From WNYKRZK in New York, this is NPR's On the Media.

I'm Brooke Gladstone.

And I'm Bob Garfield.

It's still unclear whether democracy will really take hold in Iraq,

but at least one Western import does seem to be sticking.

Reality TV.

Ever since the January elections there,

one of the hottest primetime attractions has been a daily hour-long program on Alarakea, the state-run channel set up by American occupiers in 2003. The show is called Terror in the Hands of Justice, and it features captured insurgents or alleged insurgents confessing to their crimes,

abductions, car bombings, rape, and beheadings.

Sometimes they're berated by family members of victims on screen,

all to drive home the point that these men are utterly contemptible, morally bankrupt,

and in some cases even sexually deviant.

Steve Negus wrote about the show last week for the Financial Times,

and he joins me on the line from Baghdad.

Steve, thanks for joining us.

Glad to be here.

Thank you.

Is the point to have a kind of Iraq's most wanted and to generate tips from the public?

Is it to discredit and humiliate the insurgency?

What are they after in airing these confessions? Well, I think it's both. I mean, three months ago, you know, the insurgency

was somewhat of an invisible frightening omnipresent force in a lot of parts of Iraq. If you were

cooperating with the Americans or working with Iraqi security forces, it felt like it was all around

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