FRONTLINE: the pbs documentary series not the flea medicine

I became a PBS Passport member so for like $5 per month I can watch anything in the back catalog. It's great! But when I looked at all the topics of Frontline episodes they were all on topics that I find so depressing, I couldn't face them. That's reality for ya.

What would a happy frontline look like?
The Hidden Menace in America's Schools... is an adorable gopher named William S Burrows

It doesn't need to be polarized into "depressing" and "happy" -- sometimes it's good to learn about things and other times it's too much. fwiw, my students have really enjoyed the Frontline docs they have watched and written about. The roughest time for me was Fall 2016-Spring 2017 and they still rallied. It kind of gives me hope tbh!

Weinstein doc was a good overview but I was expecting more I guess?

What would a happy frontline look like?

"this old plantation home is haunted by ghosts of the past. we spent the night there with special thermal imaging cameras, and then tried the best BBQ in South Carolina... right next door!"

https://i.imgur.com/P6D3dlI.jpg

I liked that it was a consolidation of all of the vital details about his decades of assault/harassment. learning all of that stuff in real time as it dripped out was exhausting, but to see it contextualized with the women's stories, which I thought were really well done, made it focused more on them. if you wanted to know what happened and wanted to find out in 1 hour. it does the trick

just finished watching Bitter Rivals, about Iran and Saudi Arabia, but also Iraq/Syria/Lebanon/Yemen. it's 3 hours spread out over 2 episodes. there is some amazing footage in there, some of it very graphic, some absolutely heartbreaking.

I watched some of that but didn't finish it.

coming in april, put on your seatbelt
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/coming-in-april-2018-on-frontline/

President Donald Trump’s time in office has been marked by ongoing turmoil — including in his own Republican Party, where presidential tweetstorms, inflammatory rhetoric and high-profile dissent have fueled open conflict.

In Trump’s Takeover, a new documentary airing Tuesday, April 10, FRONTLINE’s acclaimed political team tells the inside story of a president who vowed to take down the Washington establishment, and who has fought an intense war for control of the GOP.

Through interviews with longtime Republican legislators like Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), House Freedom Caucus members including Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), current and former senior White House officials including Kellyanne Conway and Sean Spicer, and other D.C. insiders, Trump’s Takeover examines how the president is remaking the GOP in his own image, counter-punching when criticized and publicly attacking those who defy him.

Gripping and revealing, the documentary is a window into the potential lasting impact of the Trump era on the Republican Party and the American political system as a whole.

The following week, on April 17, FRONTLINE’s reporting on the present, past and future of the GOP continues with McCain — a look at Sen. John McCain’s complicated relationship with President Trump, as well as his life and politics.

Then, on April 24, FRONTLINE and the Investigative Reporting Program at U.C. Berkeley team up for Trafficked in America — investigating the secret world of labor trafficking, and telling the story of Guatemalan teens forced to work against their will on an Ohio egg farm.

also true crime heads -- a development in the 2013 "did the cop murder his girlfriend and cover it up successfully?" case https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/lawsuit-dismissed-against-florida-agent-in-michelle-oconnell-investigation

man i remember that story like it was yesterday, so tragic & infuriating. i guess this development is ~something~ but god, what an uphill slog. it seems like it will be a long time before any real justice is served. so much stonewalling & dishonesty.

Next episode preview - the URL says it all: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/blackout-in-puerto-rico/

about time!!

a few things about the Blackout in Puerto Rico

* Laura Sullivan is at it again! I love the way she uses her facial expressions and general look to goad people into answering tough questions. seems like it works pretty well!
* there was LOTS OF SNIVELING in this one, RIYL government bureaucrats behaving like chickenshits
* going to be petty for a minute here -- the guy who taught himself how to reconnect to the electrical grid and then helped his community get the lights back on & then teared up when he mentioned his 4 kids: <3 i love u <3

overall, this one was really good, don't miss it

I caught part of the UN Sex Abuse one last night on WTTW -- extremely rough subject matter, CW for graphic sexual assault/abuse/you name it
WANNA KNOW MORE?!!?? https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/un-sex-abuse-scandal/

2013: (all of the political and financial ones give me nightmares, I love it)
2018: omg make it stop

i feel like my "know thine enemy" period has given way to a "protect ya neck" period :(

thanks for the link le lechera, will watch this

was super sad to read all of the sexual abuse happening in police detainment centres recently

Last week it was Separating Families at the border (recommended but not to people who have sensitivities to crying children). Some really good confrontations in this one.

Next week: One year ago this weekend, white supremacists and neo-Nazis converged on Charlottesville, Virginia. Our correspondent, A.C. Thompson, was there, and as he describes it, the rally that day quickly became a “crime scene.”

For the past year, Thompson, who is an investigative reporter for ProPublica, has been methodically trying to understand that crime: identifying the groups and the people who carried out the racist violence.

Tonight, in Documenting Hate: Charlottesville, we’ll bring you the results of that reporting journey. It’s a disturbing, important work of accountability journalism and skilled filmmaking, undertaken by Thompson, director Richard Rowley, and producer Karim Hajj, who was also there that weekend, camera rolling.

