NPR’s one hour long weekly podcast, “On the Media” is an interesting find on the media front for holding politics in the “Fourth Estate” accountable for their actions. Originally created with intent to discuss "…anything that reaches a large audience—either electronically or otherwise…. Plus, throw into that anything that covers First Amendment issues; anything that has to do with freedom of speech, privacy, is also in our portfolio,” the podcast plays host to fighting many discourses within politics and the media.
Not nearly as popular as it should be, the podcast broadcasts weekly about the twists and often untruths that politicians and campaigns often promote. In their feature “Media Scrutiny Theater,” the NPR program serves up ongoing commentary in the form of two shadowed cartoons in a dark theater watching a screening.
Even though a new video hasn’t been posted since April 2012, we can only hope that “On the Media” continues to make these videos, especially considering that this presidential election has faced quite possibly the ugliest campaign battle this country has seen. Without a doubt, in any election there has to be subtle and not-so-subtle ads with the sole purpose of personal benefit and the swaying of votes. And for this, the necessity for non-partisan motivated platforms to expose them is needed to at least attempt to counter media exploitation.
Here is just one of their videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2rTVCaPGMcs