Still free to subscribe to this nearly daily newsletter! Greg Mitchell is the author of fourteen books and director of five films for PBS since 2022. In a previous life, he was a longtime editor at the legendary Crawdaddy. His latest film “Woody Guthrie and The Ghost of Tom Joad Today” is now streaming everywhere via PBS.
Genius at work:
Trump Administration Is Said to Reach Broad Nuclear Deal With Saudis
Some U.S. lawmakers from both parties and Israeli officials have expressed opposition to such a plan, fearing that the kingdom could use a civilian nuclear project to eventually develop nuclear weapons.
Heather Cox Richardson:
While administration officials are slashing government programs that protect ordinary Americans, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine appeared on Capitol Hill today before the Senate Appropriations Committee to explain why the Pentagon is urgently in need of an injection of $67 billion to tide it over until the end of the fiscal year on September 30. The Pentagon has sunk billions into the war in Iran. Hegseth told senators the war had cost $37.5 billion, but independent analysts estimate the true number is significantly higher.
Lucian Truscott IV
Merging Paramount and Warner Brothers, especially under the aegis of the Family Ellison, which owns Paramount and through that, CBS, which they have been in the process of ruining at top speed, will take one of the major outlets for creativity off the board in Hollywood. All the decisions for both Paramount and Warners will be made by one David Ellison, a pampered tech-brat who used his daddy Larry’s money from the computer network company Oracle to buy Paramount. The merger would also end up combining the leadership of CBS News, run by a right-wing eager beaver called Bari Weiss, and CNN, the global network that has been a stalwart of the TV news business since it emerged from the brilliant mind of Ted Turner in 1980.
So, not only would the creative lives of writers, directors, producers and actors in Hollywood be circumscribed by this Merger From the Depths of Hell, a major portion of the TV news business, including the international reach of CNN, would be handed over to the tantrum impulses of Bari Weiss and her masters in the Trump-supporting Ellison family.
Hollywood has always been a tough business. It’s hard to write and produce movies and shows that people will pay money to watch and crucially, keep on watching and want to see more of. Putting television news on the air around the clock as they have done for decades at CNN, and producing flat-out dazzling television news shows such as 60 Minutes and CBS Sunday Morning – well, you don’t accomplish the decades-long record of CBS News wearing right-wing blinders and trying to please Donald Trump’s infantile, ignorant ego.
A judge in Northern California has put a 14-day hold on the Paramount Warners merger in a lawsuit filed by a dozen states, lead by California Attorney General Bob Bonda. The stakes are sky high, and not just for those who are now called “the creatives” in Hollywood. The entertainment and news all of us will have access to in the future is in the balance. Root for the writers and directors and TV news producers. They need us as much as we need them.
And Krugman on the media takeover:
The constant pressure towards a takeover of the news media, constant pressure towards a takeover of the general information environment by a handful of billionaires, is not going to go away. The constant threat or reality of corruption of the government by billionaires is not going to go away. Maybe once Trump is gone, it’ll become less blatant, but it won’t go away just because someone more discreet takes office.
Even if we have an honest president, which in the current environment, I’m sorry, does mean a Democrat, but even if we have an honorable president, the corruption of the system will still be a continual threat because of all the money flowing around.
So in the end, the only way out of this, the only reasonably durable solution is to not have so much wealth at the top.
from Deadline:
Woody Harrelson To Produce Documentary On Legendary Austin Music Venue Armadillo World Headquarters
Among the clips audiences may get a peek at are Springsteen’s show on his first Texas tour, as well as some unforgettable sets by Fats Domino, Waylon Jennings, and Charlie Daniels.
Through the recordings, as well as firsthand accounts, the film traces how Armadillo World Headquarters grounded the “cosmic cowboy” movement as a cultural crossroads where outlaw country, rock, blues, and counterculture converged. The venue launched careers, broke genre barriers, and helped cement Austin’s identity as the Live Music Capital of the World.
And trailer for a new doc on Pete Seeger and the Hudson River. Like Pete, I can see the river from my window:
Music Pick
Did not know until last night that Martin Short did a Jerry Lewis Sings Bob Dylan skit on SCTV. Now I will subject you to it.
From Tune to Toons
Anderson:
Clay Jones:
Bennett:
Photo Finish
From my camera to you: Covered bridge, Buck’s County, PA.
My new film Woody Guthrie and The Ghost of Tom Joad Today” is now streaming everywhere via PBS and airing over many stations.
Your Guthrie film was deeply moving.
Roseanne Cash’s narration smoothly fit the mission of “showing, not telling,” a non-didactical approach that allowed viewers to uncover deeper truths rather than being bludgeoned and shamed into predictable reactions.
Thank you.
Although I do not particularly like Martin Short, I have to hand it to him. He has Jerry Lewis down pat. The video is hilarious!