EOTO 2 Reax

Front Page Review

 The Front Page was a film released in 1974, starring Jack Lemmon. It starts in a press room near an area where a man is going to be hanged for murdering a police officer. The man is a suspected communist. Hilde Johnson is going to quit the newspaper business because he is going to be married. His boss,  Mr. Burns is not pleased about this and insists that he works on it. Hilde pretends to go along and then says that he is resigning. 

Mr. Burns goes to the theatre to try to convince Hilde's fiancee, Peggy, to break up with him. He pretends to be a probation officer. He says that he was showing a group of high school girls his genitalia. Hilde realizes that Mr. Burns is trying to sabotage him. Hilde still refuses to cover the hanging, and Mr. Burns still jokes that he is a flasher. 

Hilde's replacement comes into the press room and he is mocked by the other reporters. The reporters seem to be ill-mannered. They smoke, drink, and play cards. They insult Moillie because of her profession and her helping Earl Williams the suspected communist. Mollie took care of Williams after he was beaten up by some pimps because he was telling the prostitutes that they were exploited by capitalism. Peggy told Williams to leave. He refused to saying he could go where he pleased. A cop tried to scare him away and he shot him because he was scared. As Mollie leaves the building, Hilde says goodbye to all the reporters. 

The sheriff comes into the press room handing out press cards. Hilde has written about how the sheriff is corrupt. The execution is going to take place before election day so it is likely it is being done to make the sheriff look tough on crime. 

Williams is being asked questions by an Austrian psychologist. The psychologist gives Williams a gun and asks him to repeat the scene, causing the psychologist to be shot. Williams is thought to have escaped the building, while he is inside in reality. Peggy calls the building telling Hilde that she is coming. There is a letter from the governor that was sent to the sheriff saying that William's execution will be delayed. Peggy arrives and Hilde goes back because he left the wedding rings in the press room. Hilde runs into Williams, who holds him up at gunpoint. Hilde tries to hide Williams from his fiancee and the other newspapermen. 

Hilde writes the story, while his boss arrives. His fiancee tries to get him into the car.  She comes up and takes her ticket while he is writing the story. The sheriff arrives, asking why Mr. Burns is in the building.  Earl Williams is eventually caught and out in jail. Mr. Burns and Hilde are also arrested for aiding a criminal. Mr. Burns apologizes for wrecking Hilde's relationship. The messenger from the governor says he has a reprieve from the governor. They use it to get out of jail and Hilde returns to his fiancee and they leave town. Mr. Burns gives him a watch as a gift which he then reports as stolen causing Hilde to go back to working for him. 

Two big things that I noticed throughout the film were the sensationalism in journalism and the anti-communist sentiment during this time. Yellow Journalism began during the late 1800s and early 1900s. This time period was still influenced by it. They talked about how Earl Williams was an agent of Moscow. The newsreels before the film portrayed the Soviet Union as an expansionist power. During this time, there was a real fear of a communist revolution occurring in different countries. 

EOTO 3 Reactions

 During the third EOTO, my classmates taught me about various figures in media in journalism. The major figures who left the most profound impression on me were Walter Cronkite, Howard Cossell, and Gloria Steinem.  

Walter Cronkite was a major news anchor from 1937 to 1981. He covered major historical events during this time such as the Nuremberg trials and the assassination of John F Kennedy. He was called the most trusted man in news. He was originally born in Missouri. He became a sports announcer and met his wife when he was working there. Cronkite was also known for his coverage of the Vietnam War. He called for the United States to leave the Vietnam conflict in 1968. This called for President Johnson to announce that he would not run for reelection. Johnson is famous for the quote "If I lost Cronkite, I've lost America." This shows that Cronkite was seen as a unifying figure throughout the country. It is hard to imagine this today due to the current division in our country. 

The next person that interested me the most was Howard Cossell. He was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He first started his career on WABC running a little league show. This show would have Little League baseball players asking professional players questions. Cossell was hired by ABC and got his own show called Speaking of Sports. He was known for his blunt approach. This was offensive to some, but popular with others. Mr. Cossell came up with iconic phrases such as "that was a nacho run" and "he could go all the way".  

