Super Tuesday

US voters were bombarded with more coverage this year than any other primary elections in US history

This week on The Listening Post, Richard Gizbert looks at the integral role the US media played in the biggest Tuesday in the history of US primaries.

Dubbed alternately Super Duper or Tsunami Tuesday, this year more voters in more states were bombarded with more coverage and more adverts than ever before.
 
The race for the Democratic nomination has been portrayed as the tightest in living memory and the media has played a significant role in highlighting the differences and antagonisms between the Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama candidacies.

On the Republican side the media has seen even more negativity as the divisive figure of John McCain emerges as the frontrunner.
 
Also in the show we take a look at terminology. What makes a “terrorist” a “terrorist”?

Answer: When news media decide the terms “freedom fighter” or “rebel” are not good enough. But who is creating these distinctions, and what effect is it having on how the viewing public grasps the complex international issues of today? 
 

International outcry has convinced the Afghan senate to rethink Kaambaksh’s death sentence

In Newsbytes this week we look at Afghan justice, and how the dark ways of the Taliban are not yet behind the country.

Pervez Kaambaksh is a 23-year-old student condemned to death for distributing an internet article critical of the Quran’s depiction of women amongst fellow journalism students.

An international outcry in the media has convinced the Afghan senate to rethink that sentence.
 
And Montel Williams, long-time fixture on American television, gets on the wrong side of Fox News over coverage of the Iraq war and four days later finds his nationally syndicated show cancelled. Coincidence?
 
All that and more, including some of the most expensive TV ads the world has ever seen.

Watch part one of this episode of The Listening Post on YouTube

Watch part two of this episode of The Listening Post on YouTube