Pressing Issues

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Daily Show Full Episodes

Tea Party

The Goldberg Variations

2010-04-21T08:29:00.001-04:00

Jon Stewart's epic response to Bernie Goldberg's attack on him after he said recently, "Go Fuck Yourself." He repeats the phrase at the end of this --with a gospel choir.
Bernie Goldberg Fires Back

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Daily Show Full Episodes

Tea Party

Sunday Morning in the Church of Beethoven

2010-04-18T10:29:00.003-04:00

Our weekly feature, this time celebrating birth of my first grandchild, Jules, last night, in London: LvB's "Consecration of the House." For Jules & Jen, and Stephane.

Amazing Colbert Interview Last Night

2010-04-13T08:55:00.007-04:00

Stephen "welcomed" WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, to discuss the release last week of the now-famous video showing the killing of a dozen Iraqis, including a Reuters photographer and staffer, from U.S. Apache helicopters. I've tweeted dozens of times about it since then, drawing a wide response. Colbert built up to the interview with a separate segment poking fun at government secrecy, in the usual mode. Then after a break, he brought out Assange and again things proceeded typically for a bit, drawing audience laughs.

But then Colbert, uncharacteristically, dropped his faux outrage and really went after his guest for terming the video "Collateral Murder," obviously trying to stick up for the troops after his trip to Iraq and other supportive measures. He made a couple of good points but also suggested, in a low moment, that Assange didn't know what he was talking about because he had not served in the military himself. There were no chuckles from the host at that point--and the audience clearly did not know how to react. Yes, much of this was Colbert in his "faux" character but to an unusual extent some of it was clearly not.

Colbert also charged that Assange had edited out the fact that there was a "firefight" nearby. Assange cooly called this a lie, and said that classified documents showed no such thing. This seemed to set Stephen back a bit. There was no mention of the attack on the van trying to take away the wounded photog, which severely injured two kids.

Then the segment ended on the usual humorous note.

Below is just the interview segment that aired. When he signed off, Colbert said the unedited version would be online--and it's just been posted. It has more of the "faux" Colbert character than the edited version. You'll find it below the edited version. Sort of like that Iraq video: the shorter and longer version.
Julian Assange

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Fox News

Unedited:

Exclusives - Julian Assange Unedited Interview

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Fox News

Easter Sunday in the Church of Beethoven

2010-04-04T10:06:00.002-04:00

My weekly feature, this time for Easter. And special treat: the "Kyrie" from Beethoven's Mass in C Major (which I prefer to the critical-fave "Missa Solemnis"). Here is best version on record:

My Favorite Creed

2010-03-30T15:17:00.002-04:00

NYT breaks big story today-- Creed Bratton, "The Office" curmudgeon, was a guitarist in the hit '60s rock group The Grass Roots, and is still rocking, with a new album (that also features Ed Helms on banjo). Here's the group on the old Jimmy Durante Show (dig his intro), with Creed the young guy on far left.

Sunday Morning in the Church of Beethoven

2010-03-28T10:30:00.001-04:00

My weekly feature. This week: new trailer for my friend Kerry Candaele's projected movie feature, "Following the Ninth." Contact Kerry, or me, if you wish to help fund. Also: I am heading to NYC in a few minutes for the Sixth and the Ninth at Avery Fisher, thanks to writer who I have met only on Twitter!

Yes, We Can't

2010-03-24T06:46:00.001-04:00

Hysterical mash-up of will.i.am classic Obama campaign call with Rep. John Boehner's losing "Oh no you can't" this week.

Day After Passage of Health Reform: Dudamel, "Ode to Joy"

2010-03-22T12:22:00.000-04:00

Second Episode of My Rock and Roll Series Arrives

2010-03-22T11:15:00.001-04:00

And it covers the day I helped discover Bruce Springsteen--at Sing Sing Prison in 1972. Or as Merle Haggard might say, "Sing Sing me back home/With a song I sued to hear."

Second Week of my The Nation Gig Arrives

2010-03-22T10:17:00.000-04:00

Media Fix blog not launching until April but Twitter feed up and running and catching on.

