Stories by Rory O'Connor
Filmmaker and journalist Rory O'Connor is the author of "Shock Jocks: Hate Speech and Talk Radio" (AlterNet Books, 2008). O'Connor also writes the Media Is A Plural blog.
The notion that the days of right-wing dominance of the airwaves may well be numbered is rapidly becoming a reality.
Posted on Jun 20, 2008
Talk radio "shock jocks" are fretting publicly about the supposed return of the long-defunct Fairness Doctrine.
Posted on Jun 11, 2008
Shock radio host Ingraham is a master of sounding funny and appealing while dishing out the same hate speech as Sean Hannity.
Posted on Jun 7, 2008
An excerpt from AlterNet's newest book,
Shock Jocks: Hate Speech & Talk Radio.
Posted on May 23, 2008
This quick-witted woman has shattered another glass ceiling and is taking her rightful place in the traditional boys' club of big-time politics.
Posted on Apr 10, 2008
By mocking the media, quoting Saturday Night Live, and "practically browbeating reporters," Clinton's campaign lived to fight another day.
Posted on Mar 5, 2008
McKinnon, the media mastermind who helped launch Bush into office, says he won't attack Obama.
Posted on Feb 20, 2008
Clinton won by not losing and Obama lost by not winning.
Posted on Feb 1, 2008
The real racial dynamics of the Democratic race are beginning to emerge.
Posted on Jan 28, 2008
Why should ABC and Fox get to decide who is a viable candidate for president?
Posted on Jan 3, 2008
Why should ABC and Fox get to decide who is a viable candidate for president?
Posted on Jan 2, 2008
When seeking the best news of 2007, maybe we should look to ourselves, rather than the mainstream media sources writing the news to begin with.
Posted on Dec 21, 2007
It didn't take long for Don Imus' Big Media and Big Politics enablers to crawl out of the woodwork and embrace the shock jock all over again.
With a list of Imus's top 10 enablers.
Posted on Nov 19, 2007
The "Rasputin of radio" is back, ready to beat down the defenseless for more cheap laughs.
Posted on Nov 2, 2007
Economist Paul Krugman on how the right-wing media machine is destroying social progress.
Posted on Oct 26, 2007
Here's a look at O'Reilly's latest racial gaffe from his eye-opening visit to Harlem, plus the "lowlights" of his thoughts on race over the last few years.
Posted on Sep 26, 2007
A good friend mourns the passing of visionary social activist, human rights defender and Body Shop founder Dame Anita Roddick.
Posted on Sep 11, 2007
All the fear of unfiltered, unmediated questions delivered directly from the electorate was misplaced. It was CNN and the candidates who let us down.
Posted on Jul 24, 2007
No one should still wonder about the possibility, much less the efficacy, of 'citizen journalism.' But, more importantly, we should ask if more participation and better information will make us happier.
Posted on Jul 3, 2007
When a small Idaho newspaper held a mirror up to their community and exposed rampant pedophilia, they paid a heavy price at first. But their courageous journalism eventually paid off.
Posted on Jun 18, 2007
Michael Savage thinks gay parenting is child abuse and Bill O'Reilly boasts of being part of the "white, Christian, male power structure." It's time we build a new structure.
Posted on Jun 12, 2007
Ever wonder how writers know how to depict the FBI in films? Well, apparently they hold seminars to make sure they are portrayed in the best light.
Posted on Jun 7, 2007
Other than the desire to shock listeners -- and thereby create controversy, grow audiences and sell advertising -- the current spate of repulsive shock-jock gibberish all share something else: a salary from CBS.
Posted on May 16, 2007
Thursday is World Press Freedom Day -- a time to remember and celebrate the crucial role a free press plays in democracy and development.
Posted on May 1, 2007
Bowing to pressure, Ken Burns decided to amend his new PBS documentary about World War I that did not include Latinos. Let's hope PBS now amends their decision-making process.
Posted on Apr 13, 2007
The corporate overlords at CBS and NBC won't fire Imus unless they have to for financial reasons. So let's support the sponsors who have pulled out, and lean on the ones who haven't ... yet.
Posted on Apr 11, 2007
Filmmaker Ken Burns has come under intense criticism for not including any Hispanic Americans in his new 14-hour PBS documentary about World War II.
Posted on Apr 2, 2007
A recent New York Times article about the Libby trial is another example of their weird world view. Leave it to the New York Times to pronounce something "corrupt" and then embrace it as "crucial."
Posted on Mar 28, 2007
Scooter Libby faces up to 25 years in prison for obstructing the investigation into the leak of a CIA agent's identity, but he didn't do it alone ...
Posted on Mar 6, 2007
Does everyone's favorite conservative sociopath warrant sympathy or antipathy?
Posted on Mar 6, 2007
Purporting to analyze the media's cozy relationship to those in power, PBS's new documentary series misses the boat...
Posted on Feb 12, 2007
The trial of Scooter Libby reveals that the big-time media is hopelessly, helplessly broken...
Posted on Feb 6, 2007
CBS's chief foreign correspondent notified peers that the network won't broadcast her grisly Baghdad story "that is largely being ignored."
Posted on Jan 26, 2007
Scooter Libby is charged with lying to a grand jury during their investigation of the outing of Valerie Plame.
Posted on Jan 24, 2007
What changes and trends can we expect on the U.S. media scene in the coming new year?
Posted on Dec 29, 2006
CBS News Chief Sean McManus discusses the future's newsroom, citizen media, and the failure of pre-Iraq media.
Posted on Dec 20, 2006
A new community of expert and amateur readers grades the news as it happens...
Posted on Nov 27, 2006
A new book by an Emmy Award-winning journalist chronicles the exploits of the "triple-crossing" superspy who outwitted and outgunned our intelligence agencies, Ali Mohamed.
Posted on Nov 15, 2006
Time's iconoclastic editor Rick Stengel charts a new course for an old weekly ...
Posted on Oct 11, 2006
A formal declaration of war could be the first step to victory.
Posted on Sep 20, 2006
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