PBS's Frontline has done some decent documentaries in the past few years, but what I really appreciate is that they post the "transparency interviews" - the unedited interviews they selected from to compile the documentary.
The "America's Great Divide" focused on the state of the country around the 2020 election period, reflecting back primarily to Obama's terms, Trump's arrival and term, and where we might be going.
Most of them are what you would expect, although less partisan and more candid than you would expect. Robert Reich, Steve Bannon, David Axelrod, Ann Coulter, etc... They portray the view from their personal "foxhole", and are generally is predictable although there are a few surprises.
Then there's the Frank Luntz interview. I don't agree with everything in it, but it's pretty powerful. He gets a lot right, and dispels a lot of myths/narratives. Yeah, it's an hour. You don't have to "watch", since it's just a fat guy sitting in a chair answering questions, but you can listen to it as you do something else. Workout, prepare dinner, take a crap, whatever.
It starts with:
That's a pretty good question for Frank Luntz, and he's a guy who is qualified to give a pretty good answer.We’ve got two different presidents here. We’re going to be starting the film around the inaugurations and the speeches and the inaugurations. Just lay the groundwork here of who these two guys are, why they both had enormous appeal to their voters, and how different. Just define it for us.
He lays out the positivity toward's Obama's inauguration, the market crisis and the bank bailout, and how people felt about that. He talks about people supported healthcare insurance reform, but got the entirety of the system reformed instead. He talks about the rise of the Tea Party, Occupy Wall Street (two different segments of society fed up with the system), "I've got a pen and a phone", Glenn Beck, etc... and ultimately how the outrage got us Trump and how Trump leveraged it.
From the interview:
My outlook isn't as pessimistic, but this is also why David Sirota's piece on the failure of the media isn't just "nothing new".Originally Posted by Frank Luntz
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