News & Public Affairs

Roger Ailes and the Fox News Republican machine

06/01/11 Robert Lorei
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Tags: Roger Ailes, Fox News, Rolling Stone, Tim Dickinson, Republican Party, George H.W. Bush, Dan Rather, media

Good morning welcome to Radioactivity. I'm Rob Lorei. Coming up today an interview with Tim Dickinson, author of a new article in Rolling Stone Magazine on Roger Ailes and Fox News entitled: "How Roger Ailes Built the Fox News Fear Factory".

Dickinson writes:

"The key to decoding Fox News isn't Bill O'Reilly or Sean Hannity. It isn't even News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch. To understand what drives Fox News, and what its true purpose is, you must first un...

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Rick Scott signs Florida budget, slashes $600 million in line-item vetoes listen

05/26/11 Seán Kinane
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Tags: media, Rick Scott, TBARTA, USF, budget, 2011 Legislative session, veto

Republican Governor Rick Scott signed the state budget today. Florida lawmakers had cut nearly $4 billion from the budget for next fiscal year. But today in a private Republican Party of Florida event at The Villages, Scott announced he had vetoed $615 million in line items.

"There were 3,036 line items in the budget. 3,036. I know this because I looked at every single line item in the budget, and it took quite a ...

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Sex Scandal Coverage, Medicare Privatization and Open Phones

05/23/11 Robert Lorei
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Tags: Danny Schechter, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, sex, rape, media

Good afternoon, welcome to the Last call. I'm Rob Lorei. Coming up Danny Schechter, one time news director at WBCN-FM in Boston and former staffer at ABC News. He recently wrote an op-ed about the recent widely publicized sex-scandals in which he said:

"My colleague Mike Whitney asks: "So, what are the chances that Strauss-Kahn will get a fair trial now that he's been blasted as a serial sex offender in about 3,000 articles and in all the televised news reports?

"Do you remember any ...

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What happened in the just concluded Florida Legislative session?

05/12/11 Mitch Perry
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Tags: Janet Zink, st. petersburg times, Media, 2011 legislative session

St. Petersburg Times Tallahassee reporter Janet Zink discusses the just concluded Florida 2011 Legislative session, specifically the chaos that ensued on the last night of the session.

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Cuban Five advocates say trial journalists moonlighted as pro-US propagandists listen

05/09/11 Kate Bradshaw
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Tags: Cuban Five, Fidel Castro, Free the Cuban Five, Cuba, Miami, media, Poynter

For thirteen years members of the group known as the Cuban five have been in prison in the US. They were convicted on charges including espionage and conspiracy to commit murder after the Cuban military shot down two US planes in 1996. They were living in Florida at the time, and had allegedly infiltrated a network of anti-Castro Cuban exiles. A group that’s been fighting for the Cuban Five’s release says propaganda impeded their right to a fair trial.

The trial took place in Miami, where ...

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Last Call with Wayne Garcia

04/21/11 Mitch Perry
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Tags: Wayne Garcia, Media, politics, Creative Loafing

Former Creative Loafing columnist and political consultant Wayne Garcia talks about media and politics.

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Last Call with Dan Ruth

03/31/11 Mitch Perry
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Tags: Dan Ruth, Media, politics, State politics

Dan Ruth talks about his career and state/national and local politics.

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War correspondent talks about covering Afghanistan and Pakistan

03/28/11 Robert Lorei

Tags: Kim Barker, foreign correspondents, Afghanistan, Pakistan, war, media

Good morning, welcome to Radioactivity. I'm Rob Lorei. Our first guest today is Kim Barker, author of the new book THE TALIBAN SHUFFLE. She chronicles the years she spent reporting on the forgotten war, doing the “Taliban Shuffle” between Afghanistan and Pakistan after the U.S. military had decamped for Iraq. Barker was an unlikely foreign correspondent—she did not own a passport, spoke only English, and knew little to nothing about Osama bin Laden or Islam. But, in the wake of 9/11, her bos...

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NPR Ombudsman Alicia Shepard talks about public radio ethics and journalism

03/18/11 Robert Lorei
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Tags: NPR, Alicia Shepard, James O'Keefe, Ron Schiller, Rob Lorei, media

Good morning, Welcome to Radioactivity. I'm Rob Lorei. Coming up this hour an interview with the ombudsman at National Public Radio. In the wake of controversies involving an NPR executive's alleged comments to undercover conservative activists there was a vote last night in the House to defund NPR.

First up some listener comments about yesterday's discussion about the passage of the teacher merit pay bill in Tallahassee. Here's what some listeners had to say (tape).

The controversy g...

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National Freedom of Information Day listen

03/17/11 Zack Baddorf
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Tags: Freedom of Information, FOIA, St. Petersburg Times, Rick Scott, media

Wednesday was National Freedom of Information Day, a day designed to bring attention to the public’s right to oversee its government through open communication. About 50 people came together on the University of Florida campus yesterday evening to hear citizens, journalists and attorneys talk about the struggle to access public records and attend public meetings.

National Freedom of Information Day coincides with the birthday of former President James Madison, who’s considered by some to...

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