conserv entertain complx cec

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">have not really developed this as a category or with content, but it's an extension of so park gop</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see also echo chamber/ escalator efx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see celebrity: wwf, sports, reality TV DJT celeb apprentice) <b>country music..</b>.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">SEE CEC 2 1019</font></div><div><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">AT&T funded OANN to get a fox like revenue stream</font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump chats with Mel Gibson, Roger Stone, Joe Rogan at UFC fight</font></div><div>Trump made the appearance during a weekend of campaign stops in Las Vegas and Iowa.</div><div><b>July 9, 2023, </b></div><div>By Jake Traylor and Vaughn Hillyard</div><div>
</div><div>LAS VEGAS — Former President Donald Trump drew a raucous reaction from the audience at UFC 290 on Saturday evening when he showed up for the mixed martial arts event amid a weekend of campaign stops in Las Vegas and Iowa.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">While at T-Mobile Arena, Trump chatted with notable political allies and celebrities, including actors Mel Gibson and Mark Wahlberg and celebrity chef Guy Fieri. Roger Stone, Trump’s longtime friend, former political adviser and weekend travel companion, tweeted a photo of himself, Trump and Hollywood star Gibson in conversation during the event.</span></div><div>
</div><div>Stone, a longtime political provocateur, traveled with the campaign in Trump’s personal aircraft over the weekend and has a long history with the former president. Stone drew scrutiny from the now-defunct House Jan. 6 committee for his actions in the lead-up to the attack on the U.S. Capitol in 2021, and invoked the 5th amendment when subpoenaed by the committee later that year. Stone was also at the heart of probes into Russia’s efforts to influence the 2016 election, and was convicted on charges stemming from then-special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's election meddling, for which Trump later pardoned him.</div><div>
</div><div>Trump was seen chatting inside the arena with Ultimate Fighting Championship commentator and podcast host Joe Rogan and briefly shaking hands with actor Mark Wahlberg. The former president, who’s seeking re-election in 2024, high-fived supporters while walking along the Octagon before taking a seat in the first row.</div><div>
</div><div>South African UFC fighter Dricus Du Plessis abruptly jumped the fighting cage to quickly shake hands and talk with Trump after a second-round technical knockout of his opponent.</div><div>
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</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Also spotted with Trump at his campaign stop at a church in Vegas on Saturday afternoon was <b>Nevada GOP Chair Michael McDonald</b>, a close political ally of the former president who appeared last month before the special counsel grand jury investigating Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 attack and efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. McDonald was also one of the so-called “fake electors” involved in the effort to override those results.</span></div><div>
</div><div>Trump entered the T-Mobile Arena from a ground-level tunnel alongside<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b> UFC President Dana White, a staunch supporter of his</b>. White spoke at the 2020 Republican National Convention and donated $1 million dollars to pro-Trump super PAC America First Action.</span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Trump is no stranger to UFC events, attending UFC 244 while president in 2019 alongside then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and then-Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., Trump’s future White House chief of staff. The former president most recently attended a UFC event in April alongside musician Kid Rock.</span></div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>Jake Traylor</div><div>Jake Traylor is a 2024 NBC News campaign embed.</div><div>
</div><div>Vaughn Hillyard</div><div>Vaughn Hillyard is a political reporter for NBC News. </div><div>
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</b></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>this used to be ancillary to gop/conservatism, but w. trump troll causcus all that matters is getting attn/clicks/cash</b></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>an 10 22</b></font></div><div style="font-size: small;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">In a<a href="https://twitter.com/TulsiGabbard/status/1579788950696185859" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 13, 101); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;"> video posted on Twitter on October 11</a>, frequent Fox News guest and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard announced that she was <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/tulsi-gabbard-announces-leaving-democratic-party-rcna51659" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 13, 101); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">leaving the Democratic Party</a>. Gabbard’s talking points were right out of the MAGA playbook when she slammed Democrats as “an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness” and declared, “The Democrats of today are hostile to people of faith and spirituality. They demonize the police and protect criminals at the expense of law-abiding Americans. The Democrats of today believe in open borders and weaponize the national security state to go after political opponents.”
</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Gabbard has gone from praising Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont in 2016 and running for president as a Democrat in 2020 to endorsing far-right “Stop the Steal” conspiracy theorist Kari Lake in Arizona’s 2022 gubernatorial race. Right-wing media, following Gabbard’s October 11 announcement, were quick to paint the former Hawaii congresswoman as an example of someone Democrats have alienated.</span>

<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">But one conservative who isn’t the least bit impressed with Gabbard’s defection from the Democratic Party is Never Trumper and Daily Beast opinion columnist Matt Lewis. In a </span><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/tulsi-gabbard-doesnt-really-stand-for-anything?ref=home" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 13, 101); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">biting October 20 column</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, Lewis is vehemently critic of Gabbard and slams her announcement as a cheap political stunt designed to promote “</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">her new role as celebrity influencer.”</span>

<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">READ MORE: </span><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/tulsi-tucker/" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 13, 101); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Tucker Carlson, Tulsi Gabbard among 'most influential' in spreading Ukraine disinfo: researcher</a>

<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“To the degree that ‘wokeness’ is the 2022 update of ‘political correctness meets identity politics,’” Lewis argues, “Dems have been trafficking in that for decades…. So, why did Tulsi decide to break up with the Democrats, and why now? Gabbard may want to take a page from ex-Democrat Ronald Reagan, who famously said, ‘I didn’t leave the Democratic Party, the party left me.’ But the two are hardly analogous.”</span>

<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Lewis continues, “I struggle to find any coherence in Gabbard’s political philosophy or strategy, but as a lifelong conservative, one possible answer may be that the Republican Party has left us. It has become the kind of MAGA party that is attractive to people like Lake, a former Obama voter; Donald Trump, a former Clinton supporter; Kanye ‘George Bush doesn't care about Black people’ West; Dr. Mehmet Oz of ‘Oprah’ fame; and now, the ex-Bernie-booster Tulsi Gabbard.”</span>

<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The conservative columnist goes on to describe Gabbard’s defection from the Democratic Party as an example of former President Donald Trump’s toxic influence.</span>

<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“In these reactionary times,” Lewis explains, “ambitious right-wing newbies just have to make the right enemies, and they are parlaying their fame into taking over not just the GOP, but the conservative movement…. </span><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">A common thread among the MAGA upstarts is that they are opportunistic and attention-starved. Politics, once dreary and boring to the general public, is now a gateway to widespread attention, and the far right has by far the lowest barrier to entry. In this regard, Gabbard is merely the latest celebrity brand to hop on the </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">conservative entertainment</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> wing’s wagon </span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">in pursuit of even more clout.”</span>

<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">READ MORE: </span><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/tucker-carlson-tulsi-gabbard-russia/" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 13, 101); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Tucker Carlson and Tulsi Gabbard are superstars on Russian state television
</a>
<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Lewis continues, “Seen in that light, Gabbard’s conversion, seemingly timed to coincide with the launch of a new podcast, is less confusing…. Tulsi didn’t have to pay her dues or show her conservative credentials — all she had to do is slam her own party. Instant MAGA stardom!.... Welcome aboard, Tulsi. You’ll fit right in!</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">”</span>

<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">READ MORE: </span><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/legal-experts-debunk-tulsi-gabbards-claim-that-us-media-climate-is-not-much-different-from-russia/" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 13, 101); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Legal experts and fact checkers dismantle Tulsi Gabbard’s 'absurd' comparison of press freedom in US and Russia</a></p></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/11/qanon/">https://www.alternet.org/2021/11/qanon/</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" /><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">no lnx</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>'Lost sheep': Conspiracy theory expert says QAnon believers are being swallowed by 'mass radicalization'</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Jacob Chansley, dubbed 'The QAnon Shaman'/Channel 4 News screenshot]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> <b>Chauncey DeVega </b>and Salon November 03, 2021</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">   </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">America's mainstream news media has a short attention span [cits have /voters have of golden retriever], which has certainly played to the advantage of the long-running Republican-fascist assault on democracy (and on reality). Of late, the media has grown bored with QAnon, the antisemitic and racist conspiracy cult which claims to believes that a secret cabal of pedophile Democrats and other members of the "deep state" run the world — and gain superpowers from kidnapping and killing children and then ingesting their vital essence. In this demented worldview, only Donald Trump and other "patriots" can save America and the world.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">It appears that QAnon followers played a significant role in the attack on the Capitol and coup attempt on Jan. 6.