right wing
GRITtv: At the Tea Party
This week's special feature delves into the who, the what and the why of the Tea Party. As the left grapples with the reality that tea partiers may be more than a passing trend, what should we know about who these people are who funds them? Is the left fighting against them or enabling them?
Email this pageGRITtv: Oct. 15 2010
This week's special feature delves into the who, the what, and the why of the Tea Party. As the left grapples with the reality that tea partiers may be more than a passing trend, what should we know about who these people are who funds them? Is the left fighting against them or enabling them? And most importantly, what can be done to turn things around? Laura's new book is out on October 20 and tackles precisely the above: At the Tea Party: The Wing Nuts, Whack Jobs, and Whitey-Whiteness of the New Republican Right and Why We Should Take It Seriously features contributions from Max Blumenthal, Alexander Cockburn, Lisa Duggan, Glenn Greenwald, Melissa Harris-Perry, Chris Hedges, and Jim Hightower amongst many others. Three of the book's contributors, and GRITtv favorites, join us today: Richard Kim is the senior editor of The Nation and co-editor of Going Rouge: Sarah Palin, an American Nightmare, Rebecca Traister, senior staff writer for Salon.com and the author of Big Girls Don't Cry, and historian Rick Perlstein, author of Nixonland. Ella Es El Matador, or "She Is The Matador", is a documentary film directed by Gemma Cubero and Celeste Carrasco. Using as a launching pad a 1908 Spanish law barring women from bullfighting, Ella Es El Matador tackles the history of women in the ring, as well as the dangerous dance with Spanish ideas of masculinity that woman bullfighters engage with everytime they spin their cape. Special thanks to Women Make Movies, the film's distributor.
GRITtv: Alexander Zaitchik & Rick Perlstein: Whither Glenn Beck?
Glenn Beck might not have a lot of advertisers left, but he's got a lot of viewers still. And the Obama administration recently showed off just how terrified they are of the FOX News host by pressuring Shirley Sherrod to leave her position because of the threat of a video appearing on Beck's show. But Beck didn't start off as a journalist (or a demagogue). ; He came from much humbler beginnings.Alexander Zaitchik has a new book out, Common Nonsense, looking at the background and bluster of FOX's star, and he joins us in studio, along with historian and author of Nixonland Rick Perlstein via phone, to discuss, give some context, and to try and answer the serious question: how much attention should progressives really be paying to Beck?
GRITtv: Dave Zirin: Why Does Glenn Beck Hate the World Cup?
"Beck rejects soccer because his idealized “real America”—in all its monochromatic glory—rejects it as well." Dave Zirin, sports editor for The Nation, says that and a whole lot more in his commentary on why Glenn Beck--and the rest of the Right--hates World Cup soccer.
GRITtv: Why the Racism?
The latest campaign from Brave New Foundation focuses on the nastiest undercurrent to the tea party and right wing movements in this country: the racism. This video looks at some examples and offers a way for you to get involved in calling out racism when you see it.
GRITtv: Stop Rush Limbaugh: Fight the Smears
Rush Limbaugh likes to use populist rhetoric to inflame his fans, but the right-wing demagogue actually lives in a $13 million Manhattan penthouse. Not much of a man of the people. This video from Brave New Films points out Limbaugh's hypocrisy, and you can join their group on Facebook to help fight right-wing smears.
GRITtv: Frank Schaeffer: "Post-Racial? Not Quite."
Frank Schaeffer has had enough of claims that America is now in a "post-racial" era; if that's true, he asks, why does so much of the opposition to Obama's actions seem to have a nasty undertone? Schaeffer is the author of Crazy for God and Patience with God and grew up in the Religious Right.
