Radio Sweethearts

Hey there, media fans! Brooke’s back this week, which means that Bob is back to his usual self. In a way, it’s both a good thing and a bad thing.

This week’s first story, however, most definitely falls under the banner of very bad things.

It’s the fortieth anniversary of the My Lai Massacre, which means that the My Lai massacre leads this week’s episode. What can I say about such a horrible event that’s fresh and insightful? It was awful, a horrible humanitarian tragedy, and I can’t really elaborate on that.

“On the Media” knows this, which is why the story is about Seymour Hersh, the journalist who broke the My Lai massacre story. Hersh has a pretty incredible story of journalistic research prowess. It’s a great lesson on how if enough questions are asked, if enough doors are banged on, and if enough people get annoyed, eventually, answers will come.

Listen to the unedited (!) version of the interview.

Side note: We typically write our recaps from the podcast version of the show. You should totally listen to the unedited version - not only do you get the story exactly as the source tells it, but you can figure out a lot about how audio editing for clarity works. A ton of interesting points don’t make it into the final version, and you get to hear Brooke asking all of the questions. It’s really fabulous. OK, public service announcement concluded. Back to the recap.

Hersh also broke the story of the prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib. I have to tell you, I’m blown away by Hersh’s resourcefulness and tenacity. He’s also got a brilliant sense of humanity. This paragraph on Abu Ghraib almost made me cry:

“So when the child came back, she moved out of the house, left her husband, left her family. Every weekend she began to get tattoos, dark tattoos. Every time they saw her, more and more tattoos. Eventually she filled up her body, up to the neck, with dark tattoos. And the woman said to me at one point, it was as if she had wanted to change her skin.”

I’m writing this on my third time listening to this podcast, and it’s really getting to me. I’m not sure how public radio - and brilliant journalism in general - can manage to make my stomach turn and my eyes start stinging, but damn, Seymour Hersh is a Real American Journalism Hero.

He ends the interview by telling Brooke, “Bye, kiddo!” Somehow, I don’t think this is degrading to the amazing Ms. Gladstone. It’s kind of adorable. I picture Hersh as this sweet, grandfatherly type who totally pinched Ms. Gladstone on the cheek and slipped her a few Werther’s Originals.

I feel like I’m rushing through this week’s recap a bit, and  a lot of it is the fact that the reporting is quite stellar this week - there’s very little I can add to it, and I’m not even going to try to snark on the My Lai massacre.

Next up - the rest of the world has a love-hate relationship with America. It’s so appropriate that Bob takes this story, given my love-hate relationship with him.

Bob then transitions to a story on the power of war photography. Bob mentions a line in a wire story on Fallujah that made him get all choked up in a way that no photo ever could, and in this moment, he’s redeemed himself. I like to think that he, too, is sitting alone in his apartment, snacking on some apples and cheese and getting all misty-eyed about journalism.

Remember what I said a few paragraphs ago about having little to add this week and nothing that I felt comfortable snarking on?

Immediately following Bob’s story on war photography, Brooke has a story on the photojournalism involved in a different kind of war: the American people vs. Britney Spears.

Back before we all lost our sense, celebrity gossip was covered by sites and magazines that were built specifically for that kind of news. You don’t see the Superficial covering Ben Bernanke, which is precisely the reason that one would think that the Atlantic Monthly could maybe refrain from putting Britney Spears on their cover. It’s not like this is an exclusive feature opportunity, and they’re the freaking Atlantic Monthly, not Us Weekly.

Brooke interviews David Samuels, the man who is singlehandedly trying to ruin a high-class journalistic institution. Samuels’ story focuses mostly on X17 photography and the cadre of Brazilian dudes who get paid ridiculously to follow Brit around and snap photos.

I think Brooke is feeling the sting of having Bob get one of the better stories this week, because mid-interview, she says this about the paparazzi-celebrity relationship:

“A cynical person might say that parasites don’t survive if their host doesn’t survive.”

Oh, Brooke. You’ve just said so much about the state of American journalism in so few words. Way to go, kiddo.

This recap was written by Kerry, who will one day make it a whole week without allowing public radio to make her sad. It was edited by Matthew, who, if he were here, would go put Mary Weiss’ “Cry About the Radio” on the turntable to make Kerry feel better.