News & Media

Journalist and author Allister Sparks. Sparks is a fifth- generation South African. He heads the Johannesburg Institute for the Advancement of Journalism. In 1990, he published his historical study of South Africa called "The Mind of South Africa" (Knopf). His recent piece in "The New Yorker," called "The Secret Revolution" (April 11, 1994, p.56), reveals the little known, behind the scenes drama that started unfolding within South Africa almost 10 years ago.

Kemal Kurspahic. He was editor-in-chief of Sarajevo's only surviving daily newspaper, "Oslobodenje." ("Oslobodenje" means liberation in Serbo-Croatian.) Now he is Washington correspondent for the paper. It has been a trial to get out the paper each day. The staff braved sniper fire just to get to work. After the paper's high rise offices were gutted by mortar fire, publication was transferred to an underground bunker. Three staffers were killed covering the war and Kurspahic himself was wounded.

Once one of the most powerful reviewers in America, The New York Times' former drama critic, Frank Rich. It was a great day for many playwrights when RICH stepped down as critic late last year. The British press once dubbed him "The Butcher of Broadway;" playwright David Mamet called him "a terrible critic. . . an unfortunate blot on the American theatre." Some playwrights and directors even chose to take their work elsewhere to save themselves from a review by Rich.

Colombian journalist Maria Jimena Duzan helped expose the connection between Colombia's drug traffickers and the nation's military in 1988. Duzan and her paper, El Espectador, were the targets of death threats and attacks. By 1990 all of the members of the paper's former investigative unit were either dead or in exile. Duzan went into exile, but her sister, a documentary film maker, was murdered. Duzan returned to Columbia in 1992. She has a new book, "Death Beat: A Colombian Journalist's Life Inside the Cocaine Wars." (HarperCollins)

Commentator Maureen Corrigan has a review of a new biography of a turn of the century journalist: "Nellie Bly: Daredevil, Reporter, Feminist." (Times Books).

Journalist Misha Glenny. Glenny has been covering the war in former Yugoslavia--first as correspondent for the BBC and now as an independent journalist. He is the author of the book "The Fall of Yugoslavia." He will talk about the recent mortar attack on the market in Sarajevo and the effects of the recent downing by NATO forces of four Serbian warplanes.

TV critic David Bianculli will review the television coverage of the Olympic skating showdown.

Doctor of Psychology and editorial writer for the New York Times, Brent Staples. His new memoir is "Parallel Time: Growing Up in Black & White" (Pantheon). In 1984, Staples' younger brother, a cocaine dealer, was murdered. Staples began a process of reconsideration of the major questions in his life: his distance from his family by graduate study at the University of Chicago; the demise and racial divisions of his industrial hometown in Pennsylvania. On missing his brother's memorial, Staples writes "Choose carefully the funerals you miss."

Reporter for The Washington Post Nathan McCall. He's written a new autobiography, "Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Black Man in America." (Random House). When McCall was twenty years old he was sent to prison for armed robbery.

Tribute to Randy Shilts who died of AIDS. (Rebroadcast of 07/05/1990 and 04/23/1993)

Emmy-Award winning documentary filmmaker and producer, Thomas Lennon. His newest documentary examines the interaction between the tabloid press and the mainstream media: "Tabloid Truth: the Michael Jackson Scandal" (which airs on PBS stations February 15th). By watching the story of alleged sexual abuse swell from verifiable news to national spectacle, Lennon questions the state of American journalism, as CNN fights for the same stories once relegated to the National Inquirer.

War correspondent and CNN's international correspondent Peter Arnett. He's best known for his reporting from Baghdad during the allied bombing raid which heralded the start of the Gulf War. Arnett has over 30 years of experience reporting, mostly for the Associated Press. He won a Pulitzer for his coverage of the Vietnam war . Later he covered wars in Cyprus and Lebanon. In 1981 he made the switch to television, when he joined CNN. After learning the ropes, he was sent to El Salvador, Moscow, and then Iraq.

We speak with John Barth, senior producer of Marketplace and former colleague from WHYY, about life in L.A. following this morning's earthquake.

James Fallows is the Washington editor of "The Atlantic Monthly." He has a new book, "Looking at the Sun," (Pantheon) to be published in February about the Asian economy. He's written a three part series of articles drawn from the book in the Atlantic (the last one appears in the Jan 94 issue).

Bosnian Journalist Zlatko Dizdarevic, an editor of the only daily newspaper in Sarajevo which has continued to publish during the war, and the author of "Sarajevo Under Siege: A War Journal," (Fromm International). He read last night at the PEN American Center's benefit, "An Evening For Sarajevo".

Storyteller Garrison Keillor. He's the host and writer of "A Prairie Home Companion" on National Public Radio--a show that "pokes at the heart of American sensibilities and sensitivities." His new book is called "The Book of Guys" (Viking). Keillor has written five other books including the best-seller "Lake Wobegon Days."

Photographer J.S. Cartier. A native to France, Cartier and his wife, Anna, returned to France and Belgium to take photographs for their "Western Front Project." Seventy-five years after the end of the First World War, the remaining vestiges and veterans are few, and vanishing quickly. For two years the Cartiers traveled "The Western Front," talking with villagers and veterans, and documenting the remaining traces of the war.

NPR and NBC legal affairs corespondent, Nina Totenberg. In covering the Thomas/Hill Judiciary Committee hearings some conservative senators accused Totenberg of ruining the lives of both Thomas and Hill. Totenberg also brought the fact that Judge Douglas Ginsburg had smoked marijuana into the public eye, costing him a Supreme Court nomination. Totenberg's reports regularly for "Morning Edition," "Weekend Edition," and "All Things Considered."

Morning Edition host Bob Edwards. He's written a new book about his weekly conversations with the former sportscaster Red Barber. Edwards talked with Barber each Friday for 12 years. Barber died a year ago. Terry talks with Edwards about Red Barber and Morning Edition. Edwards' book is "Fridays with Red: A Radio Friendship" (Simon & Schuster). (THIS INTERVIEW CONTINUES INTO THE SECOND HALF)

Morning Edition host Bob Edwards. He's written a new book about his weekly conversations with the former sportscaster Red Barber. Edwards talked with Barber each Friday for 12 years. Barber died a year ago. Terry talks with Edwards about Red Barber and Morning Edition. Edwards' book is "Fridays with Red: A Radio Friendship" (Simon & Schuster).