Presidential Ringtone Director: Obama & Bush TTS Voices for Talking CallerID Ringtones
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ON SALE TODAY! Imagine having President Bush or Obama announce your incoming calls, emails, SMS,...
41: A Portrait of My Father
Book
Forty-three men have served as President of the United States. Countless books have been written...
Known and Unknown: A Memoir
Book
With the same directness that defined his career in public service, Rumsfeld's memoir is filled with...
Suswatibasu (1701 KP) rated Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic in Books
Mar 15, 2018 (Updated Mar 15, 2018)
Former George W. Bush speechwriter, David Frum, writes about the biggest threat to democracy in a factual, scholarly way without resorting to tabloid remarks. Frum carefully builds his argument using well-recognised sources from across the political, historical and media spectrum.
While he is clearly not a fan of the President, his critique mostly focusses on how Trump distorts and uses his power unconstitutionally, attempting to subvert institutions for his own benefit. But he also criticises those around him who have helped him stay in power such as Paul Ryan and Michael Flynn. What is worrying is the increase of military personnel and financiers who surround him, similar to those of many authoritarian nations, who exacerbate irrational decision-making.
He speaks about his voter base which also includes swathes of young white men, who are disillusioned and care less about religion and sexism - hence why Hillary Clinton was unable to change their minds. It is a well-argued, eye-opening book that does not resort to character bashing.
The Torture Report: A Graphic Adaptation
Jane Mayer, Sid Jacobson, Ernie Colon and Scott Horton
Book
On December 9, 2014, the Senate Intelligence Committee released a 576-page report that strongly...
Arab Occidentalism: Images of America in the Middle East
Book
When Barack Obama was elected in 2008, his foreign policy was at first seen to be the antithesis of...
Conspiracy of Fools: A True Story
Book
It was the corporate collapse that appeared to come out of nowhere. In late 2001, the Enron...
Intimate Geography: Selected Poems 1991-2010
Book
Jennifer Maiden's "Intimate Geography" charts territory both personal and political, private and...
Andy K (10821 KP) rated Truth (2015) in Movies
Aug 11, 2019
The US during the 2004 presidential election between George W Bush and John Kerry saw the usual mudslinging back and forth, but this film is not really about that. The film focuses on a news story by CBS news involving then airmen George W Bush and his "attempt" to get out of going to Vietnam and certain important military paper which were supposed to have corroborated these events.
Producer Mary Mapes and then anchor Dan Rather decided to air the story on 60 Minutes before they had flushed out all their sources and may have brushed aside criticism which happened to be against their political beliefs and ran with the story anyways. After airing in the fall of 2004 certain aspects of the documents came into question as to whether they could've been written with typewriters of the time or whether these documents were forgeries made by someone who could've merely used Microsoft Word instead.
Repeated attempts to legitimize their accuracy ended up having the opposite effects having witnesses change their stories, allegiances or even admit they had not been honest when presenting their original facts.
Since this is based on actual events, I can say this ended up costing producer Mapes and Rather their careers and sullied their reputations for the rest of their lives.
Even though the film has a very specific set of facts it has to deal with, I found it just as interesting when the director showed scenes of the audience viewing the story when it aired and then began to think about the state of modern news.
Nowadays, most people get their news cycle from internet headlines, scrolling information at the bottoms of television screens and even siloed one-sided stories that support only their own personal political beliefs
I think the broader message this film is trying to convey is that news organizations have the utmost responsibility to not only the report the news, but to keep their biases out of the mix and to make sure every fact is checked and rechecked to make sure they report accurately. News can change public opinion and even though they mostly get things correct, mostly isn't good enough.
I love Cate Blanchett and the legend Robert Redford and they don't disappoint here. The screenplay by writer and first time director James Vanderbilt is pointed and mostly avoids injecting opinion into the facts and presents an interesting and fascinating film I would easily recommend.
The Odd One in: On Comedy
Alenka Zupancic and Slavoj Zizek
Book
Why philosophize about comedy? What is the use of investigating the comical from philosophical and...