avatar
GRITtv: Lizz Winstead & W. Kamau Bell: Media Responsibility
The ongoing disaster in the Gulf, millions of barrels of oil now reaching shores and killing wildlife, might seem to have little in common with the struggle for comprehensive immigration reform. But one of the threads that connects the two is misleading media coverage. BP was able to control and spin their coverage, perhaps aided by their liberal advertising budgets, and meanwhile discussions of immigration and racial issues in general are constantly framed as a debate over whether racism is involved. Comedians and commentators W. Kamau Bell and Lizz Winstead join us in studio to break down the week in news and suggest ways to fix our ongoing problems. Some of their solutions may surprise you.
Email this pageGRITtv: May 27 2010
The BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has now, according to new estimates, become the nation's biggest oil spill in history. Yet instead of deploying help to the Gulf, President Obama is sending troops to the U.S./Mexico border. As Maya Wiley of the Center for Social Inclusion notes, it's an election year, and that means it's pandering time. Maya joins us in studio to discuss the ongoing issues of race politics in the country, from Arizona to D.C., and explain that we really need an honest conversation about these issues now, not electioneering. The ongoing disaster in the Gulf, millions of barrels of oil now reaching shores and killing wildlife, might seem to have little in common with the struggle for comprehensive immigration reform. But one of the threads that connects the two is misleading media coverage.
"Democracy Now!": Tues. Apr. 27 2010
“Avatar” director James Cameron follows his box office success with advocacy for indigenous struggles; John Ross talks about his latest book “El Monstruo: Dread and Redemption in Mexico City”; Rep. Grijalva calls for federal non-cooperation with Arizona's new controversial immigration bill. "Democracy Now!" is a daily independent newshour.
GRITtv: GRITtv Goes to the Oscars!
Well, not really. Instead, we invited three of our favorite film critics and pop culture queens to talk about the Academy Awards: will Kathryn Bigelow break the Best Director glass ceiling? Is Sandra Bullock going to take home a statuette? Was Avatar all that it was cracked up to be? And why was that Vanity Fair Hollywood issue cover so darn white? Courtney Young, blogger and author of From Madea To Michelle, Maryann Johanson, the FlickFilosopher, and Alison Willmore of the IFC's Indie Eye blog join us in studio to talk about all that and more.
GRITtv: Mar. 4, 2010
The Academy Awards are this weekend, so we invited three of our favorite film critics and pop culture queens to talk: Will Kathryn Bigelow break the Best Director glass ceiling? Is Sandra Bullock going to take home a statuette? Was Avatar all that it was cracked up to be? And why was that Vanity Fair Hollywood issue cover so darn white? Kate Clinton is back with some thoughts on Tiger Woods' image rehabilitation, sports fever, women's history month, and the Oscars, as well as Jim Bunning's singlehanded choice to deny unemployment benefits to over 400,000 people. The second part of our conversation with Daniel Ellsberg. This week's featured documentary, Sweet Crude, looks at the consequences of oil extraction for the people and environment of Nigeria. And Laura has some words for the U.S. government's supposed "high road" contracting plan.
GRITtv: Kate Clinton: Drones, Crones and Oscars
It's drones, crones, Toyota, the Super Bowl, and one-line summaries of the ten (yes, ten!) Best Picture nominees for this year's Oscars in Kate Clinton's latest commentary.
GRITtv: Feb. 4, 2010
CBS has changed its longstanding policy of not allowing issue ads during the Super Bowl to accept an anti-choice advertisement from Focus on the Family, and women's groups are furious at the double standard: CBS still rejected an ad from a gay dating service. Jehmu Greene and the Women's Media Center are calling for CBS to pull the ad, and other groups have joined the protest. Meanwhile, Nona Willis Aronowitz has a new book, Girldrive: Criss-Crossing America, Redefining Feminism, aiming to find out what kind of feminism women around the country, and Shelby Knox came from a southern conservative background to become an activist for sex education. We ask them what feminism means now and whether we should be focused on women in the media or other issues. "Would President Obama speak at a prayer breakfast organized by the KKK? Would Jim Wallis and other 'progressive' Christians attend?" That's what Frank Schaeffer wants to know, asking why Obama can't seem to break with the tradition of the White House National Prayer Breakfast. Bill Withers is responsible for so many songs you know and love. ?Ain?t No Sunshine,? ?Lean On Me,? ?Lovely Day,? ?Grandma?s Hands,? and ?Just the Two of Us" are just some of his familiar recordings. Filmmakers Damani Baker and Alex Vlack created an intimate portrait of Withers years after fame transformed him from a working-class guy with a family to a star. In Still Bill, they talk to Withers and his friends and family, and they joined us in studio to tell the story behind the film. It's drones, crones, Toyota, the Super Bowl, and one-line summaries of the ten (yes, ten!) Best Picture nominees for this year's Oscars in Kate Clinton's latest commentary. South Florida's Raging Grannies have a little message for CBS over its Super Bowl ad policy. Tim Tebow isn't the only male pro athlete with an opinion on women's reproductive choices, it seems. Former Minnesota Vikings football player Sean James and former Olympic Gold Medalist Al Joyner (brother of Olympic track star Jackie Joyner-Kersee) speak up for women's choices in this video from our friends at RH Reality Check. New media and new technology are going to save the world, or at least the media, right? Well, our friends at Yo! TV headed down to the Girls in Tech Conference to talk to some of the women who are shaping tech now.
GRITtv: Good Year for Women in Movies?
Kathryn Bigelow received a Golden Globe nomination for The Hurt Locker and is being touted as the woman who could break the Best Director Oscar's all-male streak. Other films this year told unconventional stories of women outside the usual mold of Hollywood superstars. But was this actually a good year for women in cinema? Prairie Miller, film reporter for WBAI, Lisa Collins, filmmaker and senior editor/segment producer at Hollywood.com, and Melissa Silverstein, blogger at Women & Hollywood, discussed the movies that everyone's talking about -- and whether they're really as progressive as the rumors say.
GRITtv: Dec. 21, 2009
The holiday season is usually when the biggest movies of the year come out, but there are several that have been out for a while generating lots of buzz. Is this going to be the year of the woman in cinema, or is it just hype?; MC Tamarrod is a rapper living in Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in Lebanon who joins us to talk about his life and offer a rhyme; Alan Grayson calls for sanity in Congress; getting pennies for standing next to priceless works of art and the F Word with Laura Flanders on the Senate passage of the health-care bill.
