Television
“Andrew Marr’s History of the World”: A slur against revolution
By Thomas Scripps, December 19, 2012
Media slurs against socialism are commonplace, but rarely are they as pointed and mired in historical distortions as those advanced in the recent BBC series.
CBS’s “60 Minutes” interviews Nora Volkow, head of the National Institute on Drug Abuse and great-granddaughter of Leon Trotsky
By Fred Mazelis, May 1, 2012
Dr. Nora Volkow appeared on the “60 Minutes” television program to discuss not only her work as the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), but also her family background as the great-granddaughter of Leon Trotsky.
A return to Sri Lanka’s killing fields by Channel 4
By Barry Mason, March 21, 2012
Sri Lanka's Killing Fields: War Crimes Unpunished shows horrific scenes of the closing days of the campaign against the LTTE and the thousands of civilians caught up in it.
Channel 4 programme highlights crisis conditions on London Underground
By Paul Bond, February 15, 2012
Confessions from the Underground on Channel 4 made for striking viewing. Actors relayed comments and thoughts documented from workers across London Underground.
Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields
British television documents Sri Lankan war crimes
By Paul Bond, June 22, 2011
Channel 4 News has amassed mobile phone footage exposing the Sri Lankan military’s war crime against Tamil refugees.
Poor Kids: A devastating indictment of Britain’s Labour government
By Liz Smith, June 18, 2011
Poor Kids, a new documentary broadcast on the BBC, highlights the plight of some of Britain’s 3.5 million children who live in poverty.
HBO’s Too Big to Fail: Propaganda aimed at the US population
By Charles Bogle, June 1, 2011
This HBO production wastes a fine cast in its dramatization of New York Times reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin’s book on the 2008 financial crisis.
HBO’s Mildred Pierce: A Depression-era drama aimed at a contemporary audience
By Joanne Laurier, April 29, 2011
Based on the novel by James M. Cain, director Todd Haynes’s five-part miniseries is an account of an unhealthy mother-daughter relationship in 1930s southern California.
100 years since tragic blaze killed 146 garment workers
Triangle Fire on PBS’s “American Experience”: compelling documentary marred by liberal perspective
By Charles Bogle, March 12, 2011
Triangle Fire recreates one of the truly tragic workplace disasters in US history. Producer-director Jamila Wignot offers a compelling portrayal of the inhuman conditions that led to the fire and the loss of 146 lives.
Martin Scorsese’s Boardwalk Empire: a gangster series too much about gangster movies
By Charles Bogle, January 3, 2011
HBO’s Boardwalk Empire contains several superior performances, but the series suffers from numerous stereotypes and the Martin Scorsese imprint of paying homage to previous gangster movies.
The cancellation of AMC series Rubicon: Too close to home?
By James Brewer, December 2, 2010
US television series about the intelligence apparatus has been cancelled after only one season.
“Reality television”
Top Chef: Is real drama so hard to find?
By Ed Hightower, November 5, 2010
Top Chef D.C. is the seventh installment of the Top Chef reality television series, which features chefs competing for various prizes and avoiding the weekly elimination, roughly following the format of American Idol.
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