May 3 - Reality Television Has Taken Over the Presidential Primaries; The Irony That Donald Trump is Threatening the Same Press That Enabled Him; How the Poisoners of Children Have Ruined Detroit's Schools

Full Program

Part 1

As voters in Indiana decide the fate of Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign, we begin with the blistering attack by Ted Cruz who warned that “if Indiana did not act, this country could well plunge into the abyss”, calling Donald Trump a “serial philanderer” and a “pathological liar” after Trump had needled Cruz by suggesting his father Rafael was involved in the assassination of President Kennedy. Alan Schroeder, a professor in the School of Journalism at Northeastern University and author of “Celebrity-in-Chief: How Show Business Took Over the White House” joins us to discuss how reality television has taken over the presidential primary debates with insults being hurled instead of chairs and whether Trump will be able to needle Hillary Clinton with the barrage of tabloid smears and salacious scandal-mongering that he is ready and waiting to level at her.

Part 2

Then on World Press Freedom Day we look into the irony that the same press that enabled the rise Donald Trump to possibly become the next President of the United States with $2 billion’s worth of free publicity, could face a president who refers to journalists as “lying disgusting people” and vowed to make it easier to sue news organizations. Trevor Timm, a U.S. columnist with The Guardian and Executive Director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation joins us to discuss how Trump, who appears to be a shape-shifter with no core beliefs, can both use the press and threaten its freedom.

Part 3

Then finally we speak with Tom Pedroni, a professor of sociology and director if the Detroit Data and Democracy Project at Wayne State University about the second day of the teacher’s sick-out that has closed 94 of Detroit’s 97 public schools. He joins us discuss how the same type of ideologically-driven numbers-crunching emergency managers appointed by the Republican governor who poisoned the children in nearby Flint, Michigan, have run Detroit’s schools into the ground.