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

Bob Garfield is away.

I'm Brooke Gladstone.

This week in Libya, the regime of MoMar Gaddafi continues what seems to be an inevitable

slide into the dustbin of history.

On Monday, Libyan rebels confidently sent out a mass text, reading in part,

we congratulate the Libyan people for the fall of MoMAQadhafi.

We're hearing reports that two of Moammar Gaddafi's sons have been arrested by the rebels, including Saifal Islam.

But on Tuesday, Saif al-Islam was clearly free.

New York Times Cairo Bureau Chief David Kirkpatrick is in Tripoli, where he says information and misinformation commingle freely.

For instance, when journalists were held captive at a hotel in the city,

the standoff ended with a sudden change in allegiances when some journalists gave the Gaddafi loyalists guarding the reporters the gift of truth.

Later that day, a couple of Arabic language fluent journalists sat down with them and said,

look around you. The big guys have all left. They've left you here alone. How much longer do you

think you can take this? And according to several journalists who were there, the chief guard,

around that point, broke down in tears. They surrendered their weapons, not to the rebels, but to several journalists who were there, the chief guard, around that point, broke down in tears.

They surrendered their weapons, not to the rebels, but to the journalists.

We reached Kirkpatrick on Thursday at his hotel as fighters ran by outside his window, and reporters battled for clarity.

Libya is a unique opportunity for propaganda because the Qaddafi regime maintains such an information vacuum.

That is, no independent press, people afraid to talk candidly on the phone,

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