"Truth" – A Prelude to Trump?

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fountainhall

"Truth" – A Prelude to Trump?

Post by fountainhall »

I guess like many I buy movie DVDs in batches. Then I sometimes forget to watch one or two. That happened 18 months or so ago and it was only tonight I finally got around to watching Robert Redford’s “Truth” This centres on a CBS 60-Minutes Report in 2004 which investigated George Bush’s service in the National Guard suggesting specifically influence had enabled him to avoid being drafted to Vietnam and major irregularities in his service record.

For whatever reason, the original papers seen by the producer, Mary Mapes, were almost certainly planted forgeries – very clever ones. With the rest of the evidence and witnesses all stacked up, it made sense. So 60-Minutes aired the story just prior to the election. Then it all quickly came tumbling down with witnesses backing off, withdrawing their story and CBS withering under a storm of criticism, much of which no doubt came from the White House. The end result was that Dan Rather resigned from CBS after 44 years and Mapes and her team were either fired or dismissed.

The movie was filmed two years ago – before Donald Trump came on the scene as a Presidential candidate and before fake news and alternative facts became the favourite phrases of the Trump cohorts. Cate Blanchett is wonderful as Rather’s producer. Facing the tribunal set up by CBS in the wake of what the network felt was a PR nightmare but which many, including Rather, still believe was the truth, she finally gives an impassioned speech to its members –
Out story was about whether Bush fulfilled his service. Nobody wants to talk about that. They want to talk about fonts and forgeries and conspiracy theories because that’s what people do these days if they don’t like a story. They point and scream, they question the politics, your objectivity – hell, your basic humanity and they hope to God the truth gets lost in the scrum. And when it is finally over and they have kicked and shouted so loud, we can’t even remember what the point was.

How prophetic those words have turned out to be!

After Mary Mapes was fired, CBS won a Peabody Award for her earlier production of the 60-Minutes Report on the Abu Ghraib scandal. It was one of the most important news scoops of the year. Meanwhile all the official records of Bush Jnr’s time in the National Guard are sealed and locked away until 2050! Does that suggest something is rotten in the State of Texas?
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Smiles
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Re: "Truth" – A Prelude to Trump?

Post by Smiles »

I know very little about this story -- or perhaps forgotten about it, an annoyance which is slowly becoming a habit.
But, I'd watch Cate Blanchett in anything.
Sounds like a film that may well be on Netflix sooner or later. Hope so.
Cheers ... ( and just one more reason why I love living in Thailand )

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fountainhall

Re: "Truth" – A Prelude to Trump?

Post by fountainhall »

The film was available on youtube but has now been withdrawn. This discussion, taped before the movie's premiere, has some interesting points and makes for an interesting introduction.

CBS at first defended the airing of the two 60-Minutes segments. Then, once various special interests including the White House got at them, the network quickly withdrew support. Having seen the movie, their executives were in full denial mode -
"It's astounding how little truth is in "Truth". It's full of distortions, evasions and baseless conspiracy theories."
Now how often have we heard this sort of nonsense over the last 6 months or so?

(PS: Not sure why the youtube clip is not visualised. To see it click here -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuqOtw1Ek4Y&t=2175s
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Re: "Truth" – A Prelude to Trump?

Post by Gaybutton »

fountainhall wrote:Not sure why the youtube clip is not visualised.
Neither am I. You posted correctly. I tried it too and I also can't get it to work. However, the link you posted is in place and the video works just fine if you watch it on YouTube.
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