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Ken Burns' World War II (liberal columnist attacks political correctness at PBS)
Creators Syndicate ^ | May 10, 2007 | Susan Estrich

Posted on 05/10/2007 4:09:02 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued

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1 posted on 05/10/2007 4:09:05 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued
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To: SandRat; ExTexasRedhead; river rat; Leatherneck_MT; MichiganConservative; MNJohnnie; jazusamo; ...

When political correctness is so rampant that even a certified partisan leftie like Susan Estrich attacks it, you know that it’s gotten way, way out of hand.


2 posted on 05/10/2007 4:11:41 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued (If the GOP were to stop worshiping Free Trade as if it were a religion, they'd win every election)
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To: Clintonfatigued
Defund PBS and the National Endowment for the Arts. If they can’t pay for themselves, we don’t need them.
3 posted on 05/10/2007 4:12:35 PM PDT by Little Ray (Rudy Guiliani: if his wives can't trust him, why should we?)
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To: Little Ray; NormsRevenge

That’s a good idea. There are plenty of wealthy patrons who can subsidize such things with their own private money.


4 posted on 05/10/2007 4:14:09 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued (If the GOP were to stop worshiping Free Trade as if it were a religion, they'd win every election)
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To: Clintonfatigued

Hey! I’ve got an idea. How about these fine people raise some money and hire Ken Burns or another good documentary maker and make their own movie about Hispanic soldiers in WWII. I’d love to see it. I’d bet that PBS would fall over themselves to air it.

Of course, that would mean that these whining ninnies would have to actually DO something.


5 posted on 05/10/2007 4:17:12 PM PDT by Seruzawa (Attila the Hun... wasn't he a liberal?)
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To: Clintonfatigued

“the best documentary artist in America”

Hardly. He makes historical narratives. They are NOT documentaries.

The Maysles (who made Gimme Shelter, Salesman, and other documentaries) decry the use of narration, historical recreation, and any preconceived storyline in “documentary”.

Better documentarians will tell you that they begin with one idea but in researching and filming their subject, the project grows.

Consider when Michael Moore (who never went to Iraq himself to make F-911, he relied entirely on second unit crews) had interview footage of Nick Berg AND access to footage of the terrorists cutting his head off AND the documentary about the sh!tuation in Iraq didn’t mention ANY of it. Instead it told how wonderful life was in Saddam’s Iraq pre-invasion.

People have found historical errors in Ken Burns’ programs (like Baseball).

But I wouldn’t praise him as a documentarian.


6 posted on 05/10/2007 4:19:27 PM PDT by weegee (Libs want us to learn to live with terrorism, but if a gun is used they want to rewrite the Const.)
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To: Clintonfatigued

A quota for history now. Great.


7 posted on 05/10/2007 4:22:08 PM PDT by weegee (Libs want us to learn to live with terrorism, but if a gun is used they want to rewrite the Const.)
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To: Seruzawa

Actually, you COULD make a pretty good documentary of Mexico’s part in WWII:
http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/travel/slenchek/slmexicoww2.html


8 posted on 05/10/2007 4:24:46 PM PDT by Little Ray (Rudy Guiliani: if his wives can't trust him, why should we?)
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To: weegee
But I wouldn’t praise him as a documentarian.

Call him what you will, but he has brought a level of interest to subjects not covered in such detail, as few other have. His body of work is enjoyable, informative and has brought Jazz, the Civil war and baseball to audiences that have not previously been reached on some of these subjects.

Mistakes? It would be hard to not find an error in virtually any movie or film project that covers entire era's as he has.

I wonder how many of those errors would classify as nit picking, vs. major errors of fact.

Would you care to offer any examples of his errors?

9 posted on 05/10/2007 4:29:09 PM PDT by Michael.SF. ("The military Mission has long since been accomplished" -- Harry Reid, April 23, 2007)
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To: Clintonfatigued
Uh, um... You know the rules...

:O)

10 posted on 05/10/2007 4:30:06 PM PDT by jdm
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To: Clintonfatigued
Makes me wonder if PBS would be allowed to air "Go For Broke" today?


11 posted on 05/10/2007 4:35:28 PM PDT by BenLurkin
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To: Clintonfatigued

I didn’t think it was possible, but “The Right to Not be Offended” has officially been trumped for absurdity by “The “Right to Appear in a Ken Burns Documentary.” Wow.


