Greg Mitchell

Michael Moore Battles Buzzfeed Over Palestinian Director's Airport Incident

Greg Mitchell on February 26, 2013 - 10:14 AM ET

[See Updates at end of post.]

Last week, you may have read, film director Michael Moore revealed a disturbing incident at the Los Angeles International Airport, or LAX, as it’s commonly known: The Palestinian co-director of the great Oscar-nominated documentary, 5 Broken Cameras, had been detained for quite awhile, seemingly racially profiled by agents who could not believe Emad Burnat and his wife and son (all Muslims) were in town for the Oscar show.

Moore tried to help him get released, after Burnat texted him that they were being threatened with deportation. Moore wrote about it via Twitter and at his web site.

Note to Critics: Oscar Winner 'Sugar Man' Is Indeed 'Political'

Greg Mitchell on February 25, 2013 - 11:53 AM ET

Ben Affleck presents the Academy Award for best documentary to the director of Searching for Sugar Man. (Reuters/Mario Anzuoni.)

There is criticism and outrage emanating from some quarters today over the allegedly soft Searching for Sugar Man’s topping four fine and very important “poltiical” films to capture the Oscar last night for best feature documentary. Indeed, the other four were equally great, and I had endorsed 5 Broken Cameras for the prize. Other films, such as The Queen of Versalles, deserved a nomination.

As Oscar Show Nears: Three New Hits vs. 'Zero Dark Thirty'

Greg Mitchell on February 23, 2013 - 12:32 PM ET

I suppose you could call it kicking-a-dead-horserace, but the very welcome criticism of Zero Dark Thirty is continuing right up to the weekend of the annual Academy Awards broacast. The film is even drawing heat now from the family of a notable 9/11 victim. And Nate Silver in his Oscar predictions now gives the film little chance of winning the Best Picture prize.

The New York Times has posted, early, a few pieces from its Sunday Review section, including two related to Zero Dark Thirty.

Regular contributor Tim Egan says the film does not deserve to win because it tried to have things “both ways.” He loved the film when he first saw it, then changed his mind on a second viewing (seemingly after reading the likes of Jane Mayer), and now writes: “It’s obvious, now, why the C.I.A. was cooperative with the filmmakers: they couldn’t have asked for better product placement….the C.I.A. has shown just how adept it is at spinning Hollywood.”

Ad Policy

The Terrorist Next Door (to Me)

Greg Mitchell on February 22, 2013 - 10:32 AM ET

Well, not quite next door. This fellow lives about three miles west of me in Rockland County, straight out Route 59 in the strip mall paradise of Nanuet, New York. A local news outlet charted his arrest, essentially on domestic terrorism charges, after making threats against various Democrats (Cuomo and Pelosi and Reid and Schumer and members of the Black Caucus, of course) and saying followers of Obama are traitors and should die.

This fine specimen of a human American, one Lawrence Mulqueen (left), is a follower of the right-wing Sovereign nation. He’s a veteran drunk driver with felonies in several locales, but still managed to illegally assemble an arsenal (see below). On his Facebook page he reportedly wrote, “I cannot wait to start killing the scum.… I want these scumbags DEAD!!!…. Death to them all.” Them being only Democrats and Obama fans.

When Mulqueen was taken into a custody, with FBI and Secret Service help, the raid on the home found body armor, weapons and ammunition including (in the local news outlet’s list):

From the Right-Wing Media to the US Senate: Making Up Stuff to Bring Down Hagel

Greg Mitchell on February 21, 2013 - 11:01 AM ET

Chuck Hagel shakes Barack Obama’s hand after his nomination. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais.)

Yes, we can all enjoy a laugh for a few days over the Breitbartian “scoop” that wasn’t—Chuck Hagel, nominee for Pentagon chief, getting funds from “The Friends of Hamas.” There’s even a fake Friends of Hamas webpage mocking the Breitbart.com generator of the scandal, young Ben Shapiro, while others make fun of Shapiro for claiming his original claim was “caveated” (maybe he meant “cravated”).

Politico Crybabies Sent Back to Crib After Calling Obama 'the Puppet Master'

Greg Mitchell on February 20, 2013 - 10:43 AM ET

A lot of outrage, and not-so-gentle mockery, emerged yesterday over a classic Politico piece by editor Jim VandeHei and chief reporter Mike Allen complaining about President Obama’s manipulating the press, or just ignoring them, or shutting them out, or something. This comes on the heels of vapid criticism of the president for not allowing journos to observe and photograph him at his crucial summit meeting over the weekend… on a golf course, with Tiger Woods.

