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July 12, 2004
Crazy Like a Fox...
...at a MoveOn (Hen) House Party. Despite the fact that I've been suffering from mild to acute Liberal Outrage Fatigue, I've been fascinated all morning by the controversy surrounding the latest Robert Greenwald documentary, Outfoxed. Like Mel at Blog for Democracy, I've been wondering about MoveOn's delay in allowing people to RSVP for screenings of the film (note to Mel: when registration opens, I'll certainly shoot for your house party).
The controversy surrounding the film has been building all weekend, especially after a long New York Times article by NYU journalism professor Robert Boynton this weekend discussed the challenges of what Greenwald calls his "guerilla documentary" style. The article raises some important questions about fair use and copyright infringement, illustrated by several examples of the filmmakers struggling to get rights to certain clips from a CBS interview with Richard Clarke and footage from a PBS new show (the latter refused out of fear of appearing "too political"). More recently, Lawrence Lessing, one of the copyright lawyers working with Greenwald on the film has commented on the story in his blog, and a Washington Post story adds to the controversy, not-so-subtly accusing the Times of political slant in their article on Greenwald. According to Irena Briganti, a Fox News spokeswoman, Fox was only given 24 hours to comment on the story. Lots of "he said-she said" follows. I'm just going to link to the article and let my readers decide.
But the Times article also celebrates Greenwald's ability to mix grassroots political action with new media technologies, including the Internet:Jim Gilliam, a 26-year-old former dot-com executive and a producer of ''Outfoxed,'' is enthusiastic about the way Greenwald's projects meld grass-roots politics with the culture of the Internet. He predicts a future -- augured by events like MoveOn's competition for the best 30-second anti-Bush advertisement -- in which young political filmmakers will be as likely to wield a camera phone as a digital camera. ''It won't be long before people will be shooting and editing short documentaries that they'll stream from their blogs,'' he says. If the Internet, as media critics like Jon Katz have suggested, has resuscitated the fiery journalistic spirit of Thomas Paine, guerrilla documentaries offer to put that polemical attitude in the director's chair.
I have to admit that I'm a sucker for this kind of populist rhetoric. Every time I read this kind of comment, I find myself wanting to do more of that kind of work or at least to promote it on my blog.
Posted by chuck at July 12, 2004 1:37 PM
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