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Underreported

A Weekly Feature on The Leonard Lopate Show

Airs every Thursday at noon

Major news events throughout the world continue to be largely ignored until they reach tragic proportions. Underreported, a weekly feature on The Leonard Lopate Show, tackles these issues and gives an in-depth look into stories that are often relegated to the back pages.

Underreported: Pakistan's Humanitarian Crisis

The Leonard Lopate Show

July 09, 2009

The Pakistani government's campaign against Taliban insurgents has created over 2 million internally displaced refugees in Pakistan. On today's Underreported we'll speak with Dominic MacSorley, who recently returned from Mardan District in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province. He is Director of Operations of Concern Worldwide USA.

From Russia with Love

The Leonard Lopate Show

July 09, 2009

Before President Obama went to Italy, he headed to Russia. We look at what came out of Obama's visit and what the meeting means for both countries with Steven Cohen, contributing editor to the Nation and author of Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives: From Stalinism to the Cold War. Plus, we'll find out the role that Russia is playing the ongoing G8 summit.

Underreported: The Honduran Coup and the Media

The Leonard Lopate Show

July 02, 2009

In the aftermath of last Sunday's coup in Honduras, there has been a massive media crackdown on reporters and organizations that are not seen as favorable to the new government. We’ll get the latest from Miami Herald foreign correspondent Frances Robles who is in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa.

You can read Frances's article on press censorhip in Honduras here

GE

Underreported: GE Benefits from Bank Bailout

The Leonard Lopate Show

July 02, 2009

On this week’s Underreported, find out how GE, the world’s largest industrial company, has used a loophole to benefit from a government rescue program that's aimed at helping banks. ProPublica senior reporter Jeff Gerth explains how the loophole has helped GE get the money while avoiding many of the program’s restrictions.

Read the Washington Post article co-written by Jeff Gerth here.

Underreported: The Latest on Honduras

The Leonard Lopate Show

July 02, 2009

Honduras is still in turmoil four days after a coup removed President Manuel Zelaya from power. We'll get the latest on the situation from Americas editor for the Economist magazine Mike Reid from London and New York Times Mexico City Bureau Chief Marc Lacey from Honduras.

You can read Marc's latest article for the Times here

Underreported: Political Corruption in Kenya

The Leonard Lopate Show

June 25, 2009

On today's Underreported, Michaela Wrong, author of It's Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistleblower, discusses John Githongo, a pillar of the Kenyan establishment turned whistle-blower, becoming simultaneously one of the most hated and admired men in Kenya. She also explores the factors that continue to blight Africa—ethnic favoritism, government corruption, and the smug complacency of Western donor nations—probing the very roots of the continent's predicament.

Underreported: Eco-Barriers in Brazil

The Leonard Lopate Show

June 18, 2009

Walls are going up around the slums of Rio de Janeiro. The Brazilian government is calling them "eco-barriers," designed to prevent Rio’s shantytowns from spilling into the city’s heavily forested hillsides, but opponents of the walls see them as a form of "geographic discrimination" that imprisons the residents. On today’s second Underreported we’ll talk to Antonio Regalado,The Wall Street Journal’s correspondent in Brazil about the walls and the controversy surrounding them.

Underreported: Middle Eastern Reaction to Iranian Turmoil

The Leonard Lopate Show

June 18, 2009

Iraq, like Iran, is one of the few the countries in the world with a Shi'ite Muslim majority. And though the two countries were long rivals, many of today's Iraqi leaders — especially Shi'ites — spent the Saddam Hussein years as guests of the mullahs in Tehran. On today’s first Underreported we’ll look at how the controversy over Iran’s elections is playing in Iraq with Time magazine senior editor Bobby Ghosh and New York Times UN Bureau Chief Neil MacFarquhar.
You can read Bobby Ghosh's article on the subject here.
And you can read Neil MacFarquhar's latest article here.

Neil MacFarquhar was on the Leonard Lopate Show May 13, 2009, to discuss his book The Media Relations Department of Hizbollah Wishes You a Happy Birthday. You can listen to that interview here.

Human Rights

Underreported: The Recession's Impact on Human Rights

The Leonard Lopate Show

May 28, 2009

The economic crisis has radically changed many of the ways in which the world functions, but one of the great recessions most disastrous side effects is an increase in global repression. Widespread economic problems are creating extensive social problems as people and governments cope with limited access to food, jobs, clean water, land, and housing. What’s more, growing unrest about the economy is leading to violence and political repression in many countries. We’ll speak with executive director of Amnesty International Larry Cox about where the suffering is worst and who is the most affected.

tobacco

Underreported: The Food and Drug (and Tobacco?) Administration

The Leonard Lopate Show

May 14, 2009

For years, the tobacco industry has resisted efforts to make tobacco a substance that’s regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, but a bill making its way through Congress could change that. Washington Post staff writer Lyndsey Layton describes how FDA regulation would change the tobacco industry and whether the bill has a chance of passing.