March 12, 2004

The Facts Don’t Matter

There's what happened, and there's the story that gets told about what happened. Sometimes the two things don't match up very well. This week, two case examples—ripped, as they say, from today's headlines—of the story that's told becoming the truth, even though the facts don't back it up.

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Transcript

Prologue

Host Ira Glass discusses Howard Stern, who claims that current action by the FCC will take him off the air. We hear from Congressman Fred Upton of Michigan who heads the House committee passing new FCC fines, and from Brent Bozell who heads the Parents' Television Council. (6 minutes)

By

Ira Glass

Act One

Straight Eyes On The Quirin Guys

Chris Neary tells the story of how a bungled Nazi sabotage operation from the early days of World War II has become the legal foundation for the Bush administration's current push to try U.S. citizens in military tribunals. But when you return to the original facts of the case, it's not only unclear if they support current Administration policy, it's unclear if they support the Supreme Court's decision in the original case. The attempted sabotage operation was chronicled in Washington Post reporter Michael Dobbs's excellent book, Saboteurs: The Nazi Raid on America. (36 minutes)

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Chris Neary

Act Two

Mush Polling

Producer Sarah Koenig talks to the people behind survey results—whose answers determine so much of political news. And it turns out that maybe the numbers are more complicated than they appear.

By

Sarah Koenig

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