Deadline Hollywood: ‘Koch Brothers Exposed’ Documentary By Robert Greenwald Starts Streaming May 8
By Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywood
Increasingly, feature-length political documentaries are using new technology to get their films seen. You may recall that the Sarah Palin biopic The Undefeated was made available last September on video-on-demand and pay-per-view to approximately 75 million homes through major cable and satellite companies such as DirecTV, Dish Network, and Time Warner Cable. Now in time for the election cycle, liberal filmmaker Robert Greenwald is employing the same methods with his take on Koch Brothers Exposed which starts streaming on May 8th.
The director of docs on Wal-Mart, Rupert Murdoch, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan takes on billionaires Charles and David Koch and their huge funding of conservative causes as well as their political advocacy group Americans for Prosperity.
The film is a project of Brave New Foundation, a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization, and premiered in NYC on March 29th (in partnership with AlterNet). It continued to Washington DC on Monday (in partnership with Democracy for America, Campaign for America’s Future, Greenpeace, and the Advancement Project); came to Boston on Tuesday; and debuts in Los Angeles April 10th.
Read the rest at Deadline Hollywood.
Care2: Koch Blocking Political Debate
By Jessica Pieklo at Care2
The Koch brothersmust be getting worried.
After all, there’s the recent ruling out of the D.C. Circuit Court that paves the way for uncloaking the flood of secret money they’ve been pouring into our elections and into our policy. And they continue their attacks against filmmaker and journalist Robert Greenwald. Not only do the super-wealthy conservative funders refuse to publicly debate their policy positions, they are using their vast wealth to distort those positions to the public to make them more acceptable.
They’re doing it with environmental policy directly by funding misleading ads and giving massive campaign contributions to lawmakers like Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) so as to keep any functional regulations at bay.
They’re doing it by funneling at least $1 million to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the group behind the horrific “stand your ground” laws, and the union-busting laws in places like Wisconsin and Ohio. And they’re doing it by propping up Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) who faces a recall election due entirely to his role as a Koch-funded puppet.
Unfortunately though the Kochs don’t believe in being candid or transparent with the citizens of this country, and that’s in large part because they are not interested in the democratic process per se, just what they can manipulate and extract from it.
AlterNet: 6 Reasons the Koch Brothers Had a Very Bad Week
By Adele M. Stan at AlterNet
An FBI investigation, a new documentary, and a court overturned one of their pet politicians’ pet laws: here’s a look inside the Kochs’ worst week in a while.
Things got even worse the next day, Friday, March 30, when the billionaire brothers learned that a federal court handed down a decision that may ultimately require certain non-profit groups, such as Americans for Prosperity, to reveal their full donor list, and the New Yorker’s Jane Mayer, who wrote a devastating profile of the brothers last year, reported on the Kochs’ involvement in a barrage of anti-Obama ads sponsored by a tax-exempt non-profit called the American Energy Alliance, which may also now be required to reveal its donor list.
On the very same day, another federal court struck down portions of Wisconsin’s controversial law that stripped collective bargaining rights from most of the state’s public employees — a law championed by Americans for Prosperity, and rammed through the state legislature a year ago by the AFP-supported Gov. Scott Walker. Here, we take a closer look at the Kochs’ very bad week.
Read the six reasons here.
MSNBC’s Martin Bashir: Robert Greenwald on ‘Koch Brothers Exposed’
Robert Greenwald discusses his latest investigative documentary, “Koch Brothers Exposed” with MSNBC’s Martin Bashir. Greenwald responds to the latest personal attack by the Koch’s and invites them to come on national TV to debate. Buy your copy today at kochbrothersexposed.com!
AlterNet Radio: Robert Greenwald talks about James Murdoch’s resignation from News International
Robert Greenwald and Joshua Holland from AlterNet Radio Hour discuss the implications of James Murdoch’s resignation, the heir apparent of Rupert Murdoch’s empire. What does his move to NYC mean for Fox News?
To hear the rest of AlterNet’s Radio Hour, listen here.
The GOP Foreign Policy Debate: Robert Greenwald and Ed Schultz Discuss (11/23/11)
By The Ed Schultz Show
Robert Greenwald and Ed Schultz review the Nov. 22 GOP debate, focusing on foreign policy. What is the outcome on War Costs?
Occupy Wall Street: Robert Greenwald and Ed Schultz Discuss the Media Spin
OWS enters its third month on November 17 and continues to grow, build and inspire. However, certain media outlets, such as FOX, are painting a different picture of the Occupy protesters. Robert Greenwald and Ed Schultz discuss.
How Fox News Changed the Face of Journalism
By Ellen McCarthy and Paul Farhi at The Washington Post
…Fox has become a very real force in America’s culture and politics. It has altered the national dialogue with its different sensibilities and given conservatives a platform. It has become the source of great equity or great evil, depending on your perspective…
For Robert Greenwald, the liberal director of a highly critical 2004 documentary on FNC called “Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism,” the problem isn’t just what the network covers. “The biggest thing is the stories they won’t cover,” he said. “Over the years, anything that ran counter to the preferred conservative image would not be covered.” For example? “The consequences of the Iraq war.”
Click here for the full story.
Robert Greenwald – CBC News interview on the News Corp Scandal
CBC invites Robert Greenwald to discuss the latest in the Rupert Murdoch/News Corp scandal.
Does Accuracy Matter in Historical Drama?
By Alex Hudson at BBC News
A controversial mini-series about the Kennedys is now being screened in the UK. It has been criticised in the US over its historical accuracy, despite being labelled as fiction. So how much does accuracy matter in historical dramas?
From the day of John F Kennedy’s death, the story of his life has been played out on screen too many times to count. But in new television series The Kennedys, the former US president is presented in a different way from the great American hero he was often portrayed as in the past.
Based on his life but labelled as fiction, the series has been controversial. It was originally scheduled to run on the US channel History but was cancelled earlier this year. In a statement executives said such dramatic interpretation was not “the right fit” for the channel.
In the end the series was shown in the US on the digital cable station ReelzChannel and has just started on BBC Two.
‘Patronising’
So where do you draw the line drawn between fact, rumour and fiction in such dramatisations?
Critics have been very vocal about the series right from the start – even before filming began. Leftwing filmmaker Robert Greenwald told the New York Times it was a “political character assassination”.
He even made an 11-minute film calling for the programme to be banned. In it author Nigel Hamilton questions: “Why mix [personal affairs] in with serious history if you’re not going to treat the history seriously?”
The Kennedys is however trailed as fiction. Some supporters question whether anyone would watch a drama without any dramatisation.
The show’s producer Joel Surnow told the LA Times he believed the series would have been aired on the History Channel if it had been produced by the likes of Tom Hanks or Steven Spielberg. He said his personal politics – he is a donator to the Republican Party – affected views of the programme, but he “never had a political agenda”.
The New Yorker agreed that it didn’t come across this way, but had a “dramatic agenda” that was bound to offend some.
Some television critics argue such shows would be “pretty boring” if it kept entirely to history. Gareth McLean, writer-at-large of the Radio Times, says audiences are sophisticated enough to understand that some dramas are a mix of fact and fiction.
“Audiences aren’t stupid. I think it’s a little bit patronising to assume that the audience takes everything at face value. They can make up their own minds and if they want to find out more then they can do a bit of research around the subject.”
This is something echoed by Sue Deeks, the head of BBC programme acquisition.