</b> <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">No leaders of that coup plot have been apprehended or punished, and most of the foot soldiers have received relatively lenient punishment to this point. President Joe Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland appear reluctant to apply the full power of the law to punish Donald Trump, along with his allies, operatives and followers.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">QAnon followers are also attempting to undermine American democracy and civil society by infiltrating such "vulnerable" sites as local school boards, library committees and other ground-level institutions of local and state government. Their purported goal may be to ban the teaching of "critical race theory" (which is not taught in public schools), but the real goal is larger: to enforce punishment of "unpatriotic" thoughtcrimes, and to mainstream right-wing conspiracy theories and other lies about American history.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>QAnon followers are also seeking to become election officials</b>, where they are planning to use the fervor around Trump's Big Lie and other conspiracy theories to rig election results, overthrow multiracial democracy and replace it with one-party Republican rule.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In an article posted last June, the National Education Association explored the QAnon-fueled "radicalization" of school boards in communities all over America:</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In a small town in Washington State, the newly elected mayor calls QAnon, "a truth movement," and recently fired the town's skeptical city manager. In coastal San Luis Obispo, California, a school board trustee's Facebook posts include a QAnon video, misinformation about COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter, and promotion of the ex-gay, conversion movement. She won, says the town's mayor, who is calling for her resignation, because "people had no idea this was going on," and didn't have the "bandwidth to research the school board election," reports the local newspaper, the Tribune.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Meanwhile, in Florida, a newly elected county sheriff is now explaining why he posed for photos last year with a supporter in a "We are Q" t-shirt.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Across the county, conspiracy theorists and proponents of fake news are winning local elections. And their new positions give them a powerful voice in everything from local law enforcement to libraries, trash pickup to textbook purchases.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>QAnon followers are also gaining influence and power within white Christian evangelical churches and other faith communities</b>.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);"> This is integral to the worsening radicalization of white Christianity and the threat of a right-wing <b>"holy war"</b> against Democrats, liberals, progressives, Black and brown people and anyone else who believes in the separation of church and state, or who holds values and beliefs deemed "<b>un-American" or "anti-Christian."</b></span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Public opinion polls and other research show that a large percentage of Republicans and Trump followers say they believe in at least portions of the outlandish QAnon fantasy and — not coincidentally — are also willing to support right-wing political violence to protect their "traditional way of life" and "save the country." This includes removing President Joe Biden from office by violent means if deemed necessary.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Matthew Rozsa of Salon summarized these findings this week:</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">New public opinion research from the nonprofit Public Religion Research Institute, part of its 12th annual American Values Survey, has returned alarming findings.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Close to one-third of Republicans in the survey, or 30%, agreed with the statement that "true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country." That was more than the combined total of Democrats and independents who say the same thing (at 11% and 17%, respectively).</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">PRRI CEO and founder Robert Jones said <b>the large proportion of Republicans who appear ready to endorse political violence is "a direct result of former President Trump calling into question the election."</b> Jones noted that according to the same survey, more than two-thirds of Republicans (68%) claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump, as opposed to only 26% of independents and 6% of Democrats.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The study also found that 39% of those who believed that Trump had won the 2020 election endorsed potential violence, compared to only 10% of those who rejected election misinformation.</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> There were also signs of a split based on media consumption, with 40% of Republicans who trust far-right news sources agreeing that violence could be necessary, compared to 32% of those who trust Fox News and 22% among those who trust mainstream outlets</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. <b>In addition, respondents who said violence may be necessary are more likely to report feeling like strangers in their country, to say American culture has mostly worsened since the 1950s and to believe that God has granted America a special role in human history.</b></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Sophia Moskalenko is a social psychologist and expert on conspiracy theories, radicalization and extremism. She is currently a research fellow at the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (NC-START) and is the author of several <b>books, including "Friction: How Radicalization Happens to Them and Us"</b> and "The Marvel of Martyrdom: The Power of Self-Sacrifice in the Selfish World." Her new book, with co-author Mia Bloom, is "Pastels and Pedophiles: Inside the Mind of QAnon."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In this conversation Moskalenko discusses the dangers QAnon poses to American democracy and national security. She explains that QAnon is a community where overwhelmingly white and often socially alienated followers find fellowship and meaning as they are radicalized into extremism and other potentially dangerous antisocial behavior. In her view, QAnon functions as a space that nurtures and <b>satisfies white fantasies of right-wing masculinity, femininity, violence and heroism about "protecting" children and reasserting "traditional values".</b></span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Toward the end of this conversation, Moskalenko explains what she would tell Joe Biden and other senior members of the administration about the threats posed by right-wing terrorism, as well as about the ways hostile foreign powers are using disinformation and other forms of propaganda to weaken American democracy and society.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">You are an expert on terrorism and other forms of political extremism. You are also an expert on propaganda and disinformation. How are you feeling right now, given America's democracy crisis?</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">I've been feeling a little bit like Cassandra, the woman in Troy who was yelling as loud as he could about the city falling to ruin, and everybody was laughing at her. Then of course her warnings came true. It doesn't feel good. There was so much attention being paid to Islamic terrorism after 9/11. Unfortunately, there was not enough attention being paid to the trends right here in the United States domestically. This was all very alarming for somebody such as me who is an expert on terrorism and radicalization. These trends pointed to how right-wing groups were attracting more people and carrying out more and more lethal attacks.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">There were people in positions of power and influence here in the United States who were beginning to pander increasingly to these groups. And of course, Trump's presidency was a type of pinnacle for that behavior. Those appeals to right-wing extremist groups are now crystallized in congressional representatives who are outspoken supporters of QAnon conspiracy theories.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>There was also Trump's line after the riots in Charlottesville about "good people on both sides," which implies that maybe Nazis aren't so bad. This problem has been developing for a long time.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">When you looked at the events of Jan. 6, what did you see? What jumped out at you?</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">I'm a psychologist, so I focused on the emotions that I observed in the faces, the screams and the actions of the Trump followers who were there that day at the Capitol.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">It was just striking to me how angry and violent and ready to inflict serious damage a lot of those people were. On Jan. 6, I saw a huge crowd of people who look just like my neighbors but who were acting in a very threatening and menacing way. It was disturbing. I also, of course, saw many QAnon symbols and antisemitic symbols and other references to hate groups.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">I was also struck by the composition of the people at the Capitol on Jan. 6. They were very diverse in terms of age and gender. From the Arab Spring to images from the Ukrainian revolution or Georgian revolution, we mostly see men carrying out these mass radical actions. But on Jan. 6 at the Capitol, we saw a lot of women. There were many young people and also people in their 60s and 70s. That is very unusual, in many ways, as far as radical movements go.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">There were various right-wing extremist groups and other forces involved in the events of Jan. 6. What role did QAnon conspiracy believers play?</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>We know that between 10% and 20% of people present at the Jan. 6 insurrection were members of right-wing militia groups such as the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers and Three Percenters</b>.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);"> A sizable proportion of those groups also consisted of active-duty military or veterans. Those militia groups also include active or retired police.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>As for QAnon members, after Jan. 6 when the prophecy about Trump's return was unfulfilled, a number of QAnon followers became disenchanted. They went back online looking for answers, like they did before they found QAnon. Now they are looking for something else.</b></span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>There was a concerted effort by the right-wing extremist groups to bring them in, because they were like lost sheep.</b> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The way these groups and individuals talk about the QAnon types is very dismissive. They call them idiots. They call the QAnon prophecy nonsense. But they felt this was an opportunity to recruit a bunch of disenchanted QAnoners into their ranks.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">We know that both QAnon and the right-wingers I am discussing here are very antisemitic and racist. Whatever they may say about it, we know from the data we have collected from their own materials that they express clearly antisemitic and racist attitudes. In that aspect there is an overlap, at least psychologically, between QAnon and these right-wing extremists.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"I am Q." We see that language everywhere among the QAnon believers. What is the meaning?</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"Q" is a mysterious person, or likely several people. This person or persons has "Q-level" government clearance, which indicates they are supposedly quite high in America's intelligence hierarchy. So while a given person may claim to be "Q," another way of thinking about the meaning of "Q" is that it is an expression of a larger identity.