R.G. Pratt points to a couple of documentaries airing on Sundance Channel this month. UNPRECEDENTED: THE 2000 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION by Richard Ray Pérez and Joan Sekler (you can read more about it here) and UNCOVERED: THE WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT THE IRAQ WAR by Robert Greenwald.
I also noticed the showings Monday night, skipped Unprecedented because I’d already seen it, but watched Uncovered for the first time and found it more riveting than I expected it would be.
Unprecedented is an historical document and one that will likely have a sequel. It doesn’t include the powerfull footage Michael Moore used in Farenheit 9/11 showing members of the Congressional Black Caucus, one-by-one, raising their objections to the election on the House floor. Not one Senator, including Paul Wellstone, offered the signature required to force a debate. Moore cites Robert Novak’s report they were following Tom Daschle’s orders. According to Randi Rhodes it was Al Gore who issued the high command because of the 50/50 Senate split. Senate president Gore would have been put into the position of casting the deciding vote. So??
Was Al Gore threatened? Was a deal cut? Unprecedented doesn’t ask these questions. I’m reminded of a brief interview Oliver Stone did with US News and World Report regarding his film “Alexander” and his reaction to HBO pulling his documentary “Comandante” from its lineup when objections were raised that it wasn’t critical enough of Castro. Say what you will of the “paranoid” Stone and the accuracy of his films, the director of “JFK” and “Nixon” has never shied away from controversial subjects, yet when asked when he’d be doing one on the Bush dynasty replied never. He said he’d never survive the scars on his back. You’ll have to trust me on this one. I’ve never been able to find that quote online.
Greenwald’s Uncovered does more than scratch the surface but I don’t agree that it’s the “whole truth” which would be impossible to examine in 55 minutes. Disappointing that Karen Kwiatkowski and others weren’t given more space in it. And it opens with credits going to MoveOn.org and The Center for American Progress assuring it will never be viewed beyond that point by those who’d benefit most from seeing it. Their brains would freeze.
Mike Allen for the Washington Post reported today that George wants out of the second of three debates sponsored by the independent Commission for Presidential Debates. His negotiating team, headed by Election 2000 capo James Baker III, is afraid people who aren’t “undecideds” might sneak into the town hall forum and ask George a question. It’s not fear behind the decision! What hold does this cloistered wimp have on “patriots” in this country?
Another documentary in the cable rotation that shouldn’t be missed is WACO: THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT by William Gazecki airing on STARZ!. It arguably makes the best case for the most obvious lesson shared by all three. Devastating consequences await a society whose politicans are protected by feverish partisans who prioritise saving party face and consolidation of power above the truth. The challenge is convincing the people who would embrace the bottom line of WACO but not Unprecendented or Uncovered (and vice versa) to finally understand the dangerous folly of ignoring it.