[NYTr] "War Made Easy" Screening, Political Costume Contest Fri 10/19 - Glendale, Calif

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

sent by Ed Pearl

A Glendale Peace Vigil Film Forum + Political Costume Contest
or www.glendalepeacevigil.org

"War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us To Death"

Friday October 19, 2007
Doors open 7:00 pm
Glendale Central Library
222 E. Harvard St., Glendale 91205
(1 block northeast of Colorado & Brand)
free - donations welcome
refreshments
information available from other community groups
books, DVDs and more for sale
= = =

$10 cash, DVD/CD prizes for each category:
~ best anti-war costume
~ scariest political costume
~ funniest political costume
~ most thought-provoking costume
~ best presentation during the costume parade
COSTUMES OPTIONAL - STREET CLOTHES WELCOME
= = =

Narrated by Sean Penn, "War Made Easy" shows how the U.S. government has
repeatedly worked to have public opinion favor war since the end of
World War II.

"Superb" - Howard Zinn
"Searing" - San Francisco Chronicle
"Chilling and Persuasive" - Katrina Vanden Heuvel, The Nation

San Francisco Chronicle August 24, 2007
By Mick LaSalle

"War Made Easy" is an expertly edited and researched documentary that
attempts to explain how the United States government has gone about
moving public opinion in favor of war, in the decades since the end of
World War II. The story isn't pretty. Basically the government lies,
distorts, claims reluctance to engage in conflict, manipulates the
media and pretends at lofty, selfless goals.

Narrated by Sean Penn and based on the book of the same name by Norman
Solomon, the documentary is both a genuine eye-opener and a treat for
history buffs who use archival footage to draw parallels between the
lead-up to Vietnam and the process by which the United States has twice
gone to war in Iraq. Solomon, who is interviewed throughout, shows how
television and even newspapers become complicit in pushing the
government's narrative. Then, as the public swallows the official line,
the media ends up finding it easier to go along rather than risk public
displeasure through independent reporting and honest analysis.

Seen four years later, the pre-Iraq war coverage from 2003 looks
practically demented, as though each news station - and not just Fox
News - were promoting a popular sporting event and not a war. Reporters
are shown oohing and ahhing over the latest in military hardware - just
as even Walter Cronkite was shown doing it, during Vietnam - in a way
that's curiously divorced from the real intent of this machinery:
killing people. Either consciously or unconsciously, the result is to
desensitize the public as to what is actually about to happen. Of
particular interest is Solomon's assessment of the media's coverage of
Colin Powell's U.N. speech, which turned public opinion in America,
even though the information contained therein later turned out to be
false or wildly exaggerated. Solomon demonstrates that it was only the
American media that believed Powell delivered an open-and-shut case.
The British and Continental press greeted the speech with considerable
skepticism and demanded proof. Had the American done the same - that
is, done their job - the rush to war might have been stalled. Instead,
the media assessed Powell's presentation as though it were theater and
gave him high marks for his performance. "War Made Easy" is most
disturbing in the ways in which the government, with the help of its
media minions, works to curtail debate and silence dissent. The most
insidious of these time-honored tactics is to conflate the
administration with "the troops," so that disapproval of politicians is
equated with abandonment of frontline soldiers. It's the ultimate in
cynicism, though wrapped in the trappings of patriotism, and it's a
grotesque spectacle - the mature and the powerful taking cover behind
the young and powerless.

= = =

Film running time: 72 minutes
PARKING: 3 hours free with library validation in the structure at
Maryland & Harvard (northeast of Brand & Colorado).
Parking meters on streets and in city lots are free after 6 pm.
Metro bus trip planning: (800) 266-6883 or www.metro.net
= = =

The Glendale Peace Vigil gathers 5-7 pm Fridays at Broadway & Brand.
Everyone welcome!
Film forum and vigil information: 
(818) 242-4320, (818) 749-8134, (818) 662-0412
or www.glendalepeacevigil.org
= = =

90.7 FM KPFK LISTENER-SPONSORED RADIO
for in-depth political news, interviews, commentary -- plus
announcements about events like this.