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

Brooke Gladstone is out this week.

I'm Bob Garfield.

The world press convened this week in, of all out-of-the-way places, North Korea.

The leadership of the ordinarily locked-down police state took the unusual step of inviting selected news agencies into the country

ostensibly to witness the launch of a weather satellite.

Well, the world watched and North Korea failed today.

A total dud. It was all over so quickly, George, that rocket was only airborne for 81 seconds.

A long-range missile launch, ending with a rocket splintering into pieces over the ocean.

Okay, so it didn't go so well.

Quite the loss of face for the brand-smanking new Supreme Leader, Kim Jong-un, adding to the deep

curiosity about recent events.

Why take such a risk? Why flout an agreement for food aid

in exchange for a missile test moratorium practically before the ink was dry? And perhaps most of all,

why suddenly open the gates to the prying eyes of the international press? Earlier in the week,

the U.S. government had expressed its concern that reporters might be

playing into North Korea's hands.

A spokesperson from the National Security Council told Politico that, quote,

reporters have to be careful not to get co-opted.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know this is a propaganda exercise.

Of course, as events unfolded, it became apparent that even rocket scientists are fallible.

Speaking hours before Friday's launch, North Korea analyst B.R. Myers speculated that the point wasn't what the foreign media would see, but that they had converged on North Korea's capital to see it.

...