The HBO doc about journalism legend Helen Thomas, Thank you, Mr. President, is now slated for its first airing next Monday.  My colleague at E&P, Joe Strupp, interviewed the director, Rory Kennedy, this week and has a full report at our site, see link below.

Here are a few highlights:

-- The story opens with this:  "When Rory Kennedy told her mother, Ethel Kennedy, that she was going to make a documentary about Helen Thomas, the former Mrs. Robert Kennedy responded, 'Do you really want to do that? She was awfully hard on Jack.'

Eventually, though, her mother understood what the veteran documentary-maker with the famous name wanted to do, even allowing her to interview Thomas at her famed Hickory Hill home in McLean, Va., over five days in the spring of 2007.

I do not know about you but I have been sorely in need of some New Rules and Real Time. I want to see some great guest and panel discussions.  I miss Bill and I am ready for his return on August 29th.

I wonder what Bill would have to say about the events of this past week? While Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are doing a great job we need as many voices as possible to nail the Republicans on their b.s.

And boy am I sorry that Dave Chappelle left his show, one can only imagine how funny he would have been during this political season. Dave, it's not too late Comedy Central would take you back in a heartbeat! But I'm getting off topic here...

A new documentary about White House reporting legend Helen Thomas was screened this week at the National Press Club in D.C., and will air on HBO in mid-August.  It is titled: "Thank You, Mr. President: Helen Thomas at the White House," and was directed by Rory Kennedy, daughter of Robert and Ethel Kennedy.

Thomas, 87, missed the showing on Wednesday night because she is still recovering from an illness that has sidelined her since May -- and is likely to keep her off the job until at least Labor Day.

"The movie is a fantastic narrative of Helen's fantastic career," Charles Lewis, Washington bureau chief for Hearst Newspapers, where Thomas has written a column since 2000, told my E&P colleague Joe Strupp today. "It is rich in history, rich in humor and the press's relationship with the White House."
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Greg Mitchell's new book is So Wrong for So Long:  How the Press, the Pundits -- and the President  -- Failed on Iraq.  He is editor of Editor & Publisher.

I'm desperate....that's right I'm hungry and desperate for decent movies and entertainment. In particular, I'm disgusted with what passes as television these days. The new and cheapest way for the studios to make shows on television these days are the 'reality shows'...hey, they don't have to hire 'real actors,' they don't have to hire 'real writers,' and they don't even have to hire 'directors'....The studio has found a great way to put thousands of film people out of work, while still raking in the dough.  If this kind of, sort of, sounds like the outsourcing of many of our jobs going overseas, well...............that's because that is exactly what it is, or at least the same concept. But it sucks, and I think we, 'the huddled masses' deserve better, much better.    

I've tried so many times to explain the complexity of the circumstances surrounding everything that happened in Florida--back in 2000 (and, really, in 2004 as well)--to people like my mother and some of my other musician friends; and, being that they're really not political junkies, they usually just stare at me blankly. ;)

Anyway, this scene from Recount has done the trick.  Leary, despite his foul language (although I find that hillarious), explains the problems with punch-card voting succinctly, yet simply. Plus, the added CGI effects actually showing the processes going on inside the votermatic were genius.

So with the 2008 election right around the corner, this single clip has done more to inform and energize a lot of the 'casually-political' people I know to be a little extra diligent before stepping into the voting booth. To ask questions like "Has all the CHAD been cleaned out of this machine?" or "Is there a reason why you only have two machines for this entire district?" etc.

Bruisedmuse on the HBO film, "Recount" and some thoughts on Doublethink

I have to tell you, tears came to my eyes after watching the movie 'Recount' on HBO yesterday.  Flipping through HBO again this evening, I saw that it was back on, and I had to really just vent a little bit.  To be honest the last 8 years have really been a big suck-fest of crappitude for the American people.  And yet, it seems like a bell-curve of idiocy.  I'll go into that a little more in a bit.  First I would just like to explain the 2000 election from my perspective.  I was 17 years old, too young to vote, but not young enough that I couldn't be politically active.  It was my senior year, and I had been getting more active in politics, although before that point, I felt myself to be a liberal Republican, along the lines of my grandmother, looking at Gore and Bush, it was an obvious choice who I should choose to vote for.  But there were other issues that drove me to the Democrats.Continue with me over the jump....

Yeah, I must admit, I watched the HBO flick entitled "Recount", and it just reignited all of the reasons I was so ticked off in 2000.  The reason I continually referred to Bush #43 as the pResident.

The movie was fairly accurate, except that it skipped the fact that the dispute hit the US Supreme Court twice, and not once, but that fact perhaps will be buried, after all, it resulted in Bush becoming selected no matter what.

Some of the reasons that flick reignited me being pissed off...

I just finished watching the premiere of "Recount" -- and I just need to get out some thoughts, and hope to hear from others too.

While I felt the movie was even-handed, I'm sure that there may have been some pro-Gore biases in there, which I didn't notice since I am (obviously) pro-Gore.

