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Examining the trope of the political "outsider"; the relationship between polls and media coverage of candidates; the movie Spotlight; and the "Ferguson Effect". (episode)
Marco Rubio has been polling at a steady third - or lower - for months, so why have so many in the media tapped him as the favorite to win the Republican nomination?
Do candidates get more coverage because they're polling well, or do they poll well because they get more coverage? We're teaming up with FiveThirtyEight to search for an answer.
Pundits are surprised at the draw of "outsider" candidates like Trump, Carson, Fiorina, and Sanders this year. They shouldn't be.
Law Professor Jeffrey Fagan debunks the "Ferguson effect" theory - the idea that increased visibility and public scrutiny of police action impedes policing and encourages crime.
The new movie "Spotlight" depicts the Boston Globe's Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation that uncovered the systemic sexual abuse and widespread cover up in the Catholic church.
The WHO classified high consumption of processed meats like bacon and sausage as a class one risk factor for colorectal cancer. But contrary to headlines, it's NOT the same as smoking. (article)
A farewell to coverage of Joe Biden's non-existent presidential campaign. Plus: the misleading language of drone warfare; a film examines Dan Rather's downfall at CBS; and more. (episode)
We say goodbye to the coverage of a fictional candidate, as Vice President Joe Biden announced that his non-existent campaign would continue... not to exist.
With House Republicans revisiting the 2012 Benghazi consulate attacks, we revisit a 2014 segment about one of the attack's victims, Sean Smith, better known online as "Vile Rat."
Following the The Intercept's release of secret documents regarding the US drone program, a look at the vague, misleading language used by the Administration to describe drone attacks.
A new California law requires police to get a warrant before searching your electronic data. Bob talks to State Sen. Mark Leno, a co-sponsor of the bill, about its implications.
More than 25 years after the Lockerbie bombing, a filmmaker travels to Libya to make sense of the unresolved attack and discovers some damning new ledes.
The film "Truth" relives the bungled CBS report on President George W. Bush's national guard record, and how it brought down the careers of Dan Rather and Mary Mapes.
Bob speaks with Star Trek star and multimedia phenomenon, George Takei. (article)
A requiem for Playboy's nudes. Plus: Bernie Sanders versus the media, a major privacy case in Europe, and more. (episode)
Reminder: a debate isn't an election. After this week's Democratic debate, pundits and online polls came to different conclusions about who "won" the night. Bob weighs in.
During the debate, Bernie Sanders took on too-big-to-fail banks, economic inequality, climate change, and the media. He's been fighting against the latter for a long time.
Bob talks to Frank Newport, editor-in-chief of Gallup, about the organization's decision to stop tracking the presidential primaries after nearly 80 years of polling the horse race.
A big decision from Europe's highest court offers some hope for the future... of privacy.
Playboy strips what made it iconic: the nude pictorial. In our requiem for the Playmate centerfold, we look back at the history and cultural impact of the magazine.
An hour on the Supreme Court, an institution as secretive as it is powerful -- and how we understand it. Plus: shopping for plaintiffs, press influence on the court, and a song. (episode)
At a time when digital connectivity rules, the nine justices of the Supreme Court operate in intentional, analog obscurity. A special look into our highest court.
With the expertise of seasoned SCOTUS reporters, we've put together a handy guide for the discerning news consumer to make sense of the court, its decisions, and its coverage.
Plaintiffs who come to symbolize major supreme court cases are often carefully cast by advocates and public-interest lawyers.
Does the liberal intellectual press really influence the Supreme Court?
Cultural depictions of the Supreme Court can shed light upon the walled-off world of the justices. But does the court derive power from its inaccessibility?
Supreme Court justices refuse to allow filming in the court during oral arguments and on decision days. We consider the arguments for and against -- and the justices sing a song.
This week's show is all going to be all about the Supreme Court, and we were excited about a particular segment on transparency... until the Court made it totally obsolete on Monday. (article)
In 2011, a reporter asked for Oregon's gun ownership stats. The legislature quickly made that data private. Plus: a father explains why his son's killer shouldn't be named by the press. (article)
A deep dive into cancer: in the media, in language, and in our mind's eye. (episode)
Siddhartha Mukherjee, author of The Emperor of All Maladies, charts cancer’s 2,500 year history.
The latest cancer cures, fundraising campaigns, and miraculous survival stories are ubiquitous in the news— but cancer coverage rarely reflects real-world cancer incidence rates.
A rare muscle cancer made David Grover sick—and famous—when he was just a kid. But then the media moved on.
We tend to describe cancer with war metaphors: “battling” the disease, winning the “fight.” But this war language might actually be distorting how we think about cancer prevention.
Receiving a cancer diagnosis can be like entering a foreign land where you don't speak the language.