Peter Davis Blames it on Rio
Last Friday we saw another Peter Davis film, The Selling of the Pentagon. Not a film actually; an hour-long CBS News special investigative report, tearing the Pentagon a new one, that apparently aired during primetime.
Imagine that!
Of course, it then led to a major furor that went all the way to Congress and didn't subside for several months.
The point is that this kind of stuff just doesn’t get made these days: a full-hour exposé of the Pentagon’s public relations department and how it wastes taxpayer money promoting a vision of the cold war (active confrontation) that was no longer in harmony with current U.S. policy (which by 1971 was known as Peaceful Coexistence). The narrator (Roger Mudd) actually argues that foreign policy is the domain of the State Department, and that therefore the Pentagon’s actions violated democratic principles. Can you imagine? Today's news would never air such a thing, and if it did, it would feel the need to add that Kerry missed a senate vote, however, which also violates democratic principles.
But then, wasn’t Vietnam the living room war? And who was responsible for that? The network news crews. They were in there, back before imbedding, showing all the gory reality that the Pentagon didn’t want shown. So I guess it shouldn’t have come as such a shock that things were so different back then. After all, the boys in the war room didn’t learn nothing in Vietnam.
Anyway, Peter Davis was there again (the guy is loving life here in Rio, getting the warmest reception I think he’s ever had), and during the Q and A someone asked him why the news has became less critical of the war, had the Pentagon gotten smarter. He said he doubted it, but they don't need to be smart now because all the TV news agencies are owned by a handful of companies, none of who would bankroll a serious critique of the military industry complex.
Which got me thinking: maybe the whole liberal media / conservative media thing is a red herring. The more important shift isn't left/right but the shift from a posture of resourceful investigation to supine passivity, from hell-raising and nosy to utterly innocuous. Is there any way back?
Another great moment: someone asked where his films could be purchased, and Davis responded that he just didn’t know, that most of them belonged to CBS, which was no longer distributing them. Then he turned to the organizer of the Festival who had introduced him and said, “Alright, let’s do it like this. You’re the director of the festival. The films are all here. Please, before you send the films back, make pirated copies of all of them. A lot of pirated copies.” Totally righteous.
Imagine that!
Of course, it then led to a major furor that went all the way to Congress and didn't subside for several months.
The point is that this kind of stuff just doesn’t get made these days: a full-hour exposé of the Pentagon’s public relations department and how it wastes taxpayer money promoting a vision of the cold war (active confrontation) that was no longer in harmony with current U.S. policy (which by 1971 was known as Peaceful Coexistence). The narrator (Roger Mudd) actually argues that foreign policy is the domain of the State Department, and that therefore the Pentagon’s actions violated democratic principles. Can you imagine? Today's news would never air such a thing, and if it did, it would feel the need to add that Kerry missed a senate vote, however, which also violates democratic principles.
But then, wasn’t Vietnam the living room war? And who was responsible for that? The network news crews. They were in there, back before imbedding, showing all the gory reality that the Pentagon didn’t want shown. So I guess it shouldn’t have come as such a shock that things were so different back then. After all, the boys in the war room didn’t learn nothing in Vietnam.
Anyway, Peter Davis was there again (the guy is loving life here in Rio, getting the warmest reception I think he’s ever had), and during the Q and A someone asked him why the news has became less critical of the war, had the Pentagon gotten smarter. He said he doubted it, but they don't need to be smart now because all the TV news agencies are owned by a handful of companies, none of who would bankroll a serious critique of the military industry complex.
Which got me thinking: maybe the whole liberal media / conservative media thing is a red herring. The more important shift isn't left/right but the shift from a posture of resourceful investigation to supine passivity, from hell-raising and nosy to utterly innocuous. Is there any way back?
Another great moment: someone asked where his films could be purchased, and Davis responded that he just didn’t know, that most of them belonged to CBS, which was no longer distributing them. Then he turned to the organizer of the Festival who had introduced him and said, “Alright, let’s do it like this. You’re the director of the festival. The films are all here. Please, before you send the films back, make pirated copies of all of them. A lot of pirated copies.” Totally righteous.
posted by Benjamin Lessing at 1:55 AM
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