In any case, to VandeHei and Allen, Obama handles the press like a “Puppet Master.” They seem to feel this is unprecedented and a turning point for the Republic. Apparently, they yearn for the days when they could be spun at close quarters by, say, key occupants of the Bush White House, on Iraq.

And, as real DC journalists know, the best White House reporting can, and should, be done away from the spinmeisters, right up to the president. Let’s recall that the main reason the Knight Ridder reporters were just about the only ones who threw red flags in the run-up to the Iraq invasion was because they did not rely on inside sources at another institution known for spin, the Pentagon.

New Film by an Oscar Nominee Exposes the 'War' on Whistleblowing

Greg Mitchell on February 19, 2013 - 10:28 AM ET

It all began with Bradley Manning and the grainy video of that US gunship attack on civilians and journalists in Baghdad, leaked to WikiLeaks in early 2010. It caused an international sensation and put WikiLeaks on the map as a central media player for a full year as leaks about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and then Cablegate, emerged.

James Spione decided to make a short film about the video and a central figure in it—a US soldier who helped steer to safety a youngster injured in the US attack. The soldier, Ethan McCord, became an eloquent critic of the US war effort. I was perhaps the first to write about the making of the film, Incident in New Baghdad, which went on to gain an Academy Award nomination for best short doc.

Now Spione is completing a kind of follow-up, called Silenced, on whistleblowing, federal government crackdowns and the war over information. He’s currently seekng completion funds via Kickstarter (a process that proved vital with his previous film). Here’s the current trailer:

Tonight: Maddow Probes Lies Around Iraq War—and Connects to Hagel Debate Today

Greg Mitchell on February 18, 2013 - 8:40 AM ET

The bitter critique of Chuck Hagel and his nomination as secretary of defense by Senator John McCain has little to do with Benghazi or Israel and everything to do with Iraq, as Rachel Maddow points out in the preview to her MSNBC special tonight on how we got into Iraq almost ten years ago. Hagel, then in the Senate, had the nerve to oppose Bush’s “surge” in Iraq. Fellow Republicans McCain and Senator Lindsay Graham were the chief cheerleaders for it.

Perhaps you think you’ve read or heard it all. Hell, I even wrote my own book about it, So Wrong for So Long. But now Maddow is promising surprising revelations in her MSNBC special Hubris: Selling the Iraq War, tonight in her regular time slot.

It may be President’s Day, but it looks like she sure won’t be celebrating George W. Bush. Or the mainstream media. Here’s the preview with the McCain/Hagel rundown:

Will PBS 'Frontline' Series on Sandy Hook Hit Hard on Gun Issues?

Greg Mitchell on February 15, 2013 - 1:00 PM ET

Frontline has now posted a preview and video trailer and two-minute interview excerpt (see below) for its two-part series starting next Tuesday on Sandy Hook mass killer Adam Lanza, how he was raised by his mother, and how the tragedy sparked a very polarized gun debate in that town and across the country.

The Hartford Courant has joined in the probe, and its first major story based on this research wlll be published this Sunday. And PBS promises many other programs on gun violence via its various other units, such as its public affairs and science divisions.

But how tough an approach will they take? Will it be overly “even-handed” or really break new ground and shift the debate at least a little?

Rachel Maddow To Probe Lies That Led to Iraq War in TV Special 'Hubris'

Greg Mitchell on February 14, 2013 - 9:06 AM ET

Perhaps you think you’ve read or heard it all. Hell, I even wrote my own book about it, So Wrong for So Long,. But now Rachel Maddow is promising surprising revelations in her MSNBC special Hubris: Selling the Iraq War, next Monday night in her regular time slot.

It will be President’s Day, but it looks like she sure won’t be celebrating George W. Bush. Or the mainstream media.

The special marks the opening of what will surely be a slew of tenth-anniversary programs and other media revisits. If you want to go back yourself now: Ten years ago today Hans Blix made another fateful presentation to the United Nations on his team’s search for WMD in Iraq. It was said to bolster both opponents and proponents of a US invasion, since he still found no evidence of such weapons but Saddam was still not cooperating fully with inspections.