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Political documentaries are more popular now than ever— Michael
Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004), the top-grossing documentary film
of all time, is one of many such recent films. In this incisive
book, James McEnteer parses the politics of nonfiction films of
recent decades, which together constitute an alternative history to
many official stories offered by the government and its media
minions. Tracing the origins of an oppositional documentary
movement to the Vietnam era, McEnteer shows how a strong
independent documentary tradition grew from television's failure to
sustain a commitment to the public interest. McEnteer evaluates the
work of four artists in depth—the intrepid Barbara Kopple; the
puckish but deadly Michael Moore; Errol Morris, a connoisseur of
human quirkiness; and anti-Bush crusader Robert Greenwald—and
that of other courageous filmmakers, including Barbara Trent (The
Panama Deception and Cover-Up: Behind the Iran-Contra Affair).
McEnteer looks at the pioneering public affairs documentaries of
Edward R. Murrow and Fred Friendly. Their 1950s CBS program, See It
Now, won many awards but angered network owners who did not wish to
alienate mass TV audiences with controversy. With Murrow's firing,
the retreat of television from engaging civic issues in serious
ways began in earnest. McEnteer devotes an entire chapter to the
many 2004 documentaries made by both sides in that hotly contested
presidential election. He concludes with a look at populist antiwar
and antiglobalization films of Big Noise and the Guerrilla News
Network, whose youthful producers push the boundaries of the
documentary form. As mass media fail—now more than ever—to
fulfill their watchdog role over public officials and policies, the
importance of documentaries committed to telling the truth
increases. Such films bear witness to important events otherwise
hidden from our view. Their makers dare to refute the falsehoods
passing for conventional wisdom, sometimes risking their lives or
reputations to reveal the nature of those lies and the interests
behind them. As Shooting the Truth clearly shows, documentaries
have become an essential component for making sense of our time.
This book enlarges our appreciation of contemporary nonfiction
films and invites debate on the many issues it raises.
Cowboy politics is in. When George W. Bush announced a new American
policy of pre-emptive attack against potential enemies in 2002, he
ushered in the triumph of Texas values over the American agenda.
This book traces in lucid and engaging style the fascinating
influence of the Texas warrior culture from the Alamo to the
present day. This is not a history of Texas, but much Texas history
is entwined with American national politics. This book locates such
diverse phenomena as Cold War politics, the Kennedy assassination,
U.S.-Mexican immigration policies, Texas death penalty practices,
and recent U.S. Middle East policy in the context of this Alamo
attitude. While the Texas influence has always been strong, and has
ebbed and flowed, never has it been stronger, especially as a
guiding force in American foreign policy. Today, people around the
world perceive this Manifest Destiny swaggering style in our
foreign policy. Because of its sheer size, its border wars with
Mexico, its ten-year history as an independent republic, and its
having been settled by a warrior culture originating in the
English-Scottish borderlands and arriving in Texas via the southern
Appalachians, Texas is unique in American politics. The author does
not assert that Texas "causes," or is the sole cause of, our
various policies or of so many violent events. Rather, he
demonstrates convincingly that the Texas warrior culture provides a
fascinating context for national politics in a way that no other
state's political culture can claim.
Fighting Words profiles five journalists who published the truth as
they saw it, no matter how their reporting angered politicians,
social and religious leaders, or other journalists. The five
journalists are William Brann (1855-1898), Don Biggers (1868-1957),
John Granbery (1874-1953), Archer Fullingim (1902-1984), and Stoney
Burns [Brent Stein] (1942-2011). Though they lived in different
eras, all these men dealt with issues that society continues to
face-racism, official corruption, religious freedom, educational
reform, political extremism of the left and right, the clash of
urban and rural values, and the fear of change. Their lives and
work constitute a unique, alternative perspective on Texas history
and the history of journalism itself. In addition to the troubling
questions they raised on social issues, these independent
journalists challenge us, as they challenged the mainline media of
their own times, to define the function of journalism and to
examine the mandate of the First Amendment. We may doubt the wisdom
of some of their convictions, but not the courage they needed to
express them in the face of ridicule, hostility, intimidation, and
even death. More than the specific causes they fought for, the
independents' passion for truth and their absolute belief in free
speech constitute their greatest legacy to us and to journalism.
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