Jail Alternatives, Apple TV, March on Washington

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Rob Ferrett and Veronica Rueckert talk about alternatives to jail time in Wisconsin. Then, what Apple TV could mean for cable companies. And, this week is the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for civil rights. We talk to a UW historian about his new book on the forgotten history of the march.

Featured in this Show

  • Why Listening To King's 'I Have A Dream Speech' Still Moves People Today

    This week marks the 50th anniversary of the famous March on Washington, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous “I Have A Dream” speech.

    While many will celebrate and mark the anniversary, a prominent school said that those lines, which have since earned a prominent place in American history, were a last-minute addition to King’s prepared remarks.

    “Listening to Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘I Have a Dream Speech’ is good for the soul,” said Stephen Lucas, a professor of communcation arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Lucas is the author of the book “Word of a Century: The Top 100 American Speeches, 1900-1999,” and compares listening to the speech now and again to listening to a classic piece of music that stands up to repeat listening.

    But the part that many remember today came at a moment when King veered from the prepared text and extemporized on similar remarks he’d made at a speech in Detroit, Lucas said.

    But on that day in Washington, the “Dream” section took flight.

    “You can hear him moving into preacher mode,” said Lucas.

    The combination of words and delivery made the speech one of the greatest examples of oratory for all time.

  • Apple Looks To Disrupt Another Market With Apple TV

    Reports say Apple has been in negotiations with television content providers like HBO and ESPN, a first step in potentially circumventing cable companies to provide content over the Internet.

    Since the company first came out with Apple TV in 2007, it has negotiated with cable companies, but that has gotten it nowhere. Now Apple TV is apparently considering a route more similar to popular streaming services like Netflix and HBO GO, where everything is streamed over the Internet and cable companies play no role.

    These negotiations with content providers have not yet led to any partnerships. And if they are going to, those partnerships are likely a long way off. According to a spokesman at HBO, the discussions were only exploratory in nature and not formal.

    This is concerning for cable companies, which have already seen a small but steady decline in subscriptions in recent years. Corporate reporter Gina Chong said that some have already suggested that technology like this could turn cable companies into “just Internet service providers.”

    For now, Chong says that Apple TV is still moving forward and could begin selling a full-fledged Apple television set. That, she said, would look like a big iPad.

Episode Credits

  • Rob Ferrett Host
  • Veronica Rueckert Host
  • Gilman Halsted Guest
  • Gina Chon Guest
  • William P. Jones Guest
  • Stephen Lucas Guest

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