Some truly groundbreaking reporting has gone into this film, which is part of an ongoing partnership with ProPublica. Thompson follows a trail of court records, social media posts and videos to two white supremacist groups who participated in the rally, to an active-duty Marine, and to a PhD candidate and employee of a major defense contractor – both of whom were captured in videos engaging in violence. He also examines the failures of law enforcement to prevent the bloodshed, despite warnings from federal authorities.

The film traces a pattern of extremist violence that led up to Charlottesville. Former FBI agent Mike German tells Thompson he could see it building: “This was not just predictable, but predicted.”

After confronting some of the white supremacists and neo-Nazis who participated in the Charlottesville violence and shedding light on their groups, Thompson says at the end of the film that “this story is far from over.” And he is right. This is just the first film in a series from FRONTLINE and ProPublica on this subject; the next one – America’s New Nazis – will air later this year.

wow, will def watch

Difficult to watch, not to be missed
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/documenting-hate-charlottesville/

^^ you can stream it directly from their website

Watching this makes me livid and frustrated and fills me with despair.

classic frontline! :(
it's still worth knowing imo. better to know than not know, and i trust frontline for quality reporting.

the phone call with Pistolis, omg

where he offers the bribe?! astonishing. like he's actually pretty happy working for pro publica but wow thanks for the offer.

i want to know how he planned to help him with his career

he said something about how he would "talk" to him -- like maybe he was pretending to promise cooperation with a future piece of journalism? that's what i gathered at least.

like "i'll be your source just not right now"

that was the marine right?!

two hours of bone-chilling documentation of our national trainwreck https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/trumps-showdown/

2 hours? Right so the file sizes I was seeing it as were right, not overlarge.
Got a version taht didn't play or I'd've watched it earlier this week

Been watching through a few earlier ones recently too.

Credit Card one with Liz Warren still as a law professor.
American porn

& half watched a couple of others
Trouble with chicken
Antibiotics

lol "The Trouble with Chicken" remains one of my favorite titles of anything ever

it's not quite two hours but like 1:56 or something; veeeeery long, lots of awful shit to comb over in abundant detail

"The Facebook Dilemma" two-parter is worth watching just for that scene of a clearly uncomfortable Zuck sweating and stumbling when asked by Kara Swisher about privacy issues. Facebook's stepford spokesperson was clearly making me uncomfortable. 21st century tech businesses indistinguishable from a cult. Non-shocker, I know.

"We're an optimistic company."

--- Mark Zuckerberg ---

oh man it is definitely worth watching the two parter
he was so sweaty and totally unprepared for confronting with his own brain what facebook has done
their spokes people said more through the grimaces before and after each fake answer
the way they seem to always think "we're a tech company not a media company" (end discussion) was going to excuse them from each and every offense was pretty naive/ignorant imo.

Nothing says "holiday weekend coming up" like extended Frontline programming about hate in the USA

Documenting Hate: New American Nazis premieres tonight at a special time — 9 p.m. EST/8 p.m. CST — on PBS stations (check local listings) and online, followed by an updated rebroadcast of Documenting Hate: Charlottesville. Read related reporting at propublica.org.

I will watch this glutted with turkey the way a sane person watches the nfl

this one looks impossibly sad, idk if i can watch it
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/mentally-ill-new-york-living-independently-housing/

fuuuuuck

i will add that i thought the most recent "nazis in america" one was well done and i cant remember the name of the journalist but it's the same guy who did the last one, where the troll asked if he REALLY wanted to be working for propublica when he was talking with him on the phone in the car. the second installment has him going to a metal show and it's worth watching just for that. he wears a short sleeved shirt and does a decent job of looking reasonably incognito aside from the cameras that were following him :)

Premiered tonight -- "Predator on the Reservation" about an unchecked pedophile doctor is reminding me of the naming conventions started by Rape in the Fields and Rape on the Night Shift. On one hand. go for it -- call a spade a spade. Also, thank you for the warnings before the film (which is more than I can say for Netflix and Abducted in Plain Sight) In sum, I guess I really have to hand it to Frontline for clear unequivocal onomastics?

On the obvious downside, another unchecked pedophile :( :( :(

i saw the description of that ep pop up in the tivo and canceled it; cannot imagine it's conceivably watchable.
should i stay away from "Abducted"? Everyone's talking about it and i've avoided discussion but if it's just gonna be a trigger fest...

I would 100% stay away from "Abducted" if you are sensitive to sexual abuse -- the only warning of it that i can recall was the TV-14 "rating" which does not give any indication whatsoever of the (very disturbing) contents of the movie, esp wrt parental neglect. i watched it not knowing what i was getting myself into, which is what bothered me. it'd be nice if everyone followed the same warning conventions (not to get too PMRC about it but...)

thanks for the warning

<3 no prob
someone's gotta do it

frontine seems determined to bring us the most disturbing news the world has to offer
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/the-trial-of-ratko-mladic/

gotta hand it to em for clarity of purpose

holy shit

that one was really disturbing on a human nature level, esp when they interviewed the mladic hardline supporters.

in better news, new David Sutherland (Kind Hearted Woman, Country Boys) doc finally coming out!! his titles are getting longer: new one is "Marcos Doesn't Live Here Anymore"

ooh yay

and yeah, mladic was a touch watch all round but i am glad i watched, there was a lot i was not aware of at the time

*tough