barack obama
The Listening Post

US elections and media blunders

Is the media to blame for intra-party bitterness among the Democrats?

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Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were involved in
a tough battle for the presidential candidacy [AFP] 

This week’s Listening Post asks why the media got the story of the Democratic presidential nomination so wrong so many times and looks forward to the ‘real’ campaign for the White House.

Plus how the Afghan government is clamping down on un-Islamic television.

The 2008 Democratic race for the presidential candidacy has been an unprecedented and, at times, ugly battle. But did the media get the story right – or did they help spin out the contest between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton?

And were some elements of the media to blame for fuelling the intra-party bitterness?

This ongoing saga has eclipsed all other, perhaps more worthy, news stories, and knocked Iraq off the top of the US news agenda.

We chart the trajectory of the Democratic race – the highs and lows, the twists and turns, the media mishaps and calamities. We also question the nature of the media’s approach to the two frontrunners, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

In the second half of the show, The Listening Post’s Meenakshi Ravi examines media restrictions and the concept of freedom of expression in post-Taliban Afghanistan.

Despite the seismic shifts in the social and media landscape of Afghanistan taboos remain. Six years since the Karzai coalition came into power, media producers and politicians alike are still grappling with notions of what is acceptable and where new boundaries of taste should lie.

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The Afghan government is locked in a battle
with broadcasters airing Indian soap operas

Soap operas that hail from India and are broadcast by the commercial station, Tolo TV, have been caught in the middle of the media debate.

We look at the stand-off between the ruling government and the broadcaster and ask how far Afghanistan still has to go, to achieve a free media.

In Newsbytes, we report on the deaths of two BBC journalists killed in the line of duty.

We hear about the latest media restrictions in Myanmar as satellite equipment is removed from the shelves by the authorities. ETA, the Basque separatist group, make their first attack on the media and France’s best-known presenter, known simply as PPDA is usurped by a glamorous and young Ferrari.

Finally, our Internet Video of the Week, offers you the Democratic presidential campaign condensed and crystallised in just one minute.

Watch part one of this episode of The Listening Post

Watch part two of this episode of The Listening Post

This episode of The Listening Post aired on Friday, 13 June, 2008

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