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For the first time, Katie Couric talks about her interviews with Sarah Palin.

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K8SYmWjV6w The Allman Brothers Band live at Fillmore East 09/23/1970 Unaired set from a PBS-TV special Last song, Whipping Post (Part 1) With Gregg Allman, Duane Allman, Dickey Betts, Berry Oakley, Butch Trucks, and Jai Johnny "Jaimoe" Johnson This video is sourced from a VCD made from an unknown generation VHS. I did my best to get rid of some of the compression artifacts, and fix the color. Please let me know if anybody else has a better sourced video.

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This week on The Listening Post, we look at media reaction in the US to an incendiary new Washington tell-all memoir: 'What Happened', by former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan. And British supermarket giant Tesco attracts bad publicity for its pursuit of libel damages against journalists in Thailand.

The Listening Post takes a look at constructing the narrative: how John McCain is dictating the media's daily talking points in the US presidential election. We head to the US where the presidential election campaign is in full swing. And what are the media talking about during these times of economic woes and interminable foreign wars? As one TV anchor put it, they will be talking about "whatever the McCain campaign wants"! We look at how crafting the media narrative in order to win the news cycle has led the media to seriously consider the veracity of what the politicians and their campaigns are saying. Misleading adverts, misquoted statements and downright lies are coming back to haunt John McCain in a media backlash. But who will come out best in this battle to grab the voters' attention? In Newsbytes: Zimbabwe moves to relax restrictions on the media; A24, a new online initiative for pan-African journalism, is launched in Kenya; Egyptian campaigners employ SMS messaging to expose torture; Myanmar releases writer U Win Tin after 19 years in prison but the media faces a new threat as the ruling military government launch a cyber-war against anti-government online publications; and computer hackers target US Republicans at the highest level. Our Video of the week offers a master class in improvised musical instrumentation. This innovative Japanese man has created an orchestra out of vegetables. Learn all you need to know from his YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/heita3?ob=1

Journey into Iran's past and present. Travel to the Caspean Sea, the desert of Kavir, and the city of Isfahan. Visit Sa'adi's and Hafiz's mausoleums and a a guided tour of the ruins of Persepolis.

Track 1 of Appeal to Reason - due out Oct 7th. Use torrents to download or visit http://vnn.bz/forum/14912-rise-against-collapse-2008-vn.html

This week on The Listening Post, we analyse the media's fixation with the Somali piracy story. We also take a look at what goes into making an award winning news photograph.

The Listening Post's Robin Armstrong reports on the ailing US newspaper industry. This is a chronic affliction - both advertising revenue and readership are shrinking, and newspapers across the country are performing something of a disappearing act. Moreover, US newspapers have seen their share value drop more than any other sector in the media industry, papers are haemorrhaging staff. They are faced with a choice: either migrate to the internet, or die. The Listening Post goes to California, home of one of America's oldest and best-known titles, the San Francisco Chronicle, to see if the US newspaper industry is about to publish its own obituary. In Newsbytes, we look at a cartoon saga in South Africa; an inflammatory DVD about Islamic extremism; media coverage of the forthcoming Belarusian parliamentary elections; a tightening of the grip on the media in China and Russian PM, Vladimir Putin, who is said to be fuming that an exclusive interview with CNN was heavily edited. Closing our show with this week's Video of the Week is a quirky viral showing North Korea's Dear Leader Kim Jong Il as an animated video game character. Created by a German entertainment show, the video puts Jong Il through a Super Mario-like sequence, complete with hostile enemy countries and nuclear bombs. Watch it at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QdzzZCgFbU

This episode of The Listening Post is a special show that explores some of the worst places in the world for journalism. Every year, the French media campaign group Reporter Sans Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders) publishes its Press Freedom Index. Looking specifically at press freedom violations, rather than broader human rights issues, the index represents an exhaustive survey of factors affecting the ability of media to operate in every country in the world, considering factors such as violence, censorship and corruption. The results make disturbing reading. The Listening Post's Salah Khadr introduces the Index, and gives an overview of some of the 'unchanging hells' at the foot of the table. The difficulties of reporting from some of the most closed countries that RSF describes are hard to appreciate from outside their borders. Over the last 12 months, The Listening Post's Simon Ostrovsky has travelled to a selection of the most paranoid and isolated nations. This week we present some of the 'highlights' of his trips: including Alexander Lukashenko's Soviet throwback, Belarus, General Than Shwe's junta in the jungle, Myanmar, and the restrictions still being imposed on the media in Russia.