<b> We are in the era of identity politics. Wearing some clothing that announces that one believes in QAnon is a way of projecting that membership and identity.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Wearing that symbol is also a way to connect to other QAnon followers. Because again, especially at these mass rallies or events, people come there for many different reasons, including a shared emotional experience, whether it's rage or hope or even fear. That is the attraction of being together with all these other people who are experiencing the same emotions – even if they are negative emotions. It's a way of establishing your <b>tribe. In a rapidly changing world where we often do not know who our neighbors are, it can be very isolating and very unsettling to not have a tribe.</b></span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Carrying something like a big letter "Q" on your chest or over your head is likely an attempt to feel connected with other people who believe similar things.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">One key aspect of QAnon is how it is a space for<b> white male fantasies of power, home and family, and about using violence to "protect" children, women, faith and community</b>.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);"> QAnon is also a space for fantasies about a particular type of white womanhood and femininity.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Much of QAnon behavior and beliefs are</span><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> rooted in </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">entertainment.</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">In fact, they borrowed many of their tropes from </span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">traditional folklore, like vampires and witches, and also from Hollywood movies.</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> Experimental research has shown that people are compelled to conspiracy theories because they are </span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">a lot better at eliciting strong emotions.</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> Some people seek out conspiracy theories because they offer a chance to feel fear, like a horror movie, or anger, such as in a revenge movie.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">At the same time, QAnon fills a void that was created when single-earner households where the dad goes to work and the mom stays home in her white little apron were increasingly not viable for most Americans. <b>Such an idea, that a lot of white middle-class men and women grew up with, is no longer available to them. What is left behind are feelings of disillusionment, anger, grievance.</b></span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Of course, many of these grievances are then redirected by these QAnon or right-wing narratives more broadly towards<b> immigrants who are supposedly taking the good jobs or taking money out of the economy that would have been enough to make the American dream possible for "real" Americans.</b> Channeling that anger into a hatred toward minorities or immigrants is one way to make sense of their new reality.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>QAnon is also a fantasy of action and about the ability of individuals to have agency in their own lives </b>— albeit in delusional, dangerous and unhealthy ways. For example, this deranged belief that children are being held hostage by evil forces who drink their blood is likely to encourage people to get their weapons and go save them. How do these QAnon fantasies play out on the individual level?</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">QAnon really grew in power and popularity when the George Floyd protests and Black Lives Matter protests were also becoming more prominent. For a lot of women, it was an uncomfortable political conversation that they did not feel ready to have. This idea about saving children then became a safe political alternative for white suburban women to discuss. In their minds, who wouldn't want to save the children?</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>These QAnon "save the children" ads often portray white children who are being held roughly or muzzled by dark hands. It's a man of color holding this child</b>. This is in contrast to the real Save the Children charity's posters, which overwhelmingly depict children from African and Asian countries who are smiling and laughing in the pictures. By comparison, the QAnon pictures show horrified, abused and generally unkempt kids who elicit sympathy and distress by their appearance alone.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">These QAnon "save the children" ads are just a kind of placeholder, I believe, to project their racial discomfort and political beliefs with people who feel the same way — and to do without really calling things by their actual name.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">How do you assess the Republican Party and the larger right-wing movement's use of stochastic terrorism? Are we at a tipping point where that stochastic terrorism could become direct encouragements to violence against "the enemy"?</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>I believe that we are past the tipping point</b>. Hate speech has been increasing for a number of years. I published a book in 2018 where I traced trends for hate speech online, including on Facebook and Twitter. There was a very sizable increase since before the 2016 election, with hate speech becoming more and more prevalent.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">For example, the rise of Nazism involved the use of dehumanizing language and other propaganda comparing Jewish people and others to vermin and cockroaches. Jews were depicted as being less than human, which makes it easier to call on people to exterminate them.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The language used by the Nazis might sound familiar in the present because it's also what we hear from places like OAN or Fox News about immigrants, especially in the context of COVID. As seen with the increasing number of attacks against the Asian and Asian American communities, we can see how such hate speech has an impact.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The question is now whether we will see more mass events such as the Jan. 6 insurrection, which require coordination, movement across the country, money and other resources. I am really hoping that the authorities who are tasked with preventing another such event are doing their jobs.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Donald Trump and his spokespeople and other agents have created a <b>martyrs</b> out of his follower who was killed by law enforcement in the Capitol on Jan. 6. The Trumpists and right-wing propaganda media are now referring to members of Trump's attack force as <b>"political prisoners," who are by implication innocent and heroic. </b>How do you explain to the public the importance of this narrative and the political work it is doing?</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">This is a classic move. We saw it in Nazi Germany. We also saw it in the Soviet Union. Mythologized martyrdoms manufactured sometimes literally out of nothing. In Nazi Germany before World War II, they created a fake martyr out of a man named Horst Wessel. He became a huge martyr, and it was completely fabricated.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Martyrdoms in general are a hugely potent mass radicalization weapon. <b>A martyr always inspires followers who will make self-sacrifices of their own. And it always challenges opponents to prove that their values are not morally bankrupt and that they too can pay the cost in blood to support the cause they believe in. There is always conflict</b> in the wake of a martyrdom, including a fake martyrdom.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">What Donald Trump and his spokespeople are doing is capitalizing on the potential of right-wing martyrdom. Whether or not this is going to catch on like Horst Wessel's did depends on how ready the public is to carry the banner of fake martyrdom. Because any martyrdom is always a symphony between the individual and the public, even a true martyr will not inspire followers if they are not ready to make sacrifices in the name of the cause.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A fake martyr, on the other hand, can appeal to millions, as in Nazi Germany or in Soviet Union, if they are ready to jump on the bandwagon and express their rage in the name of the martyr.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">What are you most concerned about in this crisis and going forward?</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">I am most concerned about mass radicalization and the related hatred and intolerance.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">What advice would you give President Biden and other senior leadership?</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Try not to pay attention to red herrings. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">Things like QAnon are a red herring. Try to not lose the forest for the trees. We have a massive right-wing radicalization problem in the United States where the followers are mobilized and armed and actively training. They have military or police training. They are also actively recruiting from those ranks. The resources should be going to confront that problem.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Do not discount the influence of malicious foreign actors, such as Russia and China. They are a lot more experienced with the weaponization of information</b> and concocting propaganda narratives that are going to spread like wildfire and sow discord and mobilize people. The United States needs to catch up with their capabilities in that regard, and to protect ourselves in a way that we are not doing right now.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>We need to do better with the social media giants about holding them accountable for what is taking place on their platforms. </b>That means we need to demand that they become a lot more transparent, such as by sharing how they use algorithms and who they allow to dominate the discourse. At the moment, it's a complete black box. We need to hold those huge business entities responsible. They're like a type of public square — they need to be regulated.</div></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">reality tv prez, now action hero</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/dan-crenshaw-2649490351/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/dan-crenshaw-2649490351/</a></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" /><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">no lnx hilarious video</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>ME</div><div>
</div><div>Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), a former U.S. Navy SEAL, is facing stark criticism for his recent action video skit. For many , Crenshaw's latest stunt is exactly why a substantial number of Americans do not take politicians seriously.</div><div>
</div><div>Now, United States Special Operations Command (SOCOM) Tony Thomas is slamming Crenshaw and describing his video as an "embarrassing" skit similar to a parody seen on "Saturday Night Live" or "Comedy Central."</div><div>
