Why Nobody Seems to Mind That Bill O’Reilly Is a Total Fraud Why Nobody Seems to Mind That Bill O’Reilly Is a Total Fraud
The Fox News anchor’s war stories have been exposed as lies. And it’s all good.
Mar 4, 2015 / Column / Eric Alterman
True Grit? True Grit?
Nation contributor and TV host Laura Flanders isn’t the first feminist to face down some gun-toting cowboys, but her battle is a little unusual. Since 2008, Flanders’s GRITtv has broadcast the voices of marginalized experts and grassroots activists on cable, satellite and public television, as well as online. “I interview people with grit,” Flanders explained in a phone interview. But last summer, she received a phone call asking if she was aware that there was another Grit TV station in town. Flanders jumped online, where she discovered the new Grit (grittv.com), an “action-oriented” digital channel targeting men between 25 and 54 (sexagenarians, beware!). Launched on August 18, the new Grit is “built around the classic male hero, with a focus on western, war and action movies,” said Jonathan Katz, president and CEO of Katz Broadcasting, which operates the network. Please support our journalism. Get a digital subscription for just $9.50! No sane person is likely to mistake Harrison Ford for Naomi Klein—but viewers might find it difficult to separate the near-identical branding. Flanders says her voicemail and e-mail have been filled with messages from viewers frustrated with the quality of Grit’s digital signal. Viewers confuse contact information on her website for Grit’s—and even the programming. One disgruntled viewer wrote to Flanders: “Your channel showing war films is propaganda!” Last fall, GRITtv’s lawyer sent Grit a cease-and-desist letter. GRITtv has applied for a trademark; Grit has, too. Legally, Flanders’s longtime prior use of “GRIT” gives her the right to the brand. The Grit guys have yet to acknowledge the consumer confusion, but even a cowboy could tell you that intellectual property law no longer resembles the Wild, Wild West. That frontier mentality goes by another name now: theft. Read Next: Greg Grandin on Venezuela after Chávez
Mar 4, 2015 / Ava Kofman
Meet the Politicians Trying to Bury America’s Past Meet the Politicians Trying to Bury America’s Past
Our short historical memory is no accident.
Mar 4, 2015 / Column / Patricia J. Williams
Gabby Giffords Returns to Capitol Hill to Push Background Checks Gabby Giffords Returns to Capitol Hill to Push Background Checks
The gun-control debate may have receded from memory, but advocates are still pushing Congress to take action.
Mar 4, 2015 / George Zornick
Students Make the Case for Gender Fluidity Students Make the Case for Gender Fluidity
Colleges around the country are considering adding a third gender option to their student rosters.
Mar 4, 2015 / StudentNation / Nikhilesh De and StudentNation
The True Purpose of Netanyahu’s Trip to Washington The True Purpose of Netanyahu’s Trip to Washington
Hint: it’s not to pressure the US into striking a better deal with Iran.
Mar 3, 2015 / Juan Cole
Race and Civil Rights in ‘The Nation’: Part V, From the LA Riots to the Release of ‘Selma’ Race and Civil Rights in ‘The Nation’: Part V, From the LA Riots to the Release of ‘Selma’
A multimedia timeline presenting the history of the struggle for racial justice, from 1991 to 2015.
Mar 3, 2015 / The Nation
What I Learned From Breaking the Law What I Learned From Breaking the Law
In 1971, I helped burglarize an FBI office and leaked documents that exposed J. Edgar Hoover’s abuses of power. Here’s what that experience taught me.
Mar 3, 2015 / John Raines
We Need a Leader With a Superiority Complex We Need a Leader With a Superiority Complex
If you don’t think we’re better than the rest of the planet, what are you doing in office?
Mar 3, 2015 / Tom Tomorrow
Why Americans Don’t Care About Prison Rape Why Americans Don’t Care About Prison Rape
And what happens when the problem escapes from behind bars.
Mar 2, 2015 / Elizabeth Stoker Bruenig