Howard Cossell and Muhammad Ali

Cossell was supportive of the civil rights movement, particularly the iconic boxer Muhammed Ali. His civil rights record was damaged when he referred to Alvin Garret as a monkey. This event caused his career to decline. He was able to be inducted into the Television Hall of Fame and remains a major icon in Sports advertising. 

The last person that left a major impact on me was Gloria Steinem. She is a major feminist icon. She is still active today and talks about feminist issues such as Roe vs Wade.  She got her start in journalism by investigating the Playboy company. She reported on how many of the Playboy waitresses, known as bunnies, were underpaid and sexually harassed. This was an important step for the role of women in journalism, although it didn't seem to damage the reputation of Playboy magazine that much. 

Steinem was the creator of a magazine known as Ms. Magazine. This magazine was targeted at women. The first issue of the magazine showed a Hindu goddess with eight arms holding a clock, skillet, typewriter, rake, mirror, and telephone. This represented the various tasks that women were expected to do. This was a time when women were entering the workforce and expected to still do housework. Ms. Magazaine still issues to this day, although Gloria Steinem is not involved in the editing.

I am glad I got to learn about these figures in Journalism. Journalism has helped boost the civil rights and feminist movements in this country. I'm glad that I was able to learn more about these figures in American history. 

EOTO 3 Ted Turner

 For my last EOTO, I chose to write about Ted Turner, the former owner of several Atlanta sports teams,  the co-founder of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, and the founder of CNN, TNT, and TBS. I chose Ted Turner because I thought he was an important media figure, that was relatively unknown by people in my generation. 

I had only heard of him this year, while I was playing the New Campaign Trail, a game where you run for President. There is a mod where you can run as him in 1996 against Newt Gingrich in an alternate timeline where Bush won the 1992 election. 

The mod presents a lot of his political beliefs and statements from throughout the years such as being an advocate of environmentalism, abortion, and World Peace. It also displays some of the controversial statements he has made about religion, his marriage to Jane Fonda, and his past mistakes such as cheating on his wife and dressing up as a Klansman in front of a Jewish fraternity. 

He seemed like a very complex and interesting person. I was happy to find out that I was not incorrect. Mr. Turner to put it lightly has had an enormous influence on the Media landscape. He was born in 1938 in Ohio. He went to college at Brown but got kicked out after getting caught sleeping with a girl in his dorm. He took over his father's billboard company after his father's suicide. He then branched out buying a local radio channel and then a local TV station in Atlanta. By 1976, he had the idea to found CNN and was worth $100 million.

 CNN is one of the largest News Networks in the country. It was the first station to adopt 24-hour coverage. Ted Turner was able to make CNN such a large company through the early adoption of satellite technology. This turned Television from local channels to channels that could be shown to people all over the country. 

 

CNN had groundbreaking shows such as Moneyline, a show about the stock market and economic data, Evans and Novak, a political commentary and interview show, Crossfire, a debate show with conservative Pat Buchanan and liberal Tom Braden. These shows paved a trail for what Cable News would often present. Ted Turner has recently commented that he thinks the network has become too opinionated but refuses to critique them any further.

CNN complex in Atlanta

Ted Turner was a big investor in Time Warner Cable. At one point in his life, he had an estimated fortune of 7 billion dollars. Much of this was lost due to the failure of the merger of Time Warner and AOL. Ted Turner using his influence within the company led to the creation of Cartoon Network. Cartoon Network produced one of my favorite TV shows, the regular show, a show about two irresponsible Park employees going on absurd adventures. 

A major part of Ted Turner was his environmentalism. He founded a television show called Captain Planet which encouraged young people to protect the environment. The show aired from 1990 to 1996. He also founded the Turner Foundation in 1990. This foundation seeks to protect the land, air, and water. Turner infamously defended China's one-child policy. 

There are some other interesting facts about Ted Turner. Turner is also the owner of a chain of restaurants known as Ted's Montana Grill. There are several locations all over the country. The closest location is in Durham, North Carolina. He is the largest landowner in the United States. He has ranches in several US states such as Montana and South Dakota. He hosted the Goodwill Games with Jesse Jackson to help boost relations between the United States and the rest of the world. The Games occurred every 4 years starting in 1986 but ended in 2001. 

