovie.com Call and comment during this live show.
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Sunday, October 02, 2011
Mark Weisbrot from the Center for Economic Policy and Research Sunday, Oct 2nd. Call and Comment.
Mark Weisbrot is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, in Washington, D.C. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Michigan. He has written numerous research papers on economic policy, especially on Latin America and international economic policy. He is also co-author, with Dean Baker, of Social Security: The Phony Crisis (University of Chicago Press, 2000).
He writes a weekly column for The Guardian Unlimited (U.K.), and a regular column on economic and policy issues that is distributed to over 550 newspapers by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. He also writes a bi-weekly column for Brazil’s largest newspaper, Folha de Sao Paulo. His opinion pieces have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and almost every major U.S. newspaper. He appears regularly on national and local television and radio programs. He is also president of Just Foreign Policy. http://www.cepr.net
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Sunday, September 25, 2011
Lisa Graves from the Center for Media and Democracy with McChesney on Sunday
Lisa Graves is the Executive Director of the Center for Media and Democracy, the publisher of PR Watch, SourceWatch, and BanksterUSA. She previously served as a senior advisor in all three branches of the federal government, as a leading strategist on civil liberties advocacy, and as an adjunct law professor at one of the top law schools in the country. Her former leadership posts include:
Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Policy/Policy Development at the U.S. Department of Justice (serving under both Attorneys General Janet Reno and John Ashcroft)
Chief Counsel for Nominations for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee
Senior Legislative Strategist for the American Civil Liberties Union (on national security and surveillance policies)
Deputy Director of the Center for National Security Studies
Deputy Chief of the Article III Judges Division of the U.S. Courts
(including oversight of the Financial Disclosure Office for judicial
ethics)
Graves has testified as an expert witness before both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives. She has also appeared as an expert on CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, CNBC, BBC, C-SPAN, and other news programs and on numerous radio shows, including National Public Radio, Democracy Now!, Air America, and Pacifica Radio. Her analysis has been quoted in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Boston Globe, The Associated Press, Reuters, USA Today, The Nation, Vanity Fair, Congressional Quarterly, Roll Call, National Journal, Legal Times, Newsday, Wired, and Mother Jones, among others, as well as online in The Huffington Post, Talking Points Memo, and other blogs. Call and Comment!
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Sunday, September 18, 2011
Live show with Salim Muwakkil Sunday September 18th
Salim Muwakkil is a senior editor of In These Times, where he has worked since 1983. He is the host of "The Salim Muwakkil" show on WVON, Chicago's historic black radio station, and he wrote the text for the book HAROLD: Photographs from the Harold Washington Years.
As an editor for In These Times for more than 25 years, Salim Muwakkil has forged a reputation as one of the country’s most insightful writers on issues of African-American culture and politics.
Muwakkil started his journalism career as reporter for the Associated Press in Newark, New Jersey shortly before graduating from Rutgers University with a BA in Political Science. He soon moved on to become a copy editor and then managing editor at Muhammad Speaks-Bilalian News, the largest black-owned publication in the country.
Upon moving to Chicago, Muwakkil joined In These Times’ staff and became a contributing columnist to both the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune.
Muwakkil has also written for the Washington Post, Chicago Reader, The Progressive, Newsday, Cineaste, Chicago Magazine, the Baltimore Sun, Z Magazine, the Toronto Star, Emerge Magazine, The Black Scholar, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and Utne Reader.
Muwakkil is a frequent contributor to “Chicago Tonight” and “Beyond the Beltway,” two Chicago-based public affairs programs.
Muwakkil has won a variety of journalism awards including the “Top Ten Media Heroes of 1994,” from the Institute of Alternative Journalism, the “Black Rose Achievement Award for 1997,” from the League of Black Women, the 2001 Studs Terkel Award for Journalistic Excellence from the Chicago-based Community Media Workshop and the 2004 Lillian Award for Excellence in Journalism, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.
He was also a Crime and Communities Media Fellow of the Open Society Institute.
In his spare time, Muwakkil serves as a board member for the Progressive Media Project and the Chicago-based Public Square. He has been a faculty member of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest’s Urban Studies Program, and an adjunct professor at Columbia College, Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. http://www.inthesetimes.com
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Sunday, September 11, 2011
Media Matters with Bob McChesney returns on September 18th with a live show featuring Salim Muwakkil
Because of special programming honoring the September 11, 2001 tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks, Media Matters will not air that day. Tune in September 18th with a live show featuring Salim Muwakkil.
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