Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories):
1. Newman’s Own Recipe for Legacy
2. Bono Mocks Financial Bailout
3. Dubai Finances Hollywood
4. Henry Kissinger Corrects Obama and Couric
5. CBS, ABC Distort Sarah Palin Interview
1. Newman’s Own Recipe for Legacy
Paul Newman (or “PL” as his friends called him) was quintessentially cool and amazingly altruistic.
It wasn’t just the series of grinning rebels he created for our big-screen pleasure that impressed us. It was more the manner in which he embraced life and loved freely.
Newman had those gallant qualities that seem to be in short supply these days —genuineness, kindheartedness, and humility.
He served his country in World War II with nobility, initially enlisting in the Navy in the hopes of being a pilot. It was determined, though, that despite the intense blueness of his eyes, he was colorblind. He ultimately served in the Pacific theater as a radioman and gunner in torpedo bombers.
A true believer in marriage and family, Newman had one of the most successful marriages in or out of Hollywood. He generally sought a simple life and tended to stay away from the spotlight.
After a 1969 role in “Winning” where he played a race car driver, Newman embarked on a real life racing career. In 1976 he won his first national amateur championship and won two more national championships in the 1980s.
It seems providential that the last movie in which he would participate would be “Cars,” the 2006 animated film where a race car named Doc Hudson would luck out and get the trademark Newman voice.
More than two decades prior to his passing, Newman created the “Hole in the Wall Gang,” a no-cost camp for seriously ill children. Currently, eleven such camps are spread across the globe.
In the 1980s, Newman started a food company, launching the business with his own recipe for salad dressing. As a matter of fact, he dubbed the savory concoction “Newman’s Own.” However, proceeds from the ever-expanding line of products were anything but.
Profits to the tune of hundreds of millions went to countless charities; the motto of the company being “Shameless exploitation in pursuit of the Common Good.”
Now we know what kind of salad dressing they’re serving at the heavenly buffet.
2. Bono Mocks Bailout
Bono has a bone to pick with the U.S. financial bailout.
The rocker apparently wasn’t bothered when staggering amounts of cash went out, oversight went overlooked and government officials the likes of Christopher Dodd and Barney Frank went smirking their merry way on to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae fame.
Bono is presently complaining that American taxpayers are forking their money over to the wrong folks.
While sharing the Clinton Global Initiative stage with the inconvenient former veep, the U2 singer said, “It is extraordinary to me that you can find $700 billion to save Wall Street and the entire [Group of Eight nations] can't find $25 billion to save 25,000 children who die every day of preventable disease and hunger.”
“I presume these people know what they're doing,” he added. “Bankruptcy is a serious business. But this is moral bankruptcy.”
Bono, who’s been pretty adept at minimizing the pay out of his own tax dollars, never seems to run out of ways to put the squeeze on others.
3. Dubai Finances Hollywood
Over the past several years, many of the studio blockbusters have been financed with Wall Street and hedge fund money.
With the current financial mess we’re in, Hollywood found itself in the position of having to look elsewhere for film budget assistance.
It turns out it didn’t have to look for very long. The oil rich government of Abu Dhabi has committed a $1-billion-plus fund to make movies and digital content via Abu Dhabi Media Co., a government controlled entity.
Using a newly formed subsidiary called Imagenation, Abu Dhabi made its first deal with Participant Media, a U.S. company well known in the Middle East for producing the Islamic terrorist friendly flick, “Syriana.”
A whopping $250 million dollars has been set aside for 18 movies to be made over the next five years. Participant’s head Jim Berk told The New York Times that the films will “entertain” but will “also raise awareness of issues and inspire social change.”
Founded in 2004 by former eBay exec Jeff Skoll, Participant has specialized in “message” movies including “An Inconvenient Truth” and “Good Night, and Good Luck” along with “Syriana.”
According to the Khaleej Times, Dubai seeks to establish “a strong regional and global media presence through successful implementation of public diplomacy.”
One wonders how many ways they can come up with to make a “Syriana” sequel.
