I don’t have cable and the only thing worth watching most nights is PBS. The best thing on PBS is Frontline, which I call “Can’t pee TV” because their documentaries are so intense and compelling I can’t stop watching until the show is over.
So last night, as part of the “America at a Crossroads” series, PBS decides to “balance” an amazing Frontline documentary about training the Iraqi troops with a shameless hour-long infomercial created by and for the benefit of war profiteer and neocon ideologue Richard Perle.
Here’s the NYT on the programming decision:
As Elizabeth Jensen reported in The New York Times earlier this month, Bush administration critics were suspicious of the entire 11-part series about the world after 9/11, especially the portion turned over to Mr. Perle. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which administers federal money to public television and radio, has long been under pressure by the White House to include more conservative voices. (The corporation’s chairman, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, was forced to resign in November 2005 after it was revealed that he had monitored the political leanings of some guests on PBS.)
The contrast was stunning. Frontline’s “Gangs of Iraq” (you can watch the whole thing online) was shot on location, riding along with US troops as they attempt joint patrols with the Iraqi army and police, and features interviews that challenge US and Iraqi officials with hard questions about torture, and sectarian allegiances.
In one sequence the US army goes to an Iraqi Police station only to find that nobody has shown up for work. It turns out to be the day of one of the biggest market bombings. In another scene, the cameraman catches Iraqi soldiers whispering to each other that they know exactly where the main insurgents’ weapons cache is located, but won’t tell the Americans.
The main impression is that we are spending billions to train Iraqis to be better militia fighters, because their allegiance is primarily to their sect and local religious leaders. There’s a hilarious scene where a US “motivational speaker” tries to instill a sense of national pride in a classroom of recruits.
You can read a summary of the Perle puff piece at FDL. The only good thing about it is that Perle looks like a bloated venomous toad throughout. He has the audacity to attend an anti-war demonstration, and when a mother asks him how he feels about all the dead, he answers with a talking point “of course I mourn every life lost”. But you can see in his eyes he really couldn’t care less.
Front page
perle is one of the more evil members of the cabal
and it says a lot about our media that when they deal with him, they treat him with kid gloves.
but thanks for the tip, i’ll see if i can get the good series from netflix.
and remember that cheney's or rummy's
wife sits on the board of the corporation for public broadcasting. i’ve come across more than one account of people being told in plain terms that they had better produce ’more balanced’ shows for pbs or see another round of funding cuts.
No need for netflix, CD
If you have high-speed connection, you can watch most of Frontline’s shows online. If you have dialup on the other hand… I feel for you.
PBS's Blair Witch Project
If PBS had edited or altered Perle’s argument, then he could spin the whole documentary as having been the Main Stream Media once again attacking the neocons. Now… all there is to tear apart is his viewpoint.
Besides, nothing cures you from a fetish for dieting like watching a bulemic girl put her finger down her throat. Same here. Expose them all raw, and unfiltered, for the toadies they are.
Are you kidding me? The
Are you kidding me? The guy shot himself in the foot multiple times. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. He himself undercut every point he was trying to make. Anyone, and certainly the typical PBS viewer, would see right through his pathetic attempt to prove his points. It’s a brilliant piece of subterfuge for PBS to let him have his say in this particular way. This was like a YouTube kid trying to compete in a Robert Altman home movie contest. They let the kid have his head and it was embarassing, in a good kind of way.
As the Clash Say
Give ’em enough rope.
No authoritarians were tortured in the writing of this post.
Why would someone hang themselves
just because you gave them some rope? I loves me some Clash but I’ve never understood that expression. It sounds like passive-aggressive politics to me.
I agree that the average PBS viewer would see right through Perle’s self serving propaganda piece, it was sloppy and he is a truly anti-charismatic person. Still, why give him a 1 hour forum, on Public Television?
The only justification would be to “balance” a factual documentary that presents an ugly picture of the war (because it is in fact ugly) with a propaganda piece with a right wing slant.
I came across this channel
I came across this channel surfing the other night and I could not believe what I was seeing. Even Fox News might have a few (tiny, tiny) qualms indulging this war criminal with an hour long special like this. It made me nauseous to watch even a few minutes of it. That PBS, the last bastion of media not contaminated by rank conservatism, is slowly but surely succumbing to it just makes me sad.
Enjoyed the series
I really enjoyed the series last week. The stories from the servicemen were intense and real. I think PBS will rebroadcast for anyone who missed it.