Sunday Morning in the Church of Beethoven

2010-03-21T09:20:00.003-04:00

My weekly feature. This week: very rare performance of Beethoven's amazing "Cavatina" string quartet movement for full orchestra, conducted by German legend.

Another 7th Anniversary Protest Song

2010-03-19T21:38:00.001-04:00

Richard Thompson doing "Dad's Gonna Kill Me." (Some GIs call Baghdad "dad.")

Back in the Days of Shock and Awe

2010-03-19T10:28:00.001-04:00

On 7th anniversary of Iraq war onset very little media coverage, so we look to Neil Young, who recorded still the best antiwar album of this period. "History was a cruel judge of over confidence."

My Official Welcome

2010-03-18T18:34:00.003-04:00

Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher, does the honors. Twitter feed for my new blog has almost 1000 followers in less than 4 days.

Box Tops, 1969

2010-03-17T22:06:00.002-04:00

RIP Alex Chilton. "The Letter" was #1 for, like, five weeks.

R.I.P. Alex Chilton

2010-03-17T22:01:00.001-04:00

Paul Westerberg does "Alex Chilton." Dead of heart attack today in NOLA at 59. I saw Big Star at fabled rock critic convention in Memphis in May 1973.

Trailer for NOLA-based 'Treme' Coming to HBO

2010-03-16T13:41:00.001-04:00

From David Simon.

Amy Ryan as Judy Miller

2010-03-16T11:53:00.002-04:00

Good portrayal of a Judy Miller figure in Green Zone, except character works for WSJ, not NYT. Key scene has the Matt Damon WMD-hunter confronting her about the lies in her articles in a hotel room. Couldn't find that on Youtube but here is a much earlier scene where she tries to find out why Damon hasn't been able to find the WMD she promised in her pieces. Note that Matt's name in flick is ....Miller.

My New Gig Announced!

2010-03-15T11:58:00.003-04:00

The Nation magazine has just announced my hire to write their first super-active media blog. You can read their announcement, my own piece on it being "40 years in the making," and go to the Media Fix twitter feed. More TK. -- Greg Mitchell

Questioning WMD Intel in Iraq

2010-03-13T09:19:00.002-05:00

Matt Damon in the must-see Green Zone -- with cameo by my old pal, vet leader Paul Reickhoff.

Slipping Them a Mickey

2010-03-12T09:54:00.004-05:00

The NYT Magazine Q&A this Sunday hosts longtime blogger Mickey Kaus, who has decided to run for the Senate in California -- to the right of incumbent Barbara Boxer. On the subject of other writers/bloggers he complains: "Ezra Klein gets under my skin. He seems to spout the party line. I think he knows that it’s wrong but feels it’s his duty to fight the good cause." He also reveals that he once made $90,000 as a blogger for Slate but now has taken a pay cut. Also: It's unclear if he can keep writing for Slate as he runs for office.

Here's an excerpt:

Are you married?
No. There must be something wrong with me.

Can your campaign survive the collective attacks of bloggers?
I’m pursuing the dense-pack strategy. You do a missile-defense system where you’re completely open to multiple missile attacks. But the idea is that the incoming warheads will knock each other out.

The opposite could happen: with bloggers deciding to seek office.
I guess the larger point is we’re in an age where the barriers to politics, like the barriers to journalism, are collapsing. There’s this whole notion of a party in a laptop that got credence when Howard Dean ran.