</div><div>[twt: <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" segoe="Segoe" ui="UI" roboto="Roboto" ubuntu="Ubuntu" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" sans-serif="sans-serif" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" break-word="break-word" min-width="min-width" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(20, 23, 26); display: inline; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.3125;"> epic saga continues, this time in Georgia. Everything is on the line. Donate to the fight at </span><span aria-hidden="true" class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-hiw28u r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" segoe="Segoe" ui="UI" roboto="Roboto" ubuntu="Ubuntu" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" sans-serif="sans-serif" list-style="list-style" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" cursor="cursor" pointer="pointer" border="border" solid="solid" black="black" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" display="display" inline="inline" padding="padding" white-space="white-space" inherit="inherit" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" break-word="break-word" min-width="min-width" font-style="font-style" font-weight="font-weight" style="color: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 0px; line-height: 1.3125;">http://</span><font color="#1b95e0" face="system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Segoe UI, Roboto, Ubuntu, Helvetica Neue, sans-serif"><span style="font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.3125; list-style: none; cursor: pointer; border-style: solid; border-color: black; border-image: initial; box-sizing: border-box; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">GeorgiaReloaded.cxm</span></font></div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" /><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>[https://twitter.com/i/status/1338184981684908033</div><div>
</div><div>spirit of 76apostrophe in wrong place pac, not affil w/ any cand or can comm; 823 378 7146</div><div>
</div><div>2 patriots grt fighters w a gt message (lots of pix w/ kelly in org vest and shotguns); rather lovely form; well, act like fascists, how does that sound, trinity matrick kneel landing; the pirate; so angry? oh the news told us to be; meet us nunnaly farm monroe ga bring everyone]</div><div>"Watched this twice now. I was sure it must be an SNL or Comedy Central skit," Thomas tweeted, "Nope, just the base(r) level our political environment slips to with each succeeding day. There is a reason 100M people opted not to vote again this year. Embarrassing."</div><div>
</div><div>From fearmongering, to the use of a British voiceover in an American political action clip, Crenshaw's action video miserably missed the mark, according to Twitter users who have chimed in.</div><div>
</div><div>One Twitter user wrote, "What is this nonsense? And who thought it was a good idea? It's like a bad trailer for a C-grade action movie accompanied by a British narrator. What does any of this have to do with an American election?"</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>Former Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) special agent Asha Rangappa also lambasted Crenshaw tweeting "There are so many bizarre things about this commercial but I want to know why you're taking instructions from a woman with a British accent to get to Georgia."</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>In Crenshaw's attempt to "save Georgia" ahead of the upcoming runoff, many Twitter users also reminded him of his own wrongdoings as they tweeted about the smear campaign he was accused of creating to discredit a female veteran who was sexually assaulted. Crenshaw has not yet responded to the backlash surrounding his action clip.</div><div>
</div><div>FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES</div><div>Rep. Dan Crenshaw gets cornered on The View for offering ... ›</div><div>Sen. Ed Markey applauded for silent dismissal of Texas Republican ... ›</div><div>Dan Crenshaw worked with Trump's VA Secretary to smear vet who ... ›</div><div>RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB</div><div>Editorial: Dan Crenshaw needs to accept Biden's win — and his role ... ›</div><div>GOP Rep. Dan Crenshaw to Marjorie Taylor Greene: 'Start acting ... ›</div><div>Rep. Dan Crenshaw accused of discrediting Navy vet's sex assault ... ›</div></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">----</font></div><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/trump-is-about-to-become-the-right-wing-smear-machines-greatest-unintended-casualty/">https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/trump-is-about-to-become-the-right-wing-smear-machines-greatest-unintended-casualty/</a></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">dixie chicks, beto and willy, mayor pete</font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/top-conservative-broadcaster-blocks-its-own-radio-stations-from-airing-pete-buttigieg-interview/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/top-conservative-broadcaster-blocks-its-own-radio-stations-from-airing-pete-buttigieg-interview/</font></a></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.2px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The third largest AM and FM broadcaster in America is blocking an interview one of its radio hosts conducted with Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg.</b> <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Cumulus Media, a conservative broadcaster that owns and operates over 400 radio stations in 87 media markets across the country, told Blair Garner, host of The Blair Garner Radio Show, he could not air any part of his interview with Buttigieg. Garner said via Twitter, “My employer decided I couldn’t air it.”</span></font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.2px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.2px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Garner hosts his show on FM country music radio stations and is nationally syndicated across more than 150 stations. Cumulus blocked any station from airing the 20-minute interview, according to HuffPost.</font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.2px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.2px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> </font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.2px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“I’ve been told that the interview cannot air,” Garner also wrote in an email sent to affiliates. “I was very proud that a presidential candidate of any party valued our show to the degree that they would ask to be a guest.”</font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“It is not, in any way shape or form, my intention for our show to become political,” he also told affiliates, adding: “Just to be clear, I would have also enthusiastically welcomed the opportunity to have any candidate, including President Trump, as a guest. It was simply that Mayor Pete showed up, and made the ask.”</font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Garner says he was allowed to post the interview to his personal Soundcloud page.</font></p><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">aha clickbait CEC plus big data plus dark $? //Bb?</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aleXANDRIA, Va. — Last week, with the midterm elections fast approaching, the conservative website Independent Journal Review was not focused on the control of the Senate or crucial statehouse races. Instead, it led its home page with a gruesome beheading on Long Island and a video of a belligerent drunk being arrested at a Dallas airport.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But sprinkled throughout the attention-grabbing fare was a steady stream of articles critical of President Obama and other Democrats. “Obama’s schedule from today shows how toxic he is to Democrats running for Senate,” read one headline. Another asked, “Did Hillary intentionally talk over a crowd singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to her?” (The sub-headline: “If elected president, she would be the second oldest in history.”)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">IJReview, a two-year-old site started by a pair of Republican operatives, has emerged as one of the most popular online destinations for conservatives. The site mixes entertaining, shareable topics like pets through a conservative-values lens (for example, a recent piece about a dog helping to heal a sick veteran) with articles about politics and policy.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“It’s like if you crossed RedState with BuzzFeed,” said Alex Castellanos, a Republican political consultant and an adviser to IJReview.</font></div></div></div></div><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1989 parenti</font></p><div id="watch-headline-title" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; display: table; table-layout: fixed; width: 824px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h1 class="watch-title-container" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; display: table-cell; vertical-align: top; width: 824px; word-wrap: break-word; background: transparent;"><span id="eow-title" class="watch-title" dir="ltr" title="Michael Parenti: Rambo and the Swarthy Hordes" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; background: transparent;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Michael Parenti: Rambo and the Swarthy Hordes</font></span></h1></div><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S33DKRcqvkQ"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S33DKRcqvkQ</font></a></p><p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==  </font></span></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/culture/history-hate-rock-johnny-rebel-dylann-roof">http://www.alternet.org/culture/history-hate-rock-johnny-rebel-dylann-roof</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump had longrunning reality show that enacts/glorifies free mkt (so did survivor, the pioneer/patriarch?)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</font></div><div><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 18px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Oscar-winning film “Zero Dark Thirty” became a prestigious awards vehicle for its co-creators, journalist-turned-screenwriter Mark Boal and director Kathryn Bigelow. It also became a source of controversy for making the cinematic suggestion that torture got the U.S. somewhere in the hunt for Osama bin Laden.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 18px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Now, as <a title="Vice News" href="https://news.vice.com/article/tequila-painted-pearls-and-prada-how-the-cia-helped-produce-zero-dark-thirty" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">VICE News</a> reported Wednesday, critics have even more reason to look askance at the 2012 big-screen production, particularly because of the uncomfortably close relationship between Boal, Bigelow and U.S. intelligence operatives:</font></p><blockquote style="margin: 1.5em; padding: 1em; border: 1px solid rgb(220, 220, 220); outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; quotes: none; line-height: 18px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The previously undisclosed detail about Boal’s phone call to the CIA was included in more than 100 pages of internal CIA documents obtained exclusively by VICE News in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit. The documents contain the most detailed information to date about the controversial role the CIA played in the production of Zero Dark Thirty (ZDT).</font></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</font></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Included in the trove of redacted agency records is a March 2014 CIA Office of Inspector General report titled “Alleged Disclosure of Classified Information by Former D/CIA” — D/CIA refers to the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Leon Panetta — and a separate September 2013 report from the inspector general’s office titled “Potential Ethics Violations Involving Film Producers.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</font></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The ethics report contains remarkable details about how Bigelow and Boal gave CIA officers gifts and bought them meals at hotels and restaurants in Los Angeles and Washington, DC — much of which initially went unreported by the CIA officers — how they won unprecedented access to secret details about the bin Laden operation, and how they got agency officers and officials to review and critique the ZDT script.