With Bob Garfield away this week we were thrilled to see Brooke Gladstone get to be the snarky one, at least compared to guest host Mark Jurkowitz. Let's see, in a nutshell:
Popeye's spinach may actually have been hooch. (Brooke, were you smiling that entire interview, or just laughing?)
Daniel Ellsberg (pictured) is paying penance for not leaking from the Nixon White House sooner by urging everyone in Bush II land to become a sieve.
Canadian officialdom uses media to smear, too.
OTM has discovered "Second Life," and the fact that Mark Warner tried to use it for political gain. We do think someone flying around a press conference is a pretty cool idea, and we think Brooke enjoyed asking Warner if, as president, he'd be able to regulate the (virtual reality) game.
AP Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll, in sticking up for the AP Iraqi "fixer" in prison for no stated reason, notes that reporters often hang out with unsavory types, but that doesn't mean we are them. "How could anybody in Boston, Chicago, New York or Philadelphia have covered the Mob if they didn't get to know all these colorful characters a little bit? Does that mean that they should go to jail without charge because they hang out with guys that have names from 'The Sopranos?'"
We were even more thrilled to actually meet Brooke at a breakfast panel at Reuters, where she was the only thing keeping Columbia U's Todd Gitlin from smacking Vanity Fair's Michael Wolff [SEE VIDEO!]
And Brooke, since you were kind enough to ask, here's a quick hit on what we thought of last week's show:
We enjoyed it, really. But we can't help poking an eensy bit of fun:
The president used a non-political 9/11 speech for politics (shocking!).
The administration used the press to foment its own agenda in the leadup to the Iraq war (even more shocking — well, a little surprising they were so good at using their own leaks to prove the points they wanted to make)
You can make $1,000 if you get your congressional rep to post his/her sked online. A new (and surprisingly capitalistic) non-profit model.
LonelyGirl's a fake, so Bob won't have to rip out his own kidney on a live webcast.
Amanda Ernst