Colbert Takes a Stab at Karl Rove

2010-03-12T06:49:00.001-05:00

Cuts him up over new memoir. Finds out he is a sweet guy.
Karl Rove's New Book

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Skate Expectations

The 'Seedy' Glenn Beck

2010-03-11T10:35:00.001-05:00

Survival Seed Bank

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Skate Expectations

Glenn Beck's Massa Peel

2010-03-11T08:35:00.000-05:00

Sour Gropes

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Health Care Reform

I'm Back from London...With Some Bullshit

2010-03-10T18:23:00.002-05:00

Funny or die, indeed:

Breaking News: Some Bullshit Happening Somewhere - watch more funny videos

London Calling

2010-03-04T15:29:00.003-05:00

Probably no, or little, posting the next few days as I head to London to offer morale support for my daughter, who is six weeks from producing her first kid, a boy. Wish all of us luck! Will be attending the supposedly great new play Enron on Saturday starring one of my favorite Brit bad guy actors Tim Pigott-Smith (Jewel in the Crown, V for Vendetta, Bloody Sunday, etc.) There's a great Van Gogh exhibit in town (letters matched with art) but beyond that mainly doing family stuff.

Sexy Sadie, Revisited

2010-03-03T22:51:00.001-05:00

Bizarre editor's note in tomorrow's NYT, obviously after legal action, going back to 2008 article on guy who worked with Beatles, at center of their controversy with Maharishi--Times agreed to post on Web long, long statement by guy.

An 'SNL' Presidents' Re-Union -- for a Cause!

2010-03-03T11:08:00.000-05:00

Funny or Die's Presidential Reunion from Will Ferrell

Bunning: Hall of Shame Pitcher

2010-03-03T09:09:00.001-05:00

Jim Bunning Is Just a Dick

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Health Care Reform

OK GO Meet Rube Goldberg

2010-03-02T16:26:00.002-05:00

If you love falling chains of dominos and much beyond, dig this:

"Hurt" So Bad

2010-03-02T15:18:00.001-05:00

We brought you the fun parody of Avatar (below) so here is not quite equal time for joshing at Hurt Locker, via (believe it or not) guys from Jersey Shore.

Best "Avatar" = "Pocahontas" MashUp Yet

2010-03-02T12:48:00.000-05:00

CFV 426 - Avatar/Pocahontas Mashup FINAL VERSION from Randy Szuch on Vimeo.

Stewart Sends Bunning to Bull Pen

2010-03-02T08:46:00.000-05:00

Senate After Dark

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Health Care Reform

We're Baaaack

2010-03-02T08:44:00.003-05:00

After losing power, heat, online thanks to snow storm (heavy stuff, not that so much of it) bringing down limbs in front of house, finally fully back -- tho with car needing repair, tree man coming to remove wood, etc. Thanks for your patience...

Note to Readers

2010-02-27T15:21:00.001-05:00

Sorry, no posting here since Thursday, trees and branches fell on our property just north of NYC in big storm, knocking out power, heat, online etc. After 2 cold days, just moved to hotel and may not post much at all. May not be fixed for a few days. See you soon.

Yo! Toyota!

2010-02-24T10:03:00.000-05:00

Jon Stewart accelerates coverage.
Toyotathon of Death - Unintended Acceleration Problem

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Health Care Crisis

Scott Brown, Not So Briefly

2010-02-23T12:13:00.001-05:00

As it's done a lot lately, NYT Mag posted very early an upcoming feature: This one on new Mass. Sen. Scott Brown (who just went against conservatives in helping to advance jobs bill). Bonus: He's pictured in leather shorts. Also check out multimedia time line and video. Excerpt from Frank Bruni piece:

Brown’s exposure owes at least as much to, well, his exposure. Back in 1982, when he was 22, he posed nude for Cosmopolitan magazine, which named him the sexiest man in America. The layout of the photograph skimped on some key information, but the accompanying interview made space for his fantasies, which he said turned to women who were “tall, athletic and have longish hair and beautiful legs . . . hmmm, I’m getting excited!”
Nearly three decades later, as he campaigned for the Senate, that article drew widespread notice, as did the fact that Brown, at 50, seemed as plausible a centerfold as ever. An obsessive exerciser, he competed in more than six triathlons, both abbreviated and full length, in the first half of 2009 alone. The trim, muscular results of all that swimming and sweating explained an atypical addition to the Washington press corps that shadowed him during a visit to the nation’s capital just after his victory. A reporter for the gossip site TMZ was on hand to ask him if he was “bringing sexy back to the Republican Party.”
He’s certainly bringing it a résumé and panache that aren’t the norm. And he’s transporting them — in the unlikely event that you haven’t yet heard — in a green GMC Canyon pickup truck. Seldom has a politician got more mileage out of a vehicle, and I don’t mean Brown’s crisscrossing of Massachusetts during the campaign.