Ted Turner in 1976

I enjoyed learning about Ted Turner. He was one of the most influential men in pioneering our current media landscape. He was an early adopter of satellite technology which helped modernize the television industry. I also liked learning about Ted Turner because he is a complex figure. He is an avid environmentalist and is vocally anti-war, but he is also a proud Southerner. He purchased "Gone with the Wind" which is one of the most famous films about the Civil War through the Southern perspective. I found this interesting because many see this film as portraying "The Lost Cause" narrative. Turner is a man who is not afraid to speak his mind but also seeks to be friends with everybody. These traits that I try to have and they are traits that I admire in people.

Shock and Awe Film Review

 The movie Shock and Awe is about the reports of the Knight-Ridder newspaper reporting on the Iraq War. They were the only prominent paper in this country that questioned the narrative. The movie begins with a soldier talking about his service in the Iraq War, he states some statistics about the Iraq War explaining how it was wrong and how he sacrificed for his country based on the lie. He asks how the hell did this happen and the movie plays a montage of various military figures, various politicians, and President Bush talking about the Iraq War. The movie then shows a journalist in a training exercise, the exercise then stops when it is reported that a plane has hit the Twin Towers. 

A CNN broadcast, playing in the Knight Ridder office, states early in the film that it believes the Bin Laden group- Al Qaeda was responsible for the attack. The media also attempts to make a connection between Bin Laden and Iraq. John Walcott believes that this is absurd because Saddam Hussein is a secular leader. Due to Americans having little to no knowledge about the Middle East and Islam, the government and Media could fabricate narratives.  

British Politician Tony Benn meeting with Saddam Hussein to try to prevent a war

9/11 is an event in American history whose echoes are still felt to this day. It was an attack by a foreign power on American soil. This has not happened since and the last time it happened besides 9/11 was the attack on Pearl Harbor, which was far away from the core territory of the United States. Without 9/11 there would have been no "justification" for the war in Iraq that Bush could give the American people. We may have gone to war with Iraq later, but if we hadn't America wouldn't have wasted 2 trillion dollars. This money could have gone into helping improve the lives of our citizens. In addition to this, 300,000 Iraqis wouldn't have died in the war itself. It is also unlikely ISIS would rise to power because there wouldn't be a power vacuum that they could exploit. The movie talks about how removing Saddam from power will just create a vacuum. 

A major consequence of the Iraq War was the damage to the US reputation abroad. France, Turkey, and Germany refused to enter the war because they did not believe it was justified. The US invading Iraq also set a dangerous precedent where disputes could be settled by violence instead of diplomacy. It is possible that Russia would not have invaded Ukraine if the US had not drastically changed the norms of international relations with the war in Iraq. Russia may have decided to seek protection for Russians in Ukraine through diplomacy instead. America cannot condemn other nations for their aggression, while at the same time launching an unprovoked war. 

German Chancellor Schröder and President Bush discussing Iraq

Throughout the movie, the paper interviews government officials who are reluctant to give their opinion on the situation. They all say that there is no way that there could be a connection between Sadaam Hussein and Al Qaeda. They say Saadam is a secular leader. They do not reveal their names because they feel they will be fired. The Iraq War and the Patriot Act were passed easily by Congress because many felt that it would be political suicide not to go along with it. 

One of my favorite parts of the movie is the subplot between Warren Strobel and his girlfriend. She is an intelligent but uninformed person and serves as a way for the audience to better understand the Iraq War. She eventually sees that the war was based on false pretenses and Bush was just trying to expand America's imperial influence. I also thought it was funny that Mr. Strobel's first question to her was are you a Democrat or a Republican. Many people are not curious and do not seek to understand other nation's perspectives on international relations. She does a lot of research about the division in the Muslim world, many people would not be interested in doing that unfortunately. People must look at a problem through different perspectives because even if they disagree with a viewpoint, they will be better able to combat it. After all, they can understand why someone would think that. You are better able to persuade others when you try to understand them. 

This movie shows the Bush Administration wanted to go to war with Iraq since he took power. 9/11 was used as a pretext to justify the invasion. The film also shows that Iraq did not and could not have weapons of mass destruction. People who tried to fight back against the war were not welcomed. We can see similar things happening today with the situation in Israel. I do not believe Biden wanted the Israeli conflict, but Benjamin Netanyahu wants a war with the Palestinians so he can secure the whole territory for his country. Like George Bush, Netanyahu's government is filled with warmongers, many of whom reject the idea of a Palestinian state. Netanyahu is unpopular in Israel and hopes to use the war as a justification to hold on to power. There have been many protests in support of Palestine, and while I probably disagree with the protestors on many things, it is a gross violation of the spirit of the First Amendment that they were brutally suppressed. The movie shows that those in power will lie to try to maintain their power and push the country into war based on lies. The press needs to be adversarial to the government and point out its lies. Knight-Ridder was the only paper that was willing to do that. 

