GRITtv: Feb. 2, 2010

Yesterday, Laura called our attention to the strange tale of the attempt at bugging Senator Mary Landrieu's New Orleans office, noting the stories uncovered by indie reporters connecting the dots between the ACORN sting, the break-in, and funding flowing into universities from the nation's intelligence agencies--as well as right-wing organizations. David Price of Counterpunch and Lindsay Beyerstein of the Media Consortium joined us to talk about the disturbing layers to this story, and discuss where it goes next. Last week, rebel historian, best-selling author, and lifelong activist Howard Zinn passed away at age 87. We speak with four people whose lives, careers, and activism were shaped by his work: poet Staceyann Chin, author of The Other Side of Paradise: A Memoir, progressive sportswriter Dave Zirin, Nation contributor and author of several books, including A People's History of Sports in the United States, and teacher, actor and activist Brian Jones. Benjamin Jealous is the youngest-ever head of the NAACP, but he has a long history with the organization--he is the fifth generation of his family to be involved. He joined us to remember Howard Zinn and to discuss the importance of knowing your own history and the history of the everyday men and women around us, the ones who shaped movements like the Civil Rights movement and continue to press for social justice the world over. Zinn's work has been translated into nearly every format imaginable: we also have the history of the American empire told through cartoons and narrated by Viggo Mortensen. Chevron oil company has contributed for years to devastating environmental damage in Ecuador and the Amazon region. Citizens of Ecuador call on new Chevron CEO John Watson to do the right thing and help clean up the damage his company has caused. Finally, we continue to bring you stories from the Haiti earthquake recovery from the students at the Cine Institute in Jacmel. In this video, we hear stories of rescues during the aftermath of the quake.