Beethoven With a Pal

2010-02-23T11:18:00.004-05:00

Looking forward tonight to going to Lincoln Center for 3 Beethoven quartets with my friend in from California, Kerry Candaele, who I am trying to help with his upcoming film on LvB which I have hyped often, Following the Ninth. (He's finishing filming this week but go watch the trailer now.) Group tonite is the Miro Quartet, who I recently saw in great performance of the Heiliger Dankgesang with Stephen Dillane's T.S. Eliot performance. Here is great "lento assai" movement from opus 135 they will be doing tonite. UPDATE: Miro was absolutely tremendous and closed with "only encore possible" -- the Cavatina.

Glenn Beck a Commie?

2010-02-23T10:42:00.000-05:00

Rage Within the Machine - Progressivism

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Health Care Crisis

The Krugman Blues

2010-02-22T11:35:00.001-05:00

The New Yorker helps boost its profile of the NYT columnist with video up on its site of the great Loudon Wainwright III singing his tune "The Krugman Blues."

Lou Reed, a Non-Olympics Moment

2010-02-22T09:10:00.003-05:00

For those of us who remember Lou Reed from his "Heroin" and "Waiting for My Man" days with the Velvets it's bizarre to see him singing one of his later tunes behind a popular ad that is punctuating Olympics coverage on NBC. Reminded us of this mashup that had Lawrence Welk covering "Sister Ray."

Sunday Morning in the Church of Beethoven

2010-02-21T10:33:00.003-05:00

In my weekly "sermon": Another hat for the extraordinary upcoming film by Kerry Candaele Following the Ninth, the first look at the global influence (cultural and political and musical) of the Ninth Symphony -- from Beijing to Billy Bragg. Great trailer below and go to the site here -- he's still fundraising to complete it and I am personally helping with a new "100 Club" seeking $100 donation for which you get bunch of goodies.

Leonard Knows 'Vice'

2010-02-20T15:58:00.002-05:00

Thanks for former E&P intern Seth Porges for recalling my man Leonard Cohen's appearance on Miami Vice as a French drug lord. First we take Miami?

Last Train to Nowhere?

2010-02-20T14:06:00.004-05:00

There's a stunning piece just posted at NYT site from tomorrow's paper on a book I wrote about last month--Charles Pellegrino's Last Train from Hiroshima. I wrote about it in the context of it being bought by James Cameron for a movie (I have written dozens of stories on the subject and co-authored the book with Robert Jay Lifton Hiroshima in America). Pellegrino is an old friend of Cameron and worked with him on Titanic and other projects. Now William J. Broad in the Times reveals that a key revelation in the book is based on a hoax.

Pellegrino fell for a story from a guy who claimed he was a last minute substitution on an A-bomb bomb and told the story of a partial "dud" -- made up out of whole cloth. The author now says he will revise the book ASAP. Here's an excerpt:

That section of the book and other technical details of the mission are based on the recollections of Joseph Fuoco, who is described as a last-minute substitute on one of the two observation planes that escorted the Enola Gay.

But Mr. Fuoco, who died in 2008 at age 84 and lived in Westbury, N.Y., never flew on the bombing run, and he never substituted for James R. Corliss, the plane’s regular flight engineer, Mr. Corliss’s family says. They, along with angry ranks of scientists, historians and veterans, are denouncing the book and calling Mr. Fuoco an imposter.

Facing a national outcry and the Corliss family’s evidence, the author, Charles Pellegrino, now concedes that he was probably duped. In an interview on Friday, he said he would rewrite the book for paperback and foreign editions.

“I’m stunned,” Mr. Pellegrino said. “I liked and admired the guy. He had loads and loads of papers, and photographs of everything.”

The public record has to be repaired, he added. “You can’t have wrong history going out,” he said. “It’s got to be corrected.”