12 posted on 05/10/2007 4:36:44 PM PDT by verum ago (The Iranian Space Agency: set phasers to jihad!)
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To: weegee
The Maysles (who made Gimme Shelter, Salesman, and other documentaries) decry the use of narration, historical recreation, and any preconceived storyline in “documentary”.

______________________________________

Sorry, wrong. I hired an in-house director of their's to shoot and edit a trailer for one of my projects. I spent two weeks in and out of their offices. They had just shot a 'documentary' covering some anti-US march in DC. Two of the team's PAs were 'interviewed' by the producer because they needed the right kind of statements. It was handled by none less than Albert with a nod and a wink.

13 posted on 05/10/2007 4:40:16 PM PDT by wtc911 ("How you gonna get back down that hill?")
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To: Clintonfatigued
Susan shows good old 'common sense' in this article.

I pray that someday the "Liberals" get tired of and completely disavow the radical leftists that make up the base of the Democrat Party!!

14 posted on 05/10/2007 4:43:59 PM PDT by PISANO
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To: Clintonfatigued

Interesting point here - my family lived throught the battle of Manila, and were liberated by the US Army. They (and plenty of my relatives and their neighbors of those days, all were Spanish-speaking) were very surprised (pleasantly so) to find that the unit that liberated their part of Manila were Spanish speakers too, from New Mexico and other such places. They got along famously.


15 posted on 05/10/2007 4:49:12 PM PDT by buwaya
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To: Clintonfatigued

Moral relativism at work is what those protests are.


16 posted on 05/10/2007 4:50:27 PM PDT by Missey_Lucy_Goosey
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To: buwaya
That would make an interesting story. There are similar stories about German speakers in both WWI and WWII. The previous posters are correct. De-fund PBS and let individual documentary makers do their own thing.
17 posted on 05/10/2007 5:01:43 PM PDT by Varda
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To: Michael.SF.
I have been a jazz lover all my life, have known pro jazz musicians, etc., and I couldn't watch much of Burns' series on jazz, though I tried two or three times.

It was so ridiculously racist, negative, and limited! Wynton Marsalis is an elitist snob, and Burns was totally obtuse. To cite his history of jazz series as a good example is ... distressing. Guys like Marsalis and Burns are why "jazz" is dying and has so very few radio stations. Sorry to be so sour, but it just kills me that so much really great jazzy fusion stuff exists -- spirit-lifting stuff, exciting, interesting upbeat music -- that is riduculed by old-guard heavies like Marsalis, and hence ignored by folks like Burns, who's fallen for Wynton hook, line, and sinker. And a whole group of people unwittingly allow themselves to have a uniquely American and uniquely dynamic musical genre defined by a snotty old Scooter like Wynton.

All because Burns has such credibility with other series, they automatically believe him in this one. Sad.

Oh well -- sooner or later the cream will rise to the top, and we'll hear that great music somewhere better than just my CD player, and once again American original music will inspire Americans to be ... victorious Americans! (You'd never guess that swing jazz is one of my faves, wouldja? Listen to Benny Goodman, Glen Miller, Duke Ellington, Les Brown. No WONDER America won the war.)

18 posted on 05/10/2007 5:37:36 PM PDT by Finny (God continue to Bless President G.W. Bush with wisdom, popularity, safety and success.)
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To: wtc911

Love your tagline ‘hombre’.


19 posted on 05/10/2007 5:44:37 PM PDT by Carl LaFong ( Enough Is Too Much !)
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To: wtc911
The Maysles (who made Gimme Shelter, Salesman, and other documentaries) decry the use of narration, historical recreation, and any preconceived storyline in “documentary”. ______________________________________ Sorry, wrong. I hired an in-house director of their's to shoot and edit a trailer for one of my projects. I spent two weeks in and out of their offices. They had just shot a 'documentary' covering some anti-US march in DC. Two of the team's PAs were 'interviewed' by the producer because they needed the right kind of statements. It was handled by none less than Albert with a nod and a wink.

Oooooooooooooooohh! NAstay!

20 posted on 05/10/2007 5:45:10 PM PDT by Finny (God continue to Bless President G.W. Bush with wisdom, popularity, safety and success.)
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