Many shoppers were up well before sunrise on Friday looking for after-Christmas bargains.

In part two of The Listening Post we look at the media scene in the US post-George Bush. What will it look like in the new Obama political era and what will the Obama presidency mean for aggressively pro-Bush media like Fox News and the Wall Street Journal?

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Carlos Boozer teaches us his post moves

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This week on The Listening Post, we say 'Bye-Bye Bush' and examine how the media are writing the first draft of his legacy. Plus, a look at a subject less discussed in the media: human trafficking.

Al Jazeera's Tony Cheng has a special report for The Listening Post from perhaps the most closed country in the world: North Korea. Despite the destabilising effects of rumours about the health of their Dear Leader, Kim Jong Il, international condemnation over their nuclear programme, and a dysfunctional economy that has brought mass starvation to its people, the DPRK maintains a status quo of near total media lockdown. Although a trickle of outside media have been allowed in recently, as Tony's piece illustrates, what they see only offers a fleeting and superficial glimpse of life inside the so-called 'hermit kingdom'. And finally, Barack Obama is the US president-elect. Our Video of the Week this week sees the boys from the iconic 'Wassup' beer commercial of 2000 reunited eight years later, on the cusp of a new era.

This week on The Listening Post: Life through a lense - the media, Mugabe and what is in store for Zimbabwe, how Sarkozy is changing the French media landscape and the award-winning Palestinian journalist who says the Israelis put him in hospital.

The Listening Post's Salah Khadr looks at the Lebanese movement's TV station al-Manar.

The Israeli blockade on Gaza has now been extended to the media, creating a news blackout that has severely restricted the reporting of the suffering in Gaza to the outside world.

The ups and downs of the media and the race for the White House and how Indian soap operas are being taken off the air in Afghanistan.

It's Not Me, It's You is the upcoming second studio album by Grammy Award-nominated British pop singer-songwriter Lily Allen. The album is expected to be released in the U.K. on February 9, 2009, and on February 10 in North America. Everyones At It The Fear Not Fair 22 Never Gonna Happen Fuck You CHRISTMAS has come several days early thanks to our favourite ladette LILY ALLEN. While she may have swapped studio time for happy hours in recent months, she's ready to make Sun readers Smile again. The lairy lass has given Bizarre a taster of her upcoming album Its Not You, Its Me - the first chance ever to hear her new material. Generous Lil is spreading the festive cheer by allowing fans to download a medley of tunes, including The Fear, Not Fair and Never Gonna Happen. Her quirky lyrics and tongue-in-cheek pop have served up a delicious treat to put debut record Alright, Still in the shade.

Al Jazeera English battles for airtime in the US as one small town debates what should be on their cable network. Plus- the art of obituary writing.

The Listening Post looks at how the global economic crisis has the media reaching for the superlatives as they predict 'the end of capitalism'. In this week's News Divide we take a look at a truly global story: The collapse of some of Wall Street's most venerable financial institutions has left economies around the world trembling. The financial and business pages have taken over the front pages and news anchors are competing to find strong enough superlatives to characterise the disaster. But did the media ring the alarm bells loudly enough in the months preceding recent events? And how does the popular press make economics accessible to a non-specialist audience? Plus, in part two, we look at constructing the narrative: how John McCain is dictating the media's daily talking points in the US presidential election. Also in part two, join us for our Newsbytes and Video of the Week.