The Tweeting White House and More

2010-02-19T23:18:00.000-05:00

I did a radio thing today (summary and link) on the White House's new infatuation with Twitter and also its relations with bloggers and who will lead the "pack" in 2010 campaign coverage.

Walken to Broadway

2010-02-19T13:58:00.003-05:00

I saw last night a preview of new play by guy who wrote and directed the hysterical In Bruges. It's titled "A Behanding in Spokane," about a guy who had a hand allegedly chopped off 47 years ago and has spent a lifetime looking for it. Naturally, it stars Chris Walken, plus Sam Rockwell and the great Anthony Mackie in rare comedy turn. It's very funny, tho slight and has a few sags. Here's Walken talking about it. He's much, much funnier in the play.

First Episode of My Rock History Series Still Airing

2010-02-17T21:27:00.000-05:00

UPDATED: Yes, we brought you the trailer back in December and now the first episode of "An Incompleat History or Rock 'n Roll" has arrived, and it's timely too, what with the Saints winning Super Bowl, and now Mardi Gras, as it focuses on New Orleans music, most notably, the Fat Man himself. Thanks for the many views and notes and comments so far.

High Point of Piano Music Ever?

2010-02-17T18:08:00.001-05:00

Newly posted at YouTube, Daniel Barenboim plays section of Beethoven's Hammerklavier sonata that may top all of his other late piano work.

And The Chair Still Is Not My Son

2010-02-17T15:32:00.000-05:00

Hysterical new "literal" version of "Billie Jean" with new lyrics -- now you can understand all of them and they are mashed up with film instructions such as "closeup", "dissolve" and "look concerned."

'Avatar' on the West Bank

2010-02-16T20:00:00.002-05:00

Unreal: in a protest a few days ago on the West Bank, Palestinian, Jewish allies and others painted themselves and dressed as oppressed figures in Avatar.

Thundercrack

2010-02-16T14:24:00.004-05:00

This was quite possibly the first rock song I saw Bruce play in December 1972 at the landmark Kenny's Castaways gig when us/we Crawdaddy guys "discovered" him before anyone else. Never made it as an album cut but was central part of early sets. This is rare video from Columbia Records promo meeting the following year. It will be feature in my next episode of my popular "Incompleat History of Rock 'n Roll" video series.

Lenny and LvB on TV

2010-02-16T10:06:00.003-05:00

NYT today has big front page piece, and huge photo, on its Arts section about the release of new DVD of Leonard Bernstein's Sunday Omnibus TV shows from the mid- to late-1950s. As a youth I remember them well--not the content, really, but being on the tube with this guy chatting about classical music. His entire show on Beethoven's Fifth Symphony--and the changes the composer made -- has been up on YouTube for awhile, here is part I:

Roll Over, Mr. B

2010-02-15T10:08:00.000-05:00

Get Out of the New One If You Can't Lend a Hand

2010-02-14T14:15:00.002-05:00

We posted audio earlier but now here is full video of Dylan at White House doing "Times They Are A-Changing," with Obama intro.

Tricky Dick and the Pink Lady

2010-02-14T13:20:00.004-05:00

Yes, that's the title of my Random House book about the infamous 1950 U.S. Senate contest in California that drew major attention and was picked as one of the New York Times' "Notable Books" of the year. The stars, of course, were young Dick Nixon and the beautiful former actress (and wife of Melvyn Douglas) Helen Gahagan Douglas -- both up and coming members of congress at the time. It was one of the dirtiest, and most far-reaching election contests of the century, highlighting issues surrounding the Red Scare -- and women in politics. I've been highlighting some of my books here all week. You can read more here and film rights are now available. Contact me at: epic1934@aol.com. See other books by scrolling down on the main page of this blog.

Sunday Morning in the Church of Beethoven

2010-02-14T11:48:00.001-05:00

Glenn Gould "sermonizes" with the third bagatelle from opus 126, playing it at perhaps near-record slow pace.

Joy in Mudville: Catch the Fever!

