Chilling details about Norway attack raise questions about right-wing extremism. The Update – Wikileaks and the whistleblowers. Debt ceiling debate: another deadline missed. Tracking the wake of Hackgate. Make way for the Groomzilla!
Chilling details about Norway attack raise questions about right-wing extremism
The man behind the gruesome attacks in Norway appeared in court today. Anders Behring Breivik entered a not guilty plea, but confessed to the bombing in Oslo’s government headquarters and the youth camp massacre, which killed a total of 76 people. More chilling details about Breivik are now emerging. The man who yelled, "I'll kill you all," while gunning down youths is believed to be an anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant right-wing extremist who wanted to start a revolution. His goal: to purge Europe of Muslims and punish the “indigenous Europeans” for failing to protect the continent from "cultural suicide." More attention is now being focused on the rise of right-wing extremism in many parts of Europe, where German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron have all declared that multiculturalism has failed. What about in the United States? Are we too focused on the threat from Islamist extremists? If so, are we overlooking the risks of homegrown terrorists? What can and should be done to prevent such dangers here?
Guests:
Teri Schultz, NPR reporter based in Brussels, currently in Oslo, Norway
David McIntyre, Fellow of Homeland Security Institute; Vice-President, Academics, National Graduate School; Former Dean of Faculty at the National War College
The Update – Wikileaks and the whistleblowers
Today, AirTalk kicks off a new series, cleverly titled: The Update. Much of the time media outlets focus on the latest analysis and the news of the day. But where does a story go when it falls off the front page? We aim to find out. Today, we catch you up on all things Wikileaks. It was a story that dominated headlines for weeks on end in 2010 and earlier this year. A young American soldier, Private Bradley Manning, leaked hundreds of thousands of top secret government documents -- including diplomatic cables, war logs and even military video from Iraq -- to an anonymous activist group who in turn leaked it to top news organizations. Manning and Wikileaks' contentious front-man Julian Assange, were deemed the most notorious whistleblowers on the planet. The leaks shook diplomatic relations around the world. Then in a bizarre turn, Assange was arrested for a sexual assault allegation stemming from Sweden. What’s the latest on Assange's legal troubles? Private Manning has been incarcerated for more than a year. How’s he faring? When will his trial proceed? Where is public sentiment today? Is Wikileaks dead? Or might there be more fall out in the future?
Guest:
David Leigh, The Guardian's investigations executive editor; Co-author, WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy; Leigh worked closely with Julian Assange in releasing Wikileaks content
Debt ceiling debate: another deadline missed
This weekend marked yet another self-imposed deadline for congress to agree to a debt ceiling deal. Unfortunately the weekend came and went and there’s no deal in sight, in spite of repeated threats from credit ratings agencies, Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s, that they’ll cut the US bond rating if a deal doesn’t happen soon. Now both the democrats and the republicans have come out with their own plans to solve the debt crisis but neither looks like it can bridge the gap between the two parties…and the REAL deadline of August 2nd is looming. In fact, it’s looming large, congress has to get a deal on the floor by early this week to give it enough time to make it through both houses. So, what’s in both deals? How are the markets reacting? Where is the common ground? And in a month of outrageous political theater, who’s about to get booed off the stage?
Guests:
Phil Mattingly, Bloomberg New Reporter
John Avlon, Senior political columnist for Newsweek and The Daily Beast
Tracking the wake of Hackgate
For more than three weeks the Hackgate scandal has ricocheted intensely through Rupert Murdoch's media empire and beyond. It originated at one of his British tabloids, News of the World. Unscrupulous reporters and editors were directly and indirectly involved in hacking the voicemails of up to 4,000 individuals. After years of incremental developments, Hackgate exploded this month with fresh allegations about one phone-hacking target. Allegedly, a News of the World investigator hacked the voicemail of a teenage kidnapping victim. It was done in such a way that led the victim's parents to believe she was still alive, though she had already been murdered. That event occurred in 2002, but new information revealed the worst of the allegations thanks to dogged reporting by British newspaper, The Guardian, along with The New York Times. Since then, the News of the World has been shut down. Reporters and editors have been arrested. Murdoch was dragged in front of British Parliament, and it goes on from there. The tentacles of News Corp. seem to touch all echelons of media and politics. NPR's media correspondent David Folkenflick has been covering Hackgate endlessly of late. What new information has emerged? What are the connections to American politics? What does this story say about press regulation? What about media ownership and concentration? How will it change relationships between journalists, media owners, politicians and police? What are the most significant aspects of Hackgate?
Guest:
David Folkenflik, NPR's media correspondent
Make way for the Groomzilla!
When weddings were always paid for by the bride’s parents, planning for that event was the sole responsibility of the bribe (and her mother!). But as gender roles shift and more couples are paying for weddings themselves, men have become more involved in wedding planning and that’s where Sophisticated Groom comes in. The quarterly magazine opens up the sacrosanct world of wedding planning to the soon-to-be husbands with ideas for the perfect proposal, great honeymoon destinations or wedding fashion dos and don’ts. Sophisticated Groom also offers relationship advice or financial tips to ensure that the fiancé’s attitude is as groomed as his look or as well adjusted as his tie. For all its promise though the magazine is a risky venture to say the least. Men may want to keep track of the cost of the wedding or weigh-in the choice of wine but will they really buy a magazine that tells them about linens and china patterns? Or are the publishers hoping that women will buy it for their prospective spouses? If you are a guy getting married, how involved are you in the wedding planning and are you a good candidate for a magazine like this?
Guest:
J. Kevin Powell, Publisher of Sophisticated Groom magazine