We broadcast excerpts from a recent panel presented by The New Yorker magazine. On the panel were network news anchors Peter Jennings, Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather. They discuss the presidential campaign and network news. The panel was moderated by Ken Auletta, a contributor to The New Yorker who writes the Annals of Communications column for the magazine.
Dangerfield died Tuesday at the age of 82. He recently published a book about his life, Rodney Dangerfield: It's Not Easy Bein' Me. This interview was originally broadcast on July 6, 2004.
Investigative reporters Donald Barlett and James Steele's new book is Critical Condition: How Health Care in America Became Big Business, and Bad Medicine. Bartlett and Steel have worked together for 30 years, winning two Pulitzer Prizes. They are currently editors-at-large at Time magazine
Film critic David Edelstein reviews the new Pixar animated film The Incredibles. Voiced by Craig T. Nelson and Holly Hunter, among others, the comic film tracks a family of superheroes who must abandon a quiet life in the suburbs to fight evil.
Reichl edited The Gourmet Cookbook, which includes more than 1,200 recipes culled from 60 years of the magazine's back issues. Reichl is the author of two best-selling memoirs, Tender at the Bone and Comfort Me with Apples. Before becoming editor of Gourmet, she was restaurant critic of The New York Times, and before that food editor of the Los Angeles Times.
TV critic David Bianculli reviews the new political mock documentary series, Tanner on Tanner. The four-part political satire was written by Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau and directed by Robert Altman. It airs Tuesdays in October on the Sundance Channel.
Actor Zach Braff talks about the TV comedy he stars in, Scrubs. Braff wrote and directed the feature film Garden State, which opened in theaters over the summer to critical acclaim. We also speak with the creator of Scrubs, producer Bill Lawrence.
Leigh became famous for her role in the Alfred Hitchcock film Psycho. She starred as Marion Crane, the young woman who killed in the shower by Norman Bates. Leigh wrote about the film in the 1995 book Psycho: Janet Leigh Behind the Scenes of The Classic Thriller. She died at 77.
Stewart hosts The Daily Show on Comedy Central. The show has won an Emmy, the coveted Peabody Award, and most recently, the Television Critics Association award. He has a new book, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction.
Dubose is co-author (with Jan Reid) of a new book about House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. Delay's nickname — and the name of the book — is The Hammer. DeLay was a small-town Texas exterminator who rose to be the most powerful man in Congress. Dubose was the editor of The Texas Observer for 11 years. He is also co-author, with Molly Ivins of Bushwhacked and Shrub.
Fallows is the national correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly. His latest article in the Atlantic is "Bush's Lost Year." Fallows has written seven books, including Breaking the News: How the Media Undermine American Democracy, and is a commentator on National Public Radio. His articles have appeared in The Industry Standard, Slate, The New York Times Magazine and other publications.
His new book is The World's Banker: A Story of Failed States, Financial Crises, and the Wealth and Poverty of Nations. Mallaby profiles World Bank leader James Wolfensohn, who came to the organization on 1995 determined to transform it.
Bonanno and his friend Andy Bichlbaum decided to go around the world posing as World Trade Organization representatives giving bogus talks to groups of experts. They fooled many. At their last fake WTO gathering, they rolled the camera, and made The Yes Men a documentary film that has received critical acclaim.
Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews a reissued book called Visa for Avalon by Bryher, the pen name of an Englishwoman named Annie Winifred Ellerman. Visa for Avalon is a political allegory first published in 1965.