</font></p></blockquote></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">reaction/satire</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><a href="http://www.alternet.org/culture/why-they-live-perfect-movie-americas-toxic-politics-and-culture"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">http://www.alternet.org/culture/why-they-live-perfect-movie-americas-toxic-politics-and-culture</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></div><div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As I discussed with author <a href="http://www.chaunceydevega.com/2015/06/a-conversation-with-author-jonathan.html" style="text-decoration: none;">Jonathan Lethem</a> several months ago, <em>They Live</em> is a genius film that embraces the culture of disreputability—it is genre entertainment, based on an obscure short story, a professional wrestler is the main character, and the heroes of the movie are an interracial group of homeless, working-class and poor people. For all its B-movie auteur sensibilities, the film is a scathing indictment of the Reagan era, the culture of cruelty and austerity, wealth inequality, plutocrats, corporate media, classism, racism, and greed.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><em>They Live</em> is also an essential film for the current socio-political moment; it has much to teach the American people as they struggle to make sense of wanton police brutality against people of color and the poor in the new Gilded Age, an era of toxic white masculinity, and perverse reactionary right-wing politics.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">How people can learn to see reality more clearly</font></em></strong></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The nature of the truth and its relationship to reality are foundational philosophical concerns from Plato’s classic allegory of the cave through to the immensely popular <em>Matrix</em> films. When Roddy Piper dons his sunglasses he sees an unsettling and terrifying world—one which he initially runs from, in shock and denial. At first, Piper believes he must be insane because the brutal reality of hegemonic power is now laid bare in front of him, with its organs of control through the media, surveillance, advertising, casino capitalism, the corporation, and the police state.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><em>They Live</em> presents one of the fundamental choices citizens must make in this time of neoliberal trouble and tumult: does one choose to live in denial or does one accept the truth?</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">An indictment of learned helplessness</font></strong></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The neoliberal order through a combination of surveillance, economic brutality, incarceration, and technologies of pleasure and distraction (for example: social media, mass entertainment, consumerism) has been able to limit the possibilities of true democratic action and reform. The American people (and many in the West) have seen true democracy undermined by organized and well-monied interest groups, the rich, and corporate power that pursue policy goals which are antithetical to the will of the people.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The American people know something is amiss and wrong, but many of them are too tired, afraid or distracted to do anything about it. Unfortunately, too many Americans are living a life oriented around survival and pleasure; a life that is neither fulfilling nor transformative.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><em>They Live</em> demonstrates how a group of marginalized people who are written out of the polity can struggle for and win a more humane and just world. These heroes made a choice to overcome learned helpless and become citizens of action.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Interracial alliances across lines of class can change the world for the better. The invention of whiteness in the 17th century is one of the primary means through which white supremacy has come to dominate global society. White supremacy as a system of maintaining unearned advantages for “white” people has historically paid significant material, psychological, political, and economic wages to its owners and other beneficiaries.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But in an age of globalization and gross wealth inequality the central lie of whiteness is further exposed: whiteness has always benefitted white elites at the expense of the material (and often long-term political) interests of the vast majority of white people. In many ways, poor and working-class white people have more in common with poor and working-class people of color than they do rich and upper-class whites. White racial resentment and the intoxicating effects of white supremacy have blinded too many white folks to that reality.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The real enemy</font></strong></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><em>They Live</em> intervenes against the possessive investment in whiteness: the plutocrats, the elites, and the "aliens” are the real enemy that human beings, in service to our shared humanity and the common good, should be fighting. <em>They Live</em> reminds us that there are human beings with no sense of linked fate, compassion or caring for other people. They are engaged in a cruel type of calculus that results in a distorted and wicked biopolitics that uses the "market” to decide human worth: this is homo economicus as sociopathy.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The human traitors in </span><em style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">They Live</em><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> are agents of neoliberal governmentality, where profits trump human dignity and value, who seek to destroy the social safety net, eliminate the “useless eaters,” believe that </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">corporations are people,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> and live an ethos of robber baron gangster capitalism. The aliens may rule the Earth, but they are only able to do so because they are helped by unethical and immoral human beings....</span></font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> ---</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1988</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></div><div><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.4px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The idea for <i>They Live</i> came from a short story called "Eight O'Clock in the Morning" by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Nelson" title="Ray Nelson" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Ray Nelson</a>, originally published in <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magazine_of_Fantasy_and_Science_Fiction" title="The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction</a></i> on November 1963, involving an alien invasion in the tradition of <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_the_Body_Snatchers" title="Invasion of the Body Snatchers" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Invasion of the Body Snatchers</a></i>, which Nelson, along with artist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Wray" title="Bill Wray" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Bill Wray</a>, adapted into a story called "Nada" published in the <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_Encounters" title="Alien Encounters" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Alien Encounters</a></i> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic_book_anthology" title="Comic book anthology" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">comic book anthology</a> (cover date: April 1986).<sup id="cite_ref-Swires.2C_Steve_1-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: embed;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Live#cite_note-Swires.2C_Steve-1" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[1]</a></sup> John Carpenter describes Nelson's story as "...a<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D.O.A.(1950_film)" title="D.O.A. (1950 film)" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">D.O.A.</a></i> type of story, in which a man is put in a trance by a stage <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnotism" title="Hypnotism" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">hypnotist</a>. When he awakens, he realizes that the entire human race has been hypnotized, and that alien creatures are controlling humanity. He has only until eight o'clock in the morning to solve the problem."<sup id="cite_ref-Swires.2C_Steve_1-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: embed;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Live#cite_note-Swires.2C_Steve-1" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[1]</a></sup>Carpenter acquired the film rights to both the comic book and short story and wrote the screenplay using Nelson's story as a basis for the film's structure.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.4px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The more political elements of the film are derived from Carpenter's growing distaste with the ever-increasing commercialization of 1980s popular culture and politics. He remarked, "I began watching TV again. I quickly realized that everything we see is designed to sell us something... It's all about wanting us to buy something. The only thing they want to do is take our money." To this end, Carpenter thought of sunglasses as being the tool to seeing the truth, which "is seen in black and white. It's as if the aliens have colorized us. That means, of course, that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Turner" title="Ted Turner" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Ted Turner</a> is really a monster from outer space." (Turner had received some bad press in the 1980s for<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_colorization" title="Film colorization" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">colorizing classic black-and-white movies</a>.) The director commented on the alien threat in an interview, "They want to own all our businesses. A <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Studios" title="Universal Studios" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Universal</a> executive asked me, 'Where's the threat in that? We all sell out every day.' I ended up using that line in the film." The aliens were deliberately made to look like ghouls according to Carpenter, who said: "The creatures are corrupting us, so they, themselves, are corruptions of human beings."<sup id="cite_ref-Swires.2C_Steve_1-2" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: embed;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Live#cite_note-Swires.2C_Steve-1" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[1]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.4px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Because the screenplay was the product of so many sources: a short story, a comic book, and input from cast and crew, Carpenter decided to use the pseudonym "Frank Armitage", an allusion to one of the filmmaker's favorite writers, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.P.Lovecraft" title="H. P. Lovecraft" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">H. P. Lovecraft</a> (Henry Armitage is a character in Lovecraft's <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dunwich_Horror" title="The Dunwich Horror" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">The Dunwich Horror</a></i>).<sup id="cite_ref-Swires.2C_Steve_1-3" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: embed;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Live#cite_note-Swires.2C_Steve-1" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[1]</a></sup> Carpenter has always felt a close kinship with Lovecraft's worldview and according to the director, "Lovecraft wrote about the hidden world, the 'world underneath'. His stories were about gods who are repressed, who were once on Earth and are now coming back. The world underneath has a great deal to do with <i>They Live</i>."