Obama delivers major Middle East address. TV Upfronts 2011. Commenting on comment board cretins. Caltech and Fuller in a virtuous partnership.
Obama delivers major Middle East address
Today, President Obama gave his first major speech on U.S. policy in the Middle East and North Africa since the killing of Osama bin Laden and the eruption of unrest in the Arab world. The President unveiled his administration’s policy priorities, aiming his words at audiences in the Middle East as well Americans here. President Barack Obama called for Syrian President Bashar Assad to lead his country to democracy or ``get out of the way'' and he also said the United States has a historic opportunity and the responsibility to support the rights of people clamoring for freedoms. The U.S. government has been criticized for what some call contradictory positions towards different Arab regimes. Did President Obama answer the key question: “Where will the U.S. go from here?” Do you support the new financial aid packages? What was missing from the speech? Should he have said more about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?
Guests:
Samer Shehata, Assistant Professor of Arab Politics at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University
Blake Hounshell, Managing Editor, Foreign Policy magazine
Anthony Shadid, Baghdad bureau correspondent for the New York Times
Shadi Hamid, Director of Research, Brookings Doha Center & Fellow, Saban Center for Middle East Policy
Salam Al-Marayati, President, Muslim Public Affairs Committee
TV Upfronts 2011
It’s “upfronts” week, in television lingo. That’s when all the major networks release their program schedules for the upcoming year to advertisers. CBS announced a handful of changes, including moving CSI to Wednesday and The Good Wife to Sunday. But their biggest news is that Ashton Kutcher will be the Two and a Half Men replacement. (Apparently there was a personnel issue with Charlie Sheen.) NBC and ABC are trying to rebuild, each with new shows set in the early 1960s, a la Mad Men. Fox is betting big on X Factor, Terra Nova and The New Girl, and also announced that Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane will oversee a new version of The Flintstones, targeted for 2013. Despite labor strife roiling the NFL, ESPN execs expressed optimism in their wares. We’ll find out what’s hot and what’s not from Variety’s Brian Lowry. Will there be any new must-see TV? Can Two and a Half Men survive without Sheen? How predictive are the upfronts, in terms of what viewers will ultimately get?
Guest:
Brian Lowry, Media Columnist, Chief TV critic for Variety
Commenting on comment board cretins
Ah, the internet. There’s so much about it that we love: the instant information, the interaction and the communal vibe. But as anyone who reads or contributes to comments boards knows, this back-and-forth can be a double-edged sword. Commenters, sometimes emboldened by anonymity, leave cruel, hurtful and incendiary comments. Following the recent revelations about Arnold Schwarzenegger, there was no shortage of furious fingers. Some of the comments were compassionate. Some argued that the public should respect the family’s privacy. But many were simply tossed out there with total disregard for the additional hurt they might cause to Schwarzenegger, Maria Shriver or the truly innocent victims, their children. When CBS correspondent Lara Logan was attacked in Egypt, comment boards were covered with ugly comments blaming the victim, saying she was too blonde or too female to be in a danger zone. News organizations appreciate the input, but have been grappling with how to manage these hotbeds of hotheads. NPR and the Los Angeles Times are moving to more tightly moderated comments, sometimes requiring approval before they are posted. But how do they decide what’s appropriate and what isn’t? Are you a fan of comment boards? Should they be more controlled or less? What should the guidelines be? Leave a comment.
Caltech and Fuller in a virtuous partnership
Can science explain why we “do good?” The Travis Research Institute at Fuller Theological Seminary and Caltech have been researching what happens in the brain that leads some people to act in a virtuous manner. The goal of this research is to explore the empirical and philosophical underpinnings of virtuous action. The research team used a new experimental approach to studying generosity in the laboratory and incorporated new data on how brain activity contributes to virtuous behavior. With the results, they are hoping to explain how behavior and brain activation relate to each other and what causes us to make virtuous decisions. If there is a proven connection between brain activity and virtue does that mean that some people’s brains are wired to be generous and others not? What does that say about free will?
Guests:
Steven R. Quartz, Caltech Professor of Philosophy and leader of the Brain, Mind and Society PhD Program at Caltech. His research focuses on fundamental problems of the mind—how the mind emerges from the developing brain and how we make decisions, including those with moral dimensions.
Warren S. Brown, Director of the Travis Research Institute and Professor of Psychology at Fuller Seminary. He is most actively involved in neuroscience research related to the cognitive and psychosocial disabilities in a congenital brain malformation called agenesis of the corpus callosum.