Robert Greenwald's petition to the US History Network to not air conservative operative and creator of 24 Joel Surnow's take on the Kennedy family, "The Kennedys" has borne fruit:
"We have concluded this dramatic interpretation is not a fit for the History brand," the network said in a statement late Friday about the eight-part miniseries, The Kennedys, starring Greg Kinnear and Katie Holmes as President John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jackie. Canadian Barry Pepper plays Robert F. Kennedy.
"We recognize historical fiction is an important medium for storytelling and commend all the hard work and passion that has gone into the making of the series, but ultimately deem this as the right programming decision for our network."
This is an amazing victory given the lack of hue and outcry not even among the public, but also within the politically involved. I remember reading at Digby's place that this piece of crap was being made, but really nothing since from anyone I read regularly. So congratulations to Robert Greenwald and his crew of historians: Rick Perlstein, Nigel Hamilton, David Nasaw and former JFK advisor Theodore C. Sorensen. Apparently someone in the "History" network actually believes in telling history using facts and putting events in the right order and stuff.
Inside, some examples of the glaring historical revisionism the series indulges in (note it isn't dead, other networks will likely still air it, but at least it loses the imprimatur of factual accuracy that comes from being on the "History" channel).
The job market in its worst state since the Great Depression and is putting tremendous strain on millions of Americans. Without action from Washington, D.C., the unemployment rate will remain elevated for years to come, and almost certainly above 9 percent through the end of 2010. Public esteem for economic policymakers isn't doing so hot either. There are several simple steps that President Barack Obama and Congress could take to create jobs, but of late, neither have shown much interest in doing so.
Mike posted on this about a week ago, but I want to make sure folks saw it. There's two new great documentaries out, and one great way to support our work at OpenLeft.
The first is about the growth of MoveOn.org and its projects through the years, documenting its multi-issue approach to politics versus other single-issue siloed groups existing at the time. It's called MoveOn: The Movie.
The other is Robert Greenwald's new film- Rethinking Afghanistan- based in part on his recent trip there. Derrick Crowe- whose work is paid in part by Brave New Foundation- is going to be doing a fair amount of reporting here and elsewhere on the state of Afghanistan, so if you find it interesting, you'll like Robert's new film- and you can support Derrick's blogging at the same time.
The part I especially wanted to let you know about is that we here at OpenLeft have partnered with Brave New Foundation to help promote both our work and theirs. For each DVD you purchase, we'll get $5 towards our projects. If you purchase one of each, we get $10. It's a great campaign that helps build the kind of progressive infrastructure we care about, and I hope you do too. We're going to be expanding capacity in some new and exciting ways over the next few weeks- particularly on the Senate whip count Chris is heading up- and it helps us pay for the resources to carry that out. If you want a strong, robust public option in the health care legislation, we're working with you to make it happen.
You can click here to purchase MoveOn: The Movie, and here to purchase Rethinking Afghanistan. The two new buttons in the upper right hand corner are also where you can go. Please help us out. And from all of us, thanks for helping support our continuing work here at OpenLeft.
We're on the verge of a huge progressive victory for the antiwar movement. Jane Hamsher estimates we have 36 of the 39 Democratic votes needed to defeat the war supplemental bill in the House tomorrow--which leaves only three to go! We must make sure our Reps know we oppose the war, and remind them that everyone in the House in 2007 signed the pledge not to vote for more war funding unless there are provisions for troop withdrawal.
According to Hamsher, here are the vets who are "leaning No" and could use a boost of antiwar support:
Steve Cohen
Keith Ellison
Chakah Fattah
Mike Honda
Ann Kirkpatrick
Doris Matsui
Ed Markey
Jim McDermott
Gwen Moore
Jared Polis
Jan Schakowsky
Mike Thompson
John Tierney
Mel Watt
Anthony Weiner
Brave New Films has put together a series of messages from Director Robert Greenwald, targeting specific states where pressure is needed most: Massachusetts, New York, Maine, Colorado, Connecticut, Michigan, Vermont, Virginia, Texas, California, and Arizona. If you live in one of those states or know someone who does, forward them the appropriate video and ask them to call Congress: (202) 224-3121.
Put down that grande non-fat caramel macchiato or whatever Starbucks concoction you're drinking. Turns out the coffee giant has a nasty history of being anti-barista, anti-union, and thus anti-Employee Free Choice Act as well.
The National Labor Relations Board has repeatedly found Starbucks guilty of illegally terminating, harassing, intimidating, and discriminating against employees attempting to unionize. Late last year, a judge ruled Starbucks had committed over a dozen violations of the National Labor Relations Act at a few New York stores. Starbucks has settled five such labor disputes in the last few years in New York, Minnesota, and Michigan, spending millions on legal fees to avoid exposing their anti-worker ways.
To make matters worse, Starbucks has led the charge on a so-called Employee Free Choice Act "compromise," joining Costco and Whole Foods to form the Committee for Level Playing Field. This Orwellian-sounding group has come up with a "third way" on Employee Free Choice, which would require 70 percent of workers to sign union authorization cards instead of the far more manageable 50 percent initially proposed by this legislation.
