Art Imitating Life: Benghazi, Obama, and Kirk Douglas

americanthinker.com ^ | 5-23-2013 | Lloyd Marcus

[servo1969]

Talk about art imitating life.

I landed upon a classic movie while surfing TV channels. Kirk Douglas played a down-on-his-luck news reporter. When I began watching the movie, a man named Leo was trapped in a collapsed cave. Douglas managed to crawl within a few feet of Leo and was chatting with Leo, assuring the scared man that he would be rescued ASAP.

But secretly, Douglas had other plans. Keeping Leo trapped for at least seven days could revive Douglas's career. He had exclusive access to Leo. Writing daily updates could produce tremendous financial rewards; it could land Douglas a job with a major newspaper and a possible Pulitzer Prize.

Now here is the despicable aspect of the story: the engineer said his crew could get Leo out of the hole in sixteen hours.

Douglas manipulated the corrupt local sheriff, who was seeking re-election, to pressure the engineer to use a slower technique that would take at least five days to remove Leo from the hole. On the fifth day, when the crew was within a few feet of reaching him, Leo died.

Folks, I was struck by how closely the scenario in the movie paralleled real-life current events. After the movie, I told my wife, "Oh my gosh, I just watched the Obama administration in Benghazi."

[servo1969]

[camle]

excellent movie. shows how the media can manipulate things

[spankalib]

shows how the media can manipulate things

Meet John Doe
& Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

also had media-manipulation as prominent parts of the story line.

The media can be manipulated BACK too!

http://www.wimp.com/gulliblecities/

[IYAS9YAS]

Well, as long as we're comparing old shows to the Obama admin. Check out Kolchak: The Night Stalker. The episode "The Devil's Platform" had a ton of parallels. An out-of-nowhere candidate in Chicago makes it to the election of state senator (while using the help of the Devil). Folks all around him die off. I like the Kolchak ending better than real life's though.

In a previous episode "The Werewolf" there was a funny back-and-forth between Kolchak (a reporter) and his roommate on a swinger's cruise. The swinger kept calling him "The 5th Column" and he kept chiming back "Fourth Estate."

[blueunicorn6]

I find more similarities with the movie SERPICO. In this movie, Serpico is a policeman who sees rampant corruption around him in the police department. He, somewhat unwillingly, agrees to expose the corruption. In the movie, Serpico is part of a team of policemen taking part in a raid on a drug dealer. Serpico becomes trapped in the door and is unable to use his weapon. He screams for help from his fellow police officers because the drug dealer is preparing to shoot him. Serpico’s fellow policemen refuse to help him because he has been exposing their corruption. Serpico is shot in the head by the drug dealer. The movie is based on a real policeman.
I believe that four Americans were allowed to be murdered in Benghazi in an attempt to cover up corruption.

[supremedoctrine]

Yes! ACE IN THE HOLE!
Brilliant movie, brilliant title ,from the brilliantly cynical realist Billy Wilder.
But this movie serves as a metaphor for so much else in
American life and politics....
The 1950s in Hollywood , contrary to “popular opinion”,were
full of similar kinds of wised-up political realism:
One of the great ones was TRIAL (1955) directed by Mark Robson,with Arthur Kennedy/ An innocent Hispanic in a lewd
murder case is manipulated by his Communist-sympathizing lawyer into not proclaiming his innocence , but allowing himself to be judged guilty because it would further the goals of the Communist cause to have a minority “martyr”.
See it!

[needmorePaine]

Some of the responses from critics (from the movie's Wikipedia page):

At the time of its release, critics found little to admire. In his review in The New York Times, Bosley Crowther called it "a masterly film" but added, "Mr. Wilder has let imagination so fully take command of his yarn that it presents not only a distortion of journalistic practice but something of a dramatic grotesque . . . [it] is badly weakened by a poorly constructed plot, which depends for its strength upon assumptions that are not only naïve but absurd. There isn't any denying that there are vicious newspaper men and that one might conceivably take advantage of a disaster for his own private gain. But to reckon that one could so tie up and maneuver a story of any size, while other reporters chew their fingers, is simply incredible."[9]

The Hollywood Reporter called it "ruthless and cynical...a distorted study of corruption and mob psychology that...is nothing more than a brazen, uncalled-for slap in the face of two respected and frequently effective American institutions - democratic government and the free press."[10]

HAHAHAHA

[Borges]

When ‘Mr. Smith Goes to Washington’ was released there was some clucking among government and media figures that such a film would be used as anti-American propaganda abroad because it implies that the U.S. Senate could be corrupted.

[IYAS9YAS]

Didn’t realize it was on youtube. I got the series via Netflix. I was 5 when it came out, but remember the re-runs from syndication.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***I like the Kolchak ending better than real life’s though.***

Duh, i like the part where his wife used up all the glue on purpose. duh. ;-D

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

I have read that newspaper reporters planted a few false clues during the Lindbergh Kidnapping case, so they could get more press out of it.

[x_plus_one]

What started out as a setup to cancel the first amendment for freedom of speech winds up as a coverup that makes Watergate look silly.

Never send paid Al Qaeda thugs to kill gay gun runners and expect it to be swept under the rug and go unnoticed. Cheesy youtube videos won't make the case to curb freedom of speech in order to keep Mooslimbs happy.

[ansel12]

Excellent movie.