In a live taping of Left, Right & Center, David Greene, Mo Elleithee and Sarah Isgur debate media bias ahead of the presidential election.

KCRW’s weekly politics show, Left, Right & Center, takes on the tough, polarizing issues that Americans struggle to have conversations about. Host David Greene invites guests with a wide range of political views to create provocative discussions that can bridge the left/right divide. 

As part of the Cascade PBS Ideas Festival in early May, Mo Elleithee and Sarah Isgur joined Greene to debate media bias, political satire and free speech in the context of current events. 

In this episode of the Cascade PBS Ideas Festival podcast, the three discuss the Israel-Hamas war, protests on U.S. college campuses and the way mainstream media covers these events. When it comes to free speech versus hate speech, who gets to decide where the line is drawn and how speech is characterized? They also examine examples of journalists skewing perspectives to favor certain candidates in elections and reflect on various forms of political satire and their cultural impact, including that of Jon Stewart, Bill Maher and Saturday Night Live. 

This conversation was recorded on May 4, 2024. 

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Credits

Host: Paris Jackson

Producer: Isaac Kaplan-Woolner

Event producers: Jake Newman, Anne O'Dowd

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