Bye-bye Bush

Watch part two

This week on The Listening Post, we say ‘Bye-bye Bush’ and examine how the media are writing the first draft of his legacy. Plus, a look at a subject less discussed in the media: human trafficking.

In this week’s News Divide we look at how history will judge George Bush, the outgoing US president. We have reported in the past on The Listening Post on the love-hate relationship between the Bush administration and the media.

But in the modern age, politicians like Bush seldom leave their political obituaries to be decided by historians alone. They now mount sophisticated PR campaigns, replete with carefully planned interviews and spin doctors to make sure their story is spun positively.

Bush’s defining policy, however, must be Iraq. There this week, the Iraqi media hit
back – literally! We examine the campaign that is being brought down by a pair of size ten shoes.

In part two, we turn our attention to human trafficking: the equivalent of 21st century slavery. It is a truly global phenomenon and affects many countries across the world. But given its covert nature, it is a subject that rarely gets the media coverage that it deserves, especially with the demise of  investigative journalism.

The Listening Post’s Meenakshi Ravi reports on the subject and whether news coverage can really make a difference.

In this week’s Newsbytes: Egypt bans all satellite navigation technology in mobile phones, citing national security concerns; the continued detention of an Iraqi photojournalist in a US-Iraqi prison despite an Iraqi court order for his release; China is rolling back its recently granted media freedoms; advertising is banned from prime-time French state TV and the Economist says ‘sorry’ for failing to see the economic crash coming.

Our internet Video of the Week is a mashed-up musical courtesy of those
funny guys from 23/6.com. They have glued together audio and video from
various cable news channels to create a sonic masterpiece.

This episode of The Listening Post aired from Friday, December 19, 2008