National Insecurity Blanket

The Washington Post has published a three-part series about the sprawling national security apparatus created since 9/11. The paper’s two year investigation found that national security grew to include more than 1,200 government organizations, nearly 2,000 private contractors and more than a million people with top-secret security clearance. Co-author Bill Arkin responds to concerns that the report reveals too much about America’s intelligence industry.

Audio Embed: BBC, PRI & WBUR's Here & Now 7/20/10, Host: Deborah Becker.

Audio Embed: Dave Ross, KIRO-FM/Seattle, 7/20/10.

The Post's investigation is the product of a big city newspaper...
No other kind of media outlet would ever take the time or trouble.

Editorial Cartoonist Scott Stantis is a member of one endangered species, employed by another. Although he found a new home at the Chicago Tribune in 2009, he was very fortunate.

The paper had taken 9 years to replace the late great Jeff MacNelly and had even been taken into bankruptcy by new owners intent on slashing costs (Read: "take it out of workers' hides.")

Despite all the doom saying about the fate of newspapers in general over the last couple of years, they appear to be soldiering on, and some are even turning a profit.

Audio Embed: WNYC's On The Media 7/16/10, Host: Brooke Gladstone.