EOTO Key Post 2 Disinformation/Misinformation

 Disinformation and Misinformation are two topics that have been discussed a lot in our current zeitgeist. These two topics are serious issues in our society that need to be handled with care. Spreading disinformation is the deliberate spread of false information. Spreading misinformation is the accidental spread of inaccurate information. Everyone is guilty of spreading misinformation.  We all have said things that we later found out were not true. There is a clip that I found on something called the preface paradox. 

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-_2SWZm8LVE

Good night and Good luck

Good Night and Good Luck is a film about McCarthyism in America. Joe McCarthy was a prominent Senator from Wisconsin known for his anti-communist crusade in the United States. Many of the people that were investigated and blacklisted during the paranoia were innocent of involvement in communist activity.  The film begins with the introduction of Edward R. Murrow, a man who fought against segregation and Joesph McCarthy. He warns that television is used to distract people.

                                                  Joesph McCarthy

The film then cuts back to 1953, it explains how many are suspected of communist sympathies. Mr. and Mrs. Wershaba discuss signing a loyalty oath to the United States of America. Mr. Wershaba says his wife should sign the oath but she is unsure of it. Many people had to denounce communism even if they weren't communists themselves. The film goes on to discuss a man named Milo Radolovich, being asked to denounce his father. He was asked to do so because his father was reading a Serbian newspaper. If he fails to denounce his father he will not be allowed to enter the airforce. 

I find this very ironic because Yugoslavia was behind the Iron Curtain and was a victim of Soviet Imperialism. The idea that every Serbian-American newspaper would be sympathetic to the Yugoslav government is ridiculous.  Many immigrants to the United States from Eastern Europe were political refugees who strongly disagreed with their government. 

Initially after Mr. Murrow's segment, he believes that it went well. Mr. Wershaba is told that Mr. Murrow has been on the Soviet payroll since 1935. He disagrees with this but still takes the envelope with the alleged evidence. Murrow's boss warns him that he went too far with his Segment. Murrow. Murrow asks his coworkers if they have any connections to communists. One of his workers says that his ex-wife attended Communist meetings. 

Many intellectuals in the 1930s were socialist or communist sympathizers. The New Deal took elements of socialist ideology and combined them with American capitalism. Many Ideologies use different elements of others. I think we should encourage the marketplace of ideas in our country and not ban different beliefs.

 Murrow makes another address about Senator McCarthy. He implies that McCarthy is trying to destroy American democracy. He is praised in the papers for his courage in going after the Senator's methods. Many in the country in both political parties were hesitant to go after McCarthy. Another paper slams Murrow as being a socialist. 

It is announced that Radolovich is going to be allowed back into the Air Force. McCarthy is brought on the program and he makes an appeal to every American to join with him in his Crusade against communism. He says that he will not be intimidated by those who attack him. In the next segment, Murrow says that he did not expect McCarthy to behave differently. He says that he is not a communist and that people should be allowed to discuss a variety of ideas. 

It is announced that the Senator will be investigating Joe McCarthy. This was largely due to the Senator's methods and the Senator deciding to go after the United States Army. The cynic in me wonders if his investigating the Army would have revealed other unrelated crimes. 

Mr. and Mrs. Wershaba are asked to think about leaving. Murrow's boss is upset and reprimands him by having his program reduced to five episodes on Sunday. It cuts back to the award show and Murrow continues his speech saying that people have to openly discuss different ideas.

I think this movie was released during an interesting time (2005) at the height of the Iraq War. I am unsure whether the director of the movie was motivated to release the movie at this time, but is probable that some of the people who worked on the film were against the War. The Iraq War like many wars throughout American history was a time of great media. The Patriot Act allowed the US government to monitor American citizens.  The themes of this movie such as government censorship and intimidation of anti-government voices are still as relevant as they were then. I am glad that I was able to see this movie to gain a greater insight into those who fought against McCarthyism.