‘America’ In Theatres Today
By Jonathan Hickman for the Times-Herald
Can you trust the history books? Dinesh D’Souza cautions and beckons you to dig deeper. But exactly what are the “history” books he’s talking about?
“America” is the follow-up to author and now filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza’s 2012 documentary blockbuster “2016: Obama’s America.” I call that film a blockbuster because it sits right behind “Fahrenheit 9/11” on the list of most profitable political documentaries of all time with some $33.4 million in domestic box office sales. This distinction is quite a feat and has made D’Souza a historical footnote in cinematic history. Whether he can recapture the conservative fervor that made him a rock star is doubtful this time around. And the pity is that where “2016” was a roughly shot and edited film that, as I pointed out in my previous review, suffering a bit from technical problems, “America” is a handsomely made picture that one-ups Michael Moore and his team while promoting a Right leaning view of history.
Is The Fog of Pre-War Again Descending on ‘The New York Times’?
By Leslie Savan for The Nation
If you suspect that The New York Times still hasn’t learned all it should from its hawkish coverage in the lead-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, you’re right.
Back then, the Times, led by the self-admitted “testosterone”-drugged Bill Keller, tilted heavily toward publishing pro-war op-eds as well as misleading front-page pieces, most notably and disastrously by Judith Miller, now of Fox News.
Outfoxing the Fox -- Looking Back 10 Years Later
By Robert Greenwald for the Huffington Post
A dozen years ago, as the U.S. was pulled into war in Iraq by President George W. Bush, Fox News was not just any television network. It proudly blared the White House's lies coming with singular warmongering fervor. Remember? The terrorists had ties to Iraq. Saddam wanted the bomb. Saddam had the bomb. He could hit us in 45 minutes.
It's Been Ten Years Since 'Outfoxed' Gave Fox News a Huge Headache
By Catherine Taibi for the Huffington Post.
Ten years after the release of "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War On Journalism," the film's director Robert Greenwald said it's difficult to think that there was once a time when Fox News wasn't widely known as a right-wing network.
INTERVIEW: How Did We Get Here? Tracing the Rise of Fox’s Right-Wing Media Empire
By Allegra Kirkland for AlterNet
Think back to the heady days of July 2004. Presidential campaign season was in full swing, with John Kerry and John Edwards joining forces against the Bush ticket. The media obsession of the summer was Kerry’s uneven voting record, with new headlines emerging almost weekly even as George Bush quietly continued setting the county on fire. In the midst of this mayhem, director Robert Greenwald and his team at Brave New Films released Outfoxed, a documentary that exposed the concerted efforts of Fox News to promote a partisan Republican agenda through the guise of a traditional news service. It’s been 10 years since that seminal film was released. AlterNet caught up with Greenwald to chat about how American politics has evolved—or devolved—over the last decade.
7 Libertarian Upstarts Who Might Help Democrats Keep Their U.S. Senate Majority
By Steven Rosenfeld for AlterNet
If the Democrats control the Senate after November, Majority Leader Harry Reid might want to send thank you notes to a bunch of relatively unknown Libertarians, who, with little money and a big dependence on free YouTube videos and Facebook posts, are undercutting mainstream Republican candidates in seven states.
Covering New War in the Shadow of Old One
By Margaret Sullivan for the New York Times
THE lead-up to the war in Iraq in 2003 was not The Times’s finest hour. Some of the news reporting was flawed, driven by outside agendas and lacking in needed skepticism. Many Op-Ed columns promoted the idea of a war that turned out to be both unfounded and disastrous.
City Ordinance Cracks Down On Wage Theft
By Bradford Betz for KPFK
Low-wage workers outside L.A. City Hall gather with local lawmakers and advocates in support of a crackdown on so-called ‘wage theft.’
According to researchers at UCLA, every week, low-wage workers in Los Angeles lose over $26 million of their income to wage theft. The theft can happen in a variety of ways, but often it’s as simple as workers not being paid for hours that they work, or for overtime.
L.A. Employers Are Keeping Your Cash, City Leaders Say
By Dennis Romero for LA Weekly
Two L.A. City Council members say local employers are ripping off local workers, essentially skimming money from their pay at alarming rates. Gilbert Cedillo and Paul Koretz proposed a law yesterday that would, if approved, "criminalize the practice of wage theft in the City of Los Angeles," says Cedillo's office.
LA City Council wants to regulate wage theft
By Alice Walton for KPCC
Two Los Angeles city councilmen want employers to face criminal penalties when they withhold wages owed to their employees. Councilmen Paul Koretz and Gil Cedillo introduced a motion Tuesday that asks the City Attorney's Office and the LAPD to work with the National Day Laborer Organizing Network and UCLA Downtown Labor Center to craft a city law against "wage theft." Organizers describe"wage theft" as violating minimum wage and overtime laws and forcing employees to work off the clock.