<sup id="cite_ref-Swires.2C_Steve_1-4" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: embed;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Live#cite_note-Swires.2C_Steve-1" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[1]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.4px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="line-height: 22.4px;">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Live</span></font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Watching Kelly reminded me of what I learned while researching my book — that Fox News, particularly during prime time, really isn’t in the news business.  It’s in theentertainment business.</span>  To a certain degree, this is true of most all television news.  But in FNC’s case, there is a difference.  Fox News’ core audience is more than just a particular slice of the larger consumer marketplace.  It’s a group of people with firm convictions and a coherent ideological worldview — not unlike orthodox Marxists back in the early 1900s. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> And part of what Fox does is make this worldview seem even more coherent — and impervious to information that might undermine or contradict it.  That’s actually what its viewers want, and, from the start, Ailes and FNC have eagerly given it to them.</span></font></div></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.alternet.org/i-watched-foxs-megyn-kelly-so-you-dont-have-how-i-learned-uncode-fox-news-propaganda-machine</font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">fang machine:</font></div><div><span id="docs-internal-guid-fe3e58d9-27f8-ff4a-2308-fd565f689655"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">C ent complex:</span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> pol and poker; running reality tv of cands; right to laugh; jackpot justice (class action)tory; stakelbeck on terror ~ muslim 180-1.</span></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ed snider ceo comcast ~ dems on gulf war 2</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">fox, ailes, rush; cato forum nra fam res cncl; ailes Am talking --> msnbc 1996; fox news boost when favored by b2 admin 186</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">movies: </span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mot Pict Inst (Fdn for indiv rights in educ staffers 2005) rob Pfaltzgraff 187) the Cartel --> wait for superman, vonnegut bergson; eliz koch on mpi bd; pac res, CEI w/ MPI, also Horowitz/ The D Film Inst blames BC for 911 (aborts mission to get Osama, aired by ABC as docudrama 188-9, busted , so tfi lower profile; horo also matchmaker of rw to stars eg Braveheart producer Steve McEveety, </span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">// Movieguide Ted Baehr xian (templeton fdn funds awards) converted jewish produces 189</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">MGM remake Red Dawn ~chinese; kalifornistan jason apuzzo praised by malkin, boosted 24 creators surnow and manny coto 191 ; pal of rush into to ailes led to Daily show mirror 191; the n The Kennedy's for History channel: doz sex scene but not cuban crisis (waves of sec serv msg to have sex in pool) 191</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ex GS now media bak) Stephen Bannon Libertas films 9 free office sp to Breitbart) 191 w/ Phil A on Narnia; fire from heartland gop women bachmann coulter and TP loesch</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">CU Bossie: hype: the Obama effect; buch with newt: john paul II; </span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">rightnetwork via Verizon cabe</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">rupert pays 11$ per viewer on local cable, opposite of biz model</span></p>
<span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">bannon/phil: The Hope and the change (~ bo) 2016 Obama's Am  194-5</span></span></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">--</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">2x C ent complx: pol and poker; running reality tv of cands; right to laugh; jackpot justice (class action)tory; stakelbeck on terror ~ muslim 180-1.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">ed snider ceo comcast ~ dems on gulf war 2</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">fox, ailes, rush; cato forum nra fam res cncl; ailes Am talking --> msnbc 1996; fox news boost when favored by b2 admin 186</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">movies: Mot Pict Inst (Fdn for indiv rights in educ staffers 2005) rob Pfaltzgraff 187) the Cartel --> wait for superman, vonnegut bergson; eliz koch on mpi bd; pac res, CEI w/ MPI, also Horowitz/ The DFilm Inst blames BC for 911 (aborts mission to get Osama, aired by ABC as docudrama 188-9, busted , so tfi lower profile; horo also matchmaker of rw to stars eg Braceheart producer Steve McEveety, </font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">// Movieguide Ted Baehr xian (templeton fdn funds awards) converted jewish produces 189</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">MGM remake Red Dawn ~chineese; kalifornistan jason apuzzo paised by malkin, boosted 24 creators surnow and manny coto 191 ; pal of rush into to ailes led to Daily show mirror 191; the n The Kennedy's for History channel: doz sex scene but not cuban crisis (waves of sec serv msg to have sex in pool) 191</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">ex GS now media bank) Stephen Bannon Libertas films ( free office sp to Breitbart) 191 w/ Phil A on Narnia; fire from heartland gop women bachmanm couklter and TP loesch</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">CU Bossie: hype: the Obama effect; bunch with newt: john paul II; </font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">rightnetwork via Verizon cab</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">rupert pays 11$ per viewer on local cable, oppisite of biz model</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">bannon/phil: The Hope and the chagwe (~ bo) 2016 Obama's Am  194-5</font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">see Ailes, beck, rush, faux, drudge starts as gossip rag; </font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">rohrbacher wrote screenplay</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><p style="margin: 0.75em 0px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Following up on <a href="http://www.boingboing.net/2005/09/24/hollywood_producer_b.html" style="text-decoration: none;">yesterday's post about Joseph Medawar</a> , the Hollywood <s>scam artist</s>producer arrested for allegedly swindling over $5.5 million from churches and little old ladies for a Department of Homeland Security TV show said to be backed by the Bush administration --</font></p><p style="margin: 0.75em 0px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"> <a href="http://www.dhstheseries.tv/" style="text-decoration: none;">Here</a>'s the website for <em>DHS: The Series</em>. Flash with obnoxious sound.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.75em 0px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">* Here's the trailer: <a href="http://www.dhstheseries.tv/downloads/dhs_high.mov" style="text-decoration: none;">Link</a>, and <a href="http://www.boingboing.net/images/dhs/dhs_high.mov" style="text-decoration: none;">mirror link</a> (12.8 MB QuickTime), full of stolen or stock but undeniably schlock footage. A synopsis:</font></p><blockquote style="border-left-width: 5px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); margin: 1em 2em 2em 1em; padding: 0px 20px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">- VO: Bush's declaration on the morning of Sept. 12, 2001. "The deliberate and deadly attacks which were carried out yesterday against our country were more than acts of terror. They were acts of war." 
- Innocent American children frolic carelessly through ominous blue daisy fields.
- Dirka-dirka terrorists!
- Agents with furrowed brows peer into cellphones
- Dirka-dirka terrorists!
- DHS helicopters zoom, DHS SUVs vroom, DHS guns boom <br clear="all" /></font><p style="margin: 0.75em 0px;" /></blockquote><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">* Medawar's business partner, actor/co-producer </span><a href="http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:XbdK1cRK9DwJ:www.metinbereketli.com/pages/DHS%2520Poster%2520-%2520Alison%2520Heruth.html+Alison+Heruth-Waterbury&hl=en&client=firefox-a" style="text-decoration: none; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Alison Heruth-Waterbury</a><span style="line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> appears in the trailer. She has not yet been charged in the case, but her acting is a crime.</span></font><p style="margin: 0.75em 0px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">* Nextel and a local Ford dealership <a href="http://www.dhstheseries.tv/" style="text-decoration: none;">are listed</a> as sponsors. That explains all the freedom-fighting-gadget placements in the aforementioned trailer, but not the Chevy Suburbans.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.75em 0px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"> <a href="http://www.dhstheseries.tv/products.htm" style="text-decoration: none;">Here</a>'s the merch (<a href="http://boingboing.net/images/dhs/DHS-products.htm" style="text-decoration: none;">Link</a> to mirror). Surely the shoddy photoshoppery evidenced on the <em>DHS-The-Series</em>-branded "Aluminum Coffee Mug, "Class Coasters," and "Elegant Pen" raised an alert somewhere? Nobody honest uses bevel + emboss + drop shadow anymore. Also, try lugging Non-lethal Laser Pointer #11 through airport security. <br clear="all" /></font></p><p style="margin: 0.75em 0px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"> You can learn a lot about people by reading their source code. Behold, the opened kimono of <a href="http://www.dhstheseries.tv/" style="text-decoration: none;">www.dhstheseries.tv</a>:</font></p><blockquote style="border-left-width: 5px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); margin: 1em 2em 2em 1em; padding: 0px 20px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">meta name="keywords" content="dhs, department of homeland security, action, spy, terrorist, group, guns, secret, weapon, attack, threat, threat colors, orange, blue, red, yellow, green, screen, drone, army, east, Iraq, producer, Joe medowar, steven blinn, stefan beese, mathew crouch, michel shane, chris bialek, metin berekli, police, cars! , fighter jet, machine gun, gashed, swat, prayer, Showtime, network, broadcast, harbor, TV, TV series, pilot, terror, agency, Cannes, mipcom, helicopter, chase, seal, president, terrorism, security, thriller, international, usa, Alison heruth waterbury, timothy patrick cavanaough, monitor, advisory system, explosion"</font></blockquote><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">* Yesterday's </span><em style="line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">LA Times</em><span style="line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> story on </span><em style="line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">DHS: The Scandal</em><span style="line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> called Medawar and co's claims that</span><em style="line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">DHS: The Series</em><span style="line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> was backed by high-ranking Bush administration staff "false." Funny, that's not what the press said six months ago. The "News" section on</span><a href="http://www.dhstheseries.tv/" style="text-decoration: none; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">www.dhstheseries.tv</a><span style="line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> points to earlier press clips which present the administration support claims as fact.</span></font><blockquote style="border-left-width: 5px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); margin: 1em 2em 2em 1em; padding: 0px 20px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">- <em>E! Online News</em>: <a href="http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,13584,00.html?tnews" style="text-decoration: none;">Bush Backs New Terrorism TV Series</a> by Jeffrey Jolson-Colburn, Feb 26, 2004. 