Of course, seven years later, history, reality, facts and common sense are also pro Gore too...

FOR ANYONE WHO HASN'T SEEN THE MOVIE YET, CLOSE THIS DIARY NOW!

I'll leave this as an open thread for anyone who got to see it tonight. I live in Vegas, but I have an east coast HBO feed, so I got to see the premiere tonight, and it was exciting and tense as hell, and I learned a great deal about what happened, and I finally learned what the stupid under and overvote chads meant. If this wasn't 2008 and I wasn't so confident about Obama's chances, it'd be much harder to watch for me, and I couldn't help but think about all that's happened since 2000, especially 9/11 and the War.

The one thing that really burnt me hard was...

WHY THE HELL DID JOE LIEBERMAN STAB US IN THE BACK EVEN BACK THEN???

If you have HBO, you are REQUIRED to watch 'Recount' tonight (or any of the many times it will be repeated). If you don't have HBO, find a friend that does and watch it there. If it appears on line, watch it there. If someone has to Tivo it for you - have them do it and watch it there. If you have to wait until it comes out on DVD - then wait and watch it there.

Contact all of your friends and tell them that they are REQUIRED to watch 'Recount' as well.

Do all you can to make sure that everyone possible can see this film.

In the weeks and months to come, this film is going to be required viewing for ALL Democrats leading into November.

If the title wasn't already taken, I would suggest an alternative title - "Why We Fight"

The soon-to-be relased "Recount" is the latest example of the flaws of the docudrama genre. Its wilfull intermixing of fact and fiction poses a threat to both reputations and to history.  

We know you can't wait for the upcoming HBO film on the 2000 Bush-Gore finish, aptly titled Recount, but here's a preview - coming in The New York Times Magazine this Sunday.

Director Jay Roach (previously known for Meet the Parents and Austin Powers films) says Democrats who hear about the film "always" ask him, "Can't you change the ending?"

Despite his prankish film background,  he says Recount is "not a comedy at all" and does not feature any new catch-phrases such as "yeah, baby, yeah."

Many of you might not be aware of my personal political history. I was volunteer on Gary Hart's 1984 Presidential campaign. When he dropped out of the 1988 race, the first time, I discovered the upstart candidacy of Michigan congressman Jack Tanner. Though Rep. Tanner was unable to break through against Democratic heavyweights like Michael Dukakis and Jesse Jackson, Tanner made a big impression on me and a lot of other Democrats, with his intelligence and integrity. Most of all, we admired his independence and his audacity...and we longed for progressive politics. The excitement of his candidacy was captured in the ground-breaking insider's look provided us by filmmaker Robert Altman, in Tanner '88.

As the Democratic race this year has become increasingly nasty and divisive, I have come to the conclusion that the Party needs Jack Tanner more than ever. That's why I'm proposing the formation of a Draft Tanner movement. I know a lot of you don't know Jack. America never really got to know Jack Tanner. For those of you who really don't know Jack, I'd like to introduce you to Jack Tanner.

First of all, this is my first diary (although I'm a long-time reader and let an old ID lapse) and secondly, I'm NOT in any way affiliated with HBO or anyone associated with the film. Also, I apologize if this for some reason isn't an appropriate diary, but here goes.

I recently saw the upcoming HBO feature "Recount" about the 2000 Florida recount, starring Kevin Spacey as Ron Klain, Denis Leary as Michael Whouley, Laura Dern as Katherine Harris (worth the price of a month of HBO right there) and other great actors. The reason I saw it is that I wrote up an interview with Spacey for a television magazine, which is something I do periodically for kicks.

Being a huge basketball fan myself, I've written previously about how important basketball is to Obama's life. Obama has spoken out on the subject and how basketball influenced his early years in Hawaii, as well as his time leading up to meeting and marrying his wife. Real Sports interviewed Obama recently on how basketball influenced him, and tagged along with him to watch him on the court.

People live blog all sorts of things here and I can't be one of the only people around that looks forward all week to Bill Maher's Real Time.

Tonight we have actor Jason Alexander, national security expert Richard Clarke, and journalist Dana Priest on the panel. Plus, via satellite, biologist Richard Dawkins (this should be interesting) and Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA).

Follow me below the fold for some banter, review and comment, and I can only assume a little snark on tonight's show.

David McCullough's Pulitzer Prize-winning book "John Adams" has been on my long list of "books to read" for quite awhile now. Luckily for all of us, award-winning Executive Producer Tom Hanks has turned the book into a mini-series for HBO.

McCullough's book was written from the reams of correspondence between Abigail and John during the many years of separation while John was with the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. (As McCullough says in an interview, if you lined up all the microfilm containing all of their correspondence, it would stretch for 5 miles.) As a result, we have a very detailed look at how this country was built from two of the builders as well as a future President. (It is pretty well-accepted that John Adams would never have been successful without Abigail's influence.)