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Big-Screen Attack on Arnold Schwarzenegger James Hirsen
THE LEFT COAST
REPORT Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories): 1. Big-Screen Attack on Arnold Schwarzenegger It's campaign season, and if Arnold Schwarzenegger had any doubts about the ability of the far left to produce politically charged product, he's about to have those doubts torpedoed. A so-called documentary produced by Robert Greenwald will premiere on Aug. 24, 2006. No doubt the documentary was conceived, financed, and filmed with Arnold's re-election bid in mind. "Nurses vs. Arnold: Terminating Political Corruption" is set to debut at the Music Box Theater in Los Angeles, the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland, and the Crest Theater in Sacramento.
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The film will chronicle Schwarzenegger's worst political defeat at the hands of the public unions, partially led by the California Nurses Association. Greenwald is currently in post-production on "Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers," and has previously produced "The Big Buy: Tom DeLay's Stolen Congress," "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price," "Uncovered: The War on Iraq" and "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism." The Left Coast Report says Greenwald's movie titles read like a Democratic National Committee dream catalogue. 2. Lindsay Lohan's Mom to Host TV Talk Show Word is that Lindsay Lohan's mother, Dina Lohan, is hawking a daytime talk show to the television networks. Dina told Star magazine that the show is "an Apprentice-type game show thing" that she would host and co-produce. "We're shopping it around," she said. Like other parents of young celebrities, the Oprah hopeful is not just Lindsay's mom, she's also her daughter's manager, although she's had a bit of a rough go in both roles lately. Studio executive James G. Robinson recently found it necessary to write a scathing letter to Lindsay about her excess partying and tardiness. "Lindsay's friends call me the ‘white Oprah [Winfrey]' because they all come to me with their problems," Dina said. The Left Coast Report always thought that the white Oprah was Larry King. 3. President Bush Grants Pardon to ‘Deliverance' Actor There's been a lot of talk about President Bush's use of his executive powers. Now the critics can say that he is the first commander in chief to give a presidential pardon to a cast member of an Academy Award-nominated movie. Randall Leece Deal of Clayton, Ga., was in the cast of the 1972 film, "Deliverance." The movie also starred Burt Reynolds and Jon Voight. You may recall that the "Deliverance" plot involves a group of recreating urban businessmen who end up having some highly disagreeable contacts with some backwoods Southerners. Back in the 1960s, Deal was convicted on two counts of violating liquor laws and one count of conspiring to violate liquor laws, also known as moonshining. Deal never served jail time for the convictions but sought a presidential pardon to remove the stain from his record. Not someone who appears to be the least bit connected with Washington, D.C., Deal has worked at the Rabun County Sheriff's Department for the last 16 years. According to Federal Election Commission records, he has never made a single federal political contribution. Bush's action stands in contrast to the pardons doled out by former President Bill Clinton to Puerto Rican terrorists and fugitive financier Marc Rich, whose ex-wife Denise donated $70,000 to Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign and $450,000 to the Clinton presidential library fund. Rich had been indicted on charges of evading more than $48 million in taxes. He was also charged with 51 counts of tax fraud and with running illegal oil deals with Iran during the hostage crisis. The Left Coast Report could find no record of Rich having been a moonshiner. 4. Tabloid TV Takeover More Americans can identify the Three Stooges than can name the three branches of government. A closer look at what has happened to our present-day television news coverage offers some insight into the findings of the recent national poll. The public has traditionally relied upon the TV information news media to keep them posted on the latest political, educational, scientific, social, and cultural happenings of the day. But like every other facet of our society, the information news media have been "Hollywoodized." We see the effects of this phenomenon in nearly every network and cable news broadcast: the perfect faces, glittering sets, visual imagery, high-tech delivery, special effects, and even dramatic scripting, which at times has wreaked havoc for those who have mistakenly crossed over the line and mixed in a little fiction (still technically the province of the entertainment media despite the desire on the part of some to eliminate the distinctions). As eye and ear pleasing, interesting, thought provoking, and expectantly accurate the news presentations may be, there is one element that is becoming increasingly disturbing; and that is the search for and over-reporting of tabloid-style stories. There is a "news casting couch" that seems to have evolved and along with it an industry that feeds upon stories featuring telegenic victims.
The Left Coast Report laments that what should be a regional crime case now routinely ascends to the national stage a la child pageant murder victim JonBenet Ramsey, pregnant murder victim Lacy Peterson, missing co-ed Natalee Holloway, and even runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks. 5. The John Mark Karr Media Creation In what appears to be an appeal to the lowest moral common denominator, the new twist in the JonBenet Ramsey case has networks bringing back disconcerting images of the little girl as she performed in pageants dressed like a Las Vegas showgirl. Every detail that emerges provides the opportunity for another breaking story, the latest being that suspect John Mark Karr was seeking a sex change operation. The rush to be first with fresh tabloid news often results in the press jumping to conclusions. After the word came out that Karr had confessed on camera, the print and television media quickly concluded that the suspect was guilty. The morning coverage was typified by headlines like the one in the Denver Post that read, "Family's years of fear, anger come to an end," or the one in the New York Daily News that contained the single word, "Solved." Later the same day the Denver Post read, "Cracks in confession fuel skepticism," and The New York Times reported that at the day's end it was "unclear whether Mr. Karr's confession was genuine or the product of a troubled, attention-seeking man who had already exhibited a fervent fascination in the sexual abuse of children in general, and in the death of JonBenet Ramsey in particular." Facts began to surface. Karr claimed he had picked JonBenet up from school the day she was killed, but JonBenet was actually out of school on Christmas vacation when she was murdered. The suspect also asserted that he drugged JonBenet, but the autopsy did not indicate any drugs in the girl's body. In addition, Karr's ex-wife claimed he was with her in Alabama at the time of the murder. Other events of the day took a backseat to the speculative musings over the newly surfaced suspect. The Think Progress Web site noted that when the story broke on Aug. 17, 2006, coverage of the ruling on the NSA wiretaps received a fraction of the Ramsey coverage. ABC gave the JonBenet story twice the time as the NSA decision, CBS gave seven times as much programming to the Ramsey news and NBC gave Ramsey 15 times more airtime. The Left Coast Report thinks that even with the doubts surrounding Karr's confession, news venues are likely to be desperately seeking interviews with their latest media creation. Editor's Notes:
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