- <em>US News and World Report</em>: "Team Bush Lends a hand to a brand-new TV show." <a href="http://www.boingboing.net/images/usnews-dhs.gif" style="text-decoration: none;">Link</a>. 
- <em>Boston Globe</em>: <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2004/02/28/homeland_security_meets_home_theater/" style="text-decoration: none;">Homeland Security Meets Home Theater</a>. "The [E! Online report] raised eyebrows because the Bush-Cheney campaign intends to make the president's 'war on terrorism' a central prong in his reelection strategy. Pushing a pseudoreality show on that subject as the campaign enters its final stretch would be unprecedented." Feb. 28, 2004. 
- <em>WaPo</em>: "<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A11841-2004Feb27?language=printer" style="text-decoration: none;">War President 'Loves' New TV Show</a>." 
</font></blockquote><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Fact-checking, anyone? And finally, dhstheseries.tv features what appears to be a faked </span><em style="line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Hollywood Reporter</em><span style="line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> cover from Feb. 2004: </span><a href="http://www.boingboing.net/images/hollywood_reporter.jpg" style="text-decoration: none; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Link</a><span style="line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. The date shown is a Sunday. THR doesn't run on Sundays. Could also be a purchased ad thing; THR sells "cover layouts" to sponsors.</span></font><p style="margin: 0.75em 0px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">* Since Mr. Medawar and Steeple Entertainment are now under fed investigation,<a href="http://www.dhstheseries.tv/" style="text-decoration: none;">www.dhstheseries.tv</a> may be yanked. If so, no worries: mirrors exist. (<em>Thanks, <a href="http://boingboing.net/2005/09/25/dhs-the-series-the-s.html" style="text-decoration: none;">PJ</a>,<a href="http://www.warrenellis.com/" style="text-decoration: none;">Warren Ellis</a>, and <a href="http://www.colinberry.net/" style="text-decoration: none;">Colin Berry</a></em>)</font></p><p style="margin: 0.75em 0px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Previously on Boing Boing:</font></p><p style="margin: 0.75em 0px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.boingboing.net/2005/09/24/hollywood_producer_b.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="4">Hollywood producer bilked $5.5m for TV show claimed "backed by Bush"</font></a></p><p style="margin: 0.75em 0px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">UPDATE: My friend and ex-colleague Ben Fritz covered this for <em>Variety</em>, and unearths reports that Medawar pitched "DHS" to investors as "promoting Christian values."</font></p><p style="margin: 0.75em 0px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Here is a reg-free <a href="http://www.variety.com/VR1117929648.html" style="text-decoration: none;">Link</a> for "Producer arrested over fake show: 'DHS' creator meets FBI, IRS." Ben adds,</font></p><blockquote style="border-left-width: 5px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); margin: 1em 2em 2em 1em; padding: 0px 20px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">"I think the <em>Washington Post </em>article is extremely skeptical. But as I noted in my <em>Variety </em>piece, there's another media outlet that did get totally suckered: NPR's On The Media (ironically). Here's a link to the transcript:<a href="http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/transcripts_030504_dh.html" style="text-decoration: none;">Link</a>."</font></blockquote><span style="line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Snip from that "On The Media" transcript:</font></span><blockquote style="border-left-width: 5px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); margin: 1em 2em 2em 1em; padding: 0px 20px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">BROOKE GLADSTONE: To what extent is the White House and the Department of Homeland Security involved in the program?</font><p style="margin: 0px 0px 0.75em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">JOSEPH MEDAWAR: We try to give on a every two week basis a complete package of what we're filming and what the story's about to the proper authorities that we are working with here in California at the governor's office, and they pass it on. And it continues to the right channels, and the person with us is Congressman Rohrbacher from our district.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.75em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">ALISON HERUTH-WATERBURY: Rohrbacher is the one who has had contact with, a complete conversation with the president, and we know that he knows about it; we, we told him ourselves personally.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.75em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">BROOKE GLADSTONE: The president.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.75em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">ALISON HERUTH-WATERBURY: Yeah, we met with him for a photo op- and we briefly ran it by him with the little time that we had.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.75em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">JOSEPH MEDAWAR:Before we saw the president, we had a very nice conversation with Karl Rove on where we are and how far we're going with it. When Mr. Tom Ridge came to Los Angeles to inspire the entertainment division of doing shows about the department, the head of our production had met with him; there was tremendous amount of enthusiasm and excitement, and I, I -- if I may add something, it was very funny. Our head of production turned to Mr. Ridge and said "Who would you like to see play your part? And Mr. Ridge kind of giggled, and he says 'Hold off two years. Maybe I'll come back and play it myself.'"</font></p><p style="margin: 0.75em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">BROOKE GLADSTONE:So Tom Ridge himself went to Los Angeles to try and get the entertainment industry interested in producing programs that would bring the message of homeland security and the war on terror to the people.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.75em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">JOSEPH MEDAWAR: Well, absolutely. They're assembling an office in Los Angeles for producers, writers, directors to be able to contact for authenticity and information -- to help filmmakers deliver a right message.</font></p></blockquote></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">boing</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" /><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Hollywood producer has been charged after allegedly taking $5.5m (£3.3m) from investors for a TV drama he said was backed by US President George Bush.</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>The US attorney’s office alleges Joseph Medawar, 43, collected money from investors for two years but spent the majority of it on himself. It said Mr Medawar had falsely claimed the White House had endorsed the proposed series, called DHS.</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">More than 70 investors, including churches, had invested money in the series on the basis that DHS - Department of Homeland Security - had been personally approved by Mr Bush…</span></div><div>
</div><div>Link, and here is the Los Angeles Times' take:</div><div>
</div><div><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20121118192908/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/4278458.stm" style="text-decoration: none; line-height: 22.4px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Link</a><span style="line-height: 22.4px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, and </span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20121118192908/http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-hollywood24sep24,0,5705197.story?coll=la-home-local" style="text-decoration: none; line-height: 22.4px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">here is</a><span style="line-height: 22.4px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> the </span><em style="line-height: 22.4px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Los Angeles Times</em><span style="line-height: 22.4px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">' take:</span></div><div><span style="line-height: 22.4px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Saying his drama had the blessing of President Bush and others in Washington, D.C.</span>, Joseph M. Medawar quickly found plenty of backers for the show – one that he promised would be followed by a reality-based series titled "Fighting Terrorism Together."</div><div>
</div><div>But on Friday, in an ending that might have been foretold by anyone with a healthy skepticism of the Hollywood pitch, Medawar was arrested by FBI and IRS agents on charges that he bilked at least 70 investors – many of them from local churches – out of more than<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> $5.5 million. </span>Virtually all of the money, according to authorities, went to a lavish lifestyle that included luxury cars, shopping sprees, fancy dinners and $40,000-a-month in rent for a Beverly Hills mansion.</div><div>
</div><div>(...) The plans, he said, called for shooting 26 episodes and distributing it in 137 overseas markets. Assured that government involvement would make the show a hit, investors were urged to buy stock in Medawar's production company before he took it public.</div><div>
</div><div>Mr. Medawar is listed on this website as a producer and co-chairman of Steeple Entertainment. His co-chairman has also been charged. (via Warren Ellis)</div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><div id="siteSub" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</font></div><div id="contentSub" style="line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em 1em; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div id="jump-to-nav" class="mw-jump" style="overflow: hidden; height: 0px; zoom: 1; user-select: none; margin-top: -1.4em; margin-bottom: 1.4em; line-height: 22.4px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#mw-head" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;" /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#p-search" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;" /></font></div><div id="mw-content-text" lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr" style="direction: ltr; line-height: 22.4px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#p-search" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" /></a><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#p-search" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font face="Times New Roman" /></a><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#p-search" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><b>Joseph Michel Medawar</b> (in </a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_language" title="Arabic language" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Arabic</a> جوزف مدوّر, born November 22, 1961 in Beirut, Lebanon) is a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanon" title="Lebanon" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Lebanese</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States" title="United States" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">American</a> financial strategist and investment-banking counselor specializing in Media, Entertainment and related industries,<sup id="cite_ref-bloomberg.com_1-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#cite_note-bloomberg.com-1" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[1]</a></sup> and a film producer.