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

I'm Brooke Gladstone.

And I'm Bob Garfield.

The public is on edge, especially the Democratic half of the public,

wondering if, when, or how the Bush administration will exploit the threat of terrorist attack in the race for the presidency.

Many point to the recent orange alert, suspiciously timed, they say, to

coincide with the Democratic Convention. There certainly is circumstantial evidence to back the claim

of political engineering, but no incontrovertible smoking gun, no document or on-the-record,

highly placed source to prove it. And there may never be. The media are in a difficult position.

When the political pitch is obvious, as when Homeland Security Chief Tom Ridge praised the

president's leadership when issuing his orange alert, newspapers all but ignored that part of his

statement at first. Then, after a few days, some editorial pages did cite it as contributing,

at the very least, to the appearance of a political motive. Should the media ignore these cues

to avoid the charge of bias, or should they note them as a legitimate part of the story?

We have an upcoming case in point, and we leave it to you, the listener, to observe how the government and the media play it in the weeks to come.

On September 9th, Tom Ridge will announce the beginning of National Preparedness Month.

That's a month-long slate of activities designed to promote public awareness.

Here's the take of Bob Harris, writing in a blog called This Modern World.com.

Why September 9th? That's awfully late if it's supposed to be the entire month.

My guess, thinking like Carl Rove, this year's 9-11 anniversary falls on a Saturday.

So an announcement on the date, or even Friday before, would only get a burst of free media on a weekend.

Now, by timing it for the 6 p.m. news on Thursday, it reaches the Friday papers and thus becomes

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