2010-02-12T11:59:00.007-05:00

Some of you may know me more for books on, ahem, rather serious subjects: dirty politics, Hiroshima, capital punishment, and the like (see the gallery over on the left rail here). But I've also written a popular comic memoir about...coaching my son in Little League. It drew wide national attention -- even a column in the NYT about the days I used to softball against Bruce Springsteen -- with USA Today, for example, declaring that the "winning portrait brings home boys of summer and their dads." Publishers Weekly: "Mitchell writes with wit and humanity." And so on. More here.

More importantly, financially: It was optioned for six figures by Universal and Playtone for Tom Hanks. Scripts were written, including one where I was re-located from Nyack, N.Y. to Berkeley, Ca. and got a new career -- as a writer of celeb profiles for People magazine. So you can see: I am a good sport. Anyway: that option has elapsed so the book is now available for a new option. You can contact me at: epic1934@aol.com.

I've been posting here this week on other books that seem suitable for new film interest. You can find those two posts by scrolling down the main page here. Thanks! And play ball!

'Ran' to Meet You Tonite

2010-02-11T15:24:00.000-05:00

I posted this a few days ago but now the day is here: A real thrill for me, I've been invited to be interview guest at screening of Kurosawa's final masterpiece -- and one of the true works or art in cinema -- Ran this coming Thursday at the Burns Center in White Plains, N.Y. It's the premier film center in New York area and we've been members since year one. Why am I to be interviewed for this? I'm one of the few Americans to do a lengthy interview with Kurosawa in the U.S. his later years, and it came just as he was planning Ran. New trailer below for this new print.

The Great Atomic Film Coverup

2010-02-11T12:03:00.006-05:00

For years I’ve felt that one of the few “untold stories” of World War II, especially after all of the media and film attention the war has received in recent years, is the U.S. occupation of the two atomic cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I’m one of the few Americans to write widely about it, going back to the early 1980s – largely focusing on the film aspects and a “cover-up” of key footage -- and then even more after I visited the two cities at length a few years later. This led to my rather well-known 1995 book with Robert Jay Lifton, Hiroshima in

America

, and articles for dozens of leading magazines and newspapers, as well as serving as chief adviser to the award-winning 2004 documentary, Original Child Bomb.

As recently as last month I wrote a column for Huff Post on James Cameron visiting one of the few Japanese to survive both atomic bombings just before he died – and then purchasing the film rights to the new book on the survivors, although he may just have a TV documentary in mind.

I’ve written about all aspects of Hiroshima but particularly about the U.S. occupation in 1945 and 1946, the obvious health hazards faced by our servicemen there, Hollywood and TV movies about Hiroshima, and the “film cover-up” angle. I hope the time is right now for a book—and a major film feature or documentary (contact me at: epic1934@aol.com). Yes, there have been plenty of "Hiroshima" films but none that have focused on U.S. servicemen in the aftermath.

Anyone interested should start with my lengthy piece about the film coverup at Huff Post (a much shorter version is in the Hiroshima in America book). In a nutshell: A special U.S. military film crew was sent into the atomic cities shortly after the bombing to record the devastation – but their footage was locked up for decades so the American people never got a true glimpse of the effects of the bomb during the whole period of the nuclear arms building up and testing from the 1940s to 1980s. (We also seized all of the Japanese footage.) Hollywood produced hokey versions only. I interviewed both the director of the U.S. filming and one of his chief aides who tried for years to get the footage released, and obtained exclusive records documenting the shooting – and the cover-up. I also now have on tape all of the key footage that they shot.

It’s a great, human, story focusing on two fascinating men (one shot other footage for Hollywood and the other went on to a pioneering CBS job) and their struggle, all in the context of the U.S. occupation, our film and TV industry, and the nuclear arms race. Again, check out the Huff Post piece. My contact email again: epic1934@aol.com

Weather Or Not

2010-02-11T09:25:00.000-05:00

A lot of media coverage has given room for those who confuse local weather and global climate. Stephen Colbert naturally has some fun with that.
We're Off to See the Blizzard

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c