Ready to shut down Bill O'Reilly's Harassment Machine? Think Progress has responded to O'Reilly's ambush of blogger Amanda Terkel by launching a campaign demanding accountability from O'Reilly's corporate advertisers. This certainly wasn't O'Reilly's first journalistic ambush; in fact, Think Progress counts 40 instances in which O'Reilly has used his henchmen producers to go after everyone from Barack Obama to Bill Moyers to our own Robert Greenwald.
Going after O'Reilly through his corporate sponsors seems like a fitting punitive measure, considering O'Reilly's manic obsession with his imaginary enemy NBC and their parent company GE. O'Reilly even managed to use the Terkel ambush to continue his assault on his network nemesis, which was particularly strange since Terkel has nothing to do with NBC whatsoever. (In fact, as Terkel told Keith Olbermann, she derived her initial report from a News Hounds post on O'Reilly's despicable comments regarding the rape of Jennifer Moore.) It was even odder when O'Reilly tried desperately to make the connection between Terkel, NBC, GE, and Iran in less than one minute!
The bottom line is O'Reilly's thuggish brand of gotcha journalism has got to end, and you can hold O'Reilly to a higher standard by dropping his corporate sponsors a quick note telling them to shut down the O'Reilly Harassment Machine.
What happens when you mix Tom Geoghegan (running to replace Rahm Emanuel in the House on March 3, who David Sirota calls "one of the greatest living progressives in America") with Robert Greenwald (indisputably one of the greatest progressive film makers in America)? You get this must-watch video:
Did you watch it? If not, push play and watch it! :)
Expanding Social Security? Single-payer health care? Make the banks reduce the debt regular people owe since taxpayers are reducing the debt banks owe? How often do you hear House candidates talk like this?
If we're progressives, we all must do what we can to help Tom Geoghegan win this House seat next month. Candidates like him deserve our support. Here are three things you can do to help Tom -- take your pick:
1) Make 20 calls from your living room for Tom.Click here to sign up. This will be a low-turnout election, so if 100 of us each make 20 calls from home to target voters, those 2,000 calls could seriously make the winning difference. Do it this weekend -- won't take too long.
2) Donate to Tom today. $125,000 has been donated online already -- and now's the time Tom needs money for his ground game. Donate to Tom here.
3) Go to Chicago to help--get free housing. Tom has some great volunteers and field staff on the ground. But he's running against the Chicago machine insiders, so we need to pitch in. Go for the final week, go for a weekend beforehand, go whenever you can before March 3. Email jacob @ geogheganforcongress.com to arrange free housing.
by Justin Krebs
The Los Angeles chapter of Drinking Liberally had a special guest host on Tuesday night: Robert Greenwald, of Brave New Films, whose filmmaker activism has given us Iraq For Sale, the "Fox Attacks" series of shorts and, most recently, "When the Saints Go Marching In," marking the second anniversary of Katrina, which he screened and discussed with the crowded room of liberal Angelenos.
You can see the video here:
It's a natural for Robert to show his latest short to a DL crowd -- because Brave New Films doesn't just produce films...they socially organize around films, giving us the chance to become more than "viewers." We become participants in a conversation, activists for a cause and members of a movement...and for Robert, as for DL, the key ingredient is the community.
When Iraq For Sale was released on DVD, 4,500 house parties screened it in one week. Just as powerful films about Iraq were released on the big screen (The War Tapes) and HBO (Baghdad ER). But what do you do when the lights come up in the movie theaer, or when the credits roll on premium cable? It's not easy to start a conversation with a stranger in the cinema...and too often the energy of the experience dissipates on your walk through the parking lot.
Brave New Films offers an alternative. In Robert's own words:
Working with Drinking Liberally is part of BNF's DNA. Our ongoing commitment is to screen our work in every possible venue from church to school to pizza parlor to bowling alley to of course, Drinking Liberally. The shorts and the films serve to bring people together and in the process, community begins to emerge, activists energize others and our stories serve as means to encourage people to take action. Screening the films and shorts in group situations has a consistent impact in terms of getting more focus, more commitment, more passion for change from the group social dynamic.
Iraq For Sale is just one example of a new model for organizing around films (one that chapters of Screening Liberally are exploring further every month)...the happy hour gathering to view "When the Saints Go Marching In" and remember the impact of Katrina is another. In a private home, or a crowded bar, the effect is the same: you're not watching alone...and soon you are doing more than just watching, and you're doing it together.
Any move in politics inevitably creates grumbling. There are two basic responses to Open Left from people who are finding what we're doing here annoying. One is from women who are upset that we haven't yet featured female bloggers, and took offense to the Emily's List discussion. I'll have more on that soon, but we are very aware that the balance here skews male, so far. Two is from older organizers that look at the blogroll and see 'Old Left' and 'New Left' and 'Open Left' and find my categorizations laughable and/or ignorant.
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