Boeing Conspiracy Theories Take Flight. Plus, the Politics to TV News Pipeline

On the Media

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4.6 • 8.7K Ratings

🗓️ 29 March 2024

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Following the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, conspiracy theories proliferated. On this week’s On the Media, hear how memes and misinformation obscure the real causes of tragedies, from bridges to planes. Plus, what Ronna McDaniel’s hiring and firing from NBC News tells us about the revolving door from politics to tv news.

1. David Gilbert [@daithaigilbert], reporter for Wired covering disinformation, and Katya Schwenk [@ktyschwnk], reporter at The Lever, on why disasters are fertile ground for conspiracy theories, which obfuscate real quality control issues. Listen.

2. Michael Socolow [@MichaelSocolow], media historian at the University of Maine, on the history of the revolving door between politics and news.Listen.

3. Calvin Trillin, contributor at The New Yorker, on his career and his latest book, The Lede: Dispatches from a Life in the Press. Listen.

Transcript

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0:00.0	More and more and more people doing this thing where they're just asking questions.
0:04.3	By just talking about it, they are boosting signals.
0:07.6	After the Baltimore Bridge collapse and the failures at Boeing,
0:11.2	what are the real issues being drowned out by the just asking questions crowd?
0:17.0	From W NYC in New York, this is on the media, I'm Michael Lohanger.
0:22.0	Also on this week's show, NBC's hiring and firing of Rona McDaniel is just the latest
0:27.9	swing of the revolving door between politics and media.
0:31.4	There's Donna Brazil, George Stephanopoulos,
0:34.0	Jen sake, it's a very common practice.
0:36.7	The real issue is the role of independent journalism
0:40.7	in a democracy.
0:42.1	It's not Ronna McDaniel.
0:43.4	Plus Calvin Trillin reflects on changing tides in journalism.
0:48.3	I don't think very many people of my cohort woke up and said, I want to be a reporter.
0:54.1	Watergate might have changed that a bit.
0:56.5	It's all coming up after this.
1:00.3	From WNYC in New York, this is on the media. I'm Brooke Gladstone.
1:04.7	And I'm Michael Oanger.
1:07.8	At 129 a.m. on Tuesday, disaster struck.
1:11.2	In the US city of Baltimore,
1:12.6	examining the data recorder from the ship
1:15.3	that brought down a bridge killing six people.
	...

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