Media Roundtable

On the next Your Call, it's our Friday Media Roundtable. This week, we'll discuss coverage of the Obama administration's announcement of Osama Bin Laden's death and US relations with Pakistan. Who's asking questions about what this means for the so-called 'war on terror?' We'll be joined by the Guardian's Jonathan Steele, veteran journalist Paul Fitzgerald and Pakistani journalist Zahid Hussain joins us from Islamabad. Tune in live at 10 or send us an email at feedback@yourcallradio.org. Where did you see the best reporting this week? It's Your Call, with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
Paul Fitzgerald is a veteran Afghanistan journalist and co-author of Crossing Zero: The AfPak War at the Turning Point of American Empire.

Zahid Hussain is Senior Editor News Line and author of most recently The Scorpion's Tail: The Relentless Rise of Islamic Militants in Pakistan-And How It Threatens America.

Jonathan Steele is a Guardian columnist, roving foreign correspondent and author of Defeat: Why America and Britain Lost Iraq. Since 9/11 he has reported from Afghanistan and Iraq as well as on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

Click to Listen: Media Roundtable

Is torture still standard practice for the U.S.?

On the next Your Call, we'll have a conversation about U.S. torture policies. Revelations about the treatment of detainees in Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and other prisons, have shed light on U.S. torture policies. What happened to that conversation? Join us at 11 or send an email to feedback@yourcallradio.org. What do we know about the use of torture today? Has anything changed since President Obama took office? What will it take to bring this issue back into the public consciousness? It's Your Call, with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
Andy Worthington, British journalist and author of The Guantanamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America's Illegal Prison

Justine Sharrock, author of Tortured: When Good Soldiers Do Bad Things

Patricia Isasa, Argentinian torture survivor

Click to Listen: Is torture still standard practice for the U.S.?

Event:
Rose Aguilar is speaking at this weekend's Bioneers conference in San Rafael.
Women, Gender and Media: Changing the Conversation
Sunday, October 17, at 4:30pm

Media Roundtable

On the next Your Call, it's our Friday Media Roundtable. Harper's editor Scott Horton joins us to discuss his six-month investigation about three Guantanamo detainees who died in 2006. The U.S. government says they committed suicide. A former sergeant says they were tortured. Why is it getting so little coverage in the national media?

We'll also discuss the lack of coverage of the devastating storm that's left the Sioux Reservation in South Dakota without power, water, or heat. And we'll find out how reporters who have no choice but to cover Iran from outside the country are getting their stories. Where did you see the best reporting this week? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
Scott Horton, Harper's editor
Farnaz Fassihi, Wall Street Journal's Middle East bureau chief
Scott Waltman, Aberdeen American News reporter

Click to Listen: Media Roundtable

Your Call 042909 Why does torture capture the public's imagination?

Why does torture capture the public's imagination in a way that death wrought by war does not? On the next Your Call we will discuss the disparity between our national conversation on torture and the relative quiet about the death and destruction in Iraq and Afghanistan. Is it easier to imagine ourselves as the tortured, or the torturer, than as a soldier in the field? Send us an email at feedback@yourcallradio.org or join us live at 11 a.m. Does the scale of war make it harder to fathom, while torture is intimate enough to come alive in the imagination? It's Your Call with Sandip Roy and you.

Guests:
Richard Falk in Santa Barbara
Professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University, writer (the author or co-author of 20 books), speaker, activist on world affairs, and an appointee to two United Nations positions on the Palestinian territories.

Scott Horton in New York
Professor at Columbia Law School where he teaches law of armed conflict. He is also a contributing editor to Harper's Magazine and writes the No Comment blog

Uwe Jacobs in San Francisco
Clinical director for Survivor's International

Click to Listen: Why does torture capture the public's imagination?

Your Call 080708 The Dark Side of the War on Terror

Who should be held accountable for violations of international and domestic laws against torture? On the next Your Call, we'll have a conversation with investigative journalist Jane Mayer about her new book, The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals. In the name of the "war on terror," the United States has become a country where people are detained indefinitely without charge, and subjected to abuse and humiliation. Will the Bush administration ever be held responsible? How do we pull back from a culture of impunity? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar.

Guest:
Jane Mayer, investigative journalist

Click to Listen: The Dark Side of the War on Terror

Your Call 121407 Friday Media Roundtable

On the next Your Call it’s our Friday Media Roundtable where we look at how the news of the week was covered. Did you get all the information you needed about your world? This week we’ll speak with Mother Jones’ new Washington Bureau Chief, David Corn about the torture tapes, debates and the final days of the Iowa campaign. We’ll also speak with Matthew Bajko of the Bay Area Reporter about covering the Bay Area’s growing and diversifying queer community. We’ll also get an update on the Vallejo mayor’s race. What was your story of the week?

Guests:
Matthew Bajko in San Francisco
Staff writer and editor at the Bay Area Reporter, San Francisco's oldest and largest local newspaper serving the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities;

Alexander Cockburn
Together with Jeffrey St. Clair, edits the political newsletter CounterPunch. He also writes the "Beat the Devil" column for The Nation and a weekly syndicated column for the Los Angeles Times;

David Corn, in Washington DC
Mother Jones Washington Bureau Chief, formerly of the Nation.

Click to Listen: Friday Media Roundtable

Your Call 110907 Media Roundtable

On the Next Your Call it's our Friday Media Roundtable. This week we speak with LA Times consumer columnist David Lazarus about consumer safety and the credit crunch, with NPR ombudsman Lisa Shepard about interviewing torture victims in the presence of their torturers and with Al-Jazeera English México Correspondent Franc Contreras about one of the worst natural disasters in Mexican history, the flooding of Tabasco. What was your story of the week? It’s Your Call with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
David Lazarus in Los Angeles
Author of the Consumer Confidential column for the LA Times

Franc Contreras in México City, México
Al-Jazeera English’s México correspondent

Lisa Shepard in Washington DC
Ombudsman for NPR News. 

Click to Listen: Media Roundtable