4. Henry Kissinger Corrects Obama and Couric
CBS, Katie Couric, and Barack Obama recently had to be corrected by famed diplomat Henry Kissinger for their media missteps.
Kissinger released a short statement that was intended to clear up some false representations made about something he had allegedly said.
During the Couric-Palin interviews, Couric asked the following question of Sarah Palin: “You met yesterday with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who is for direct diplomacy with both Iran and Syria. Do you believe the U.S. should negotiate with leaders like President Assad and Ahmadinejad?”
Palin answered, with respect to Ahmadinejad, “You can't just sit down with him with no preconditions being met.”
Couric claimed that negotiating with Iran without preconditions was Kissinger’s position.
When the interview ended, Couric told her audience, “Incidentally, we confirmed Henry Kissinger’s position following our interview.” She repeated that Kissinger supports talks “without preconditions.”
Is it possible that CBS and the Obama campaign are communicating?
During the first presidential debate, Obama claimed that Kissinger “along with five recent secretaries of state just said we should meet with Iran — guess what — without preconditions.”
John McCain shot back, “Dr. Kissinger did not say that he would approve a face-to-face meeting [with Ahmadinejad]. He did say there could be secretary and lower level meetings.”
Kissinger later weighed in, saying, “Senator McCain is right. I would not recommend the next president of the United States engage in talks with Iran at the presidential level. My views on this issue are entirely compatible with the views of my friend, Senator John McCain.
"We do not agree on everything, but we do agree that any negotiations with Iran must be geared to reality.”
Maybe CBS, Couric, and Obama should engage in talks with a make-up artist on how to get the egg off their faces.
5. CBS, ABC Distort Sarah Palin Interview
It is a tale of two con jobs.
As outlined in my previous LCR, ABC’s Charles Gibson interview of Sarah Palin was questionably edited. Now CBS has followed suit with the Katie Couric interview of the GOP vice presidential candidate.
A pattern of distortion has emerged. Both ABC and CBS cut answers by Palin; answers that would have indicated a more nuanced approach to foreign policy when it comes to the issue of multilateral diplomacy.
In the Couric interview, Palin answered a question that dealt with what the U.S. should do to convince Pakistan to take a harder line against terrorists.
“At a time when new leadership comes in, that is the opportunity to forge better, tighter, more productive relationships and that’s what we’ll take advantage of with new leadership in the U.S. and in Pakistan. And I’m sure that President Zardari, too, will agree with us as we commit to the support that Pakistan needs, that other nations in the region need, in order to win this war on terrorism,” Palin responded.
This question and answer were edited out.
Could it be that Palin’s response did not serve CBS’s desired post-interview spin?
When Couric inquired about the implementation of democracy in other parts of the world, Palin answered, “Well, one is that America cannot be counted on to do this solely, to be the savior of every other nation, but we need friends and we need allies and we need this nation-building effort and we need to forge new alliances, and that is what a new election will provide opportunity to do.”
This response, too, was withheld from the public.
Could it be once again that CBS did not find the response to be consistent with the hawkish image of Palin that mainstream media are trying to cloak her with?
Similarly, Couric asked about instances when a democracy does not produce the desired outcome, such as in the election of Hamas.
“Especially in that region, though, we have got to protect those and support those who do seek democracy and do seek protections for the people who live there. And you know, we’re seeing today, in the last couple of days here in New York, a speaker, a president of Iran, Ahmadinejad, who would come on our soil and express such disdain for one of our closest allies and friends—Israel—and we’re hearing the evil that he speaks . . .
"If hearing him doesn’t allow Americans to commit more solidly to protecting the friends and allies that we need, especially there in the Mideast, then nothing will,” Palin responded.
“If Americans are not waking up to understand what it is that he represents, then nothing is going to wake us up and we will be lulled into some kind of false sense of security that perhaps Americans were a part of before 9/11,” she added.
Again CBS editors snipped away.
ABC News cut similar content from the Gibson interview.
Intelligent, thoughtful, reasoned responses edited out? Beyond shameful, this represents the utter corruption of the Fourth Estate.
The New Media thankfully ride to the rescue.
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