</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;" /><div id="toc" class="toc" style="border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 7px; display: table; zoom: 1; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);"><div id="toctitle" style="direction: ltr; text-align: center;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></font></font><h2 style="margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border: none; display: inline; line-height: 1.3; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Contents</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></h2> <span class="toctoggle" style="-webkit-user-select: none;"> [<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#" id="togglelink" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">hide</a>] </span></div><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0.3em 0px; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#Early_life" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber">1</span> <span class="toctext">Early life</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#Business_Development" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber">2</span> <span class="toctext">Business Development</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#Real_Estate" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber">3</span> <span class="toctext">Real Estate</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#Motion_Picture.2FEntertainment_Career" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber">4</span> <span class="toctext">Motion Picture/Entertainment Career</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-5" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#Legal_problems" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber">5</span> <span class="toctext">Legal problems</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-6" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#Filmography" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber">6</span> <span class="toctext">Filmography</span></font></a><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-7" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#Production" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber">6.1</span> <span class="toctext">Production</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-8" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#Acting" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber">6.2</span> <span class="toctext">Acting</span></font></a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-9" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#References" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber">7</span> <span class="toctext">References</span></font></a></li></ul></div><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;" /><h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); line-height: 1.3; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Early_life">Early life</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select: none; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px;">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joseph_Medawar&action=edit&section=1&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Early life" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">]</span></span></font></h2><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Joseph Medawar was born in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beirut" title="Beirut" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Beirut</a>, Lebanon, into a Christian family. He immigrated to the United States in 1975 fleeing the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanese_Civil_War" title="Lebanese Civil War" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">war in Lebanon</a> and settled with his family in Palos Verdes, California.</font></p><h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); line-height: 1.3; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Business_Development">Business Development</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select: none; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px;">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joseph_Medawar&action=edit&section=2&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Business Development" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">]</span></span></font></h2><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Over the past 25 years, Medawar has been responsible for over $500 million in financial transactions. This consisted of acquisitions, mergers, newco's, co-production and production financing, theme parks and events, new film processes as well as biotech and medical industry financing and funding.<sup id="cite_ref-bloomberg.com_1-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#cite_note-bloomberg.com-1" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[1]</a></sup></font></p><h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); line-height: 1.3; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Real_Estate">Real Estate</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select: none; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px;">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joseph_Medawar&action=edit&section=3&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Real Estate" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">]</span></span></font></h2><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Mr. Medawar was also Co-chair for ADG in Los Angeles. ADG is responsible for one of the most exclusive residential development projects in the world, Beverly Park. Mr. Medawar also led the financial and investment initiatives for the new Travertine, LaQuinta Development for ADG near Palm Springs.<sup id="cite_ref-bloomberg.com_1-2" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#cite_note-bloomberg.com-1" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[1]</a></sup></font></p><h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); line-height: 1.3; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Motion_Picture.2FEntertainment_Career">Motion Picture/Entertainment Career</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select: none; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px;">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joseph_Medawar&action=edit&section=4&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Motion Picture/Entertainment Career" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">]</span></span></font></h2><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Medawar launched his motion picture career producing the feature film <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vendetta(1986_film)" title="Vendetta (1986 film)" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Vendetta</a></i> (1986) for Concord Entertainment. The same year, Medawar launched First American Film Capital, an independent film production company based in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culver_City,California" title="Culver City, California" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Culver City, California</a>, which produced <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardbodies_2" title="Hardbodies 2" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Hardbodies 2</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Smart" title="Pretty Smart" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Pretty Smart</a> and</i> <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slaughterhouse_Rock" title="Slaughterhouse Rock" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Slaughterhouse Rock</a></i>.<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#cite_note-2" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[2]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#cite_note-3" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[3]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In 1989 Medawar formed the film development and production company ION Pictures. ION Pictures distributed the documentary <i>Champions Forever</i> and <i>The Closer</i> and produced <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleepwalkers(film)" title="Sleepwalkers (film)" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Sleepwalkers</a></i> (1992).<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#cite_note-4" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[4]</a></sup></font></p><h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); line-height: 1.3; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Legal_problems">Legal problems</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select: none; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px;">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joseph_Medawar&action=edit&section=5&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Legal problems" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">]</span></span></font></h2><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Medawar was arrested on September 23, 2005 by Special Agents of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Bureau_of_Investigation" title="Federal Bureau of Investigation" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Federal Bureau of Investigation</a> (FBI) and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_Revenue_Service" title="Internal Revenue Service" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Internal Revenue Service</a> (IRS) on charges arising from an investment scheme in which he claimed to investors that his company, Steeple Entertainment, was producing a television series based on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_of_Homeland_Security" title="Department of Homeland Security" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Department of Homeland Security</a>. Complaints had been filed in U.S. District Court in the Central District of California, that Medawar told investors that his show, entitled <i>DHS</i> had the endorsement of President George W. Bush and the real Department of Homeland Security, and that he had contracts to distribute the show in 137 overseas markets. Medawar also told investors that Steeple Entertainment would go public in the near future at a per share price significantly higher than that being paid by investors. The complaints alleged that only a tiny fraction of investor funds were spent by Medawar on anything related to the film production of <i>DHS</i>. In addition, Medawar did not have the endorsement of President Bush or the real Department of Homeland Security. On the contrary, according to the official justice.gov website, Medawar had been told specifically by the actual Department of Homeland Security that he did not have permission to use their name or official seal; had no contracts with overseas markets; and was never in a position to go public.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The vast majority of investor funds raised, reportedly several million dollars from tens of investors, were allegedly diverted to other ventures of Medawar.<sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#cite_note-5" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[5]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#cite_note-6" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[6]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#cite_note-7" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[7]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-8" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#cite_note-8" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[8]</a></sup> Alison Ann Heruth-Waterbury, who claimed to be the lead in the television series pleaded guilty to charges of concealing an investment scam related to the show.<sup id="cite_ref-9" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#cite_note-9" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[9]</a></sup> In May 2006, Medawar pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and income tax evasion for the fake reality TV project.<sup id="cite_ref-10" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#cite_note-10" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[10]</a></sup> He was found guilty and sentenced to a year and a day in prison and ordered to pay $2.6 million in restitution to the defrauded investors and to perform 3,000 hours of community service. The jail sentence was later reduced to probation. In 2011, a judge reinstated a sentence of 45-months imprisonment for alleged violations on his probation.<sup id="cite_ref-:0_11-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#cite_note-:0-11" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[11]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In season 2 of its documentary series <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Greed" title="American Greed" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">American Greed</a></i>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CNBC" title="CNBC" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">CNBC</a> broadcast in March 2008 an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_Greed_episodes#Season_2.282008.29" title="List of American Greed episodes" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">episode</a> consecrated to the affair.<sup id="cite_ref-12" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#cite_note-12" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[12]</a></sup> under the title "Inside The WorldCom Scam / DHS: Department of Hollywood Scams".<sup id="cite_ref-13" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#cite_note-13" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[13]</a></sup></font></p><h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); line-height: 1.3; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Filmography">Filmography</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select: none; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px;">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joseph_Medawar&action=edit&section=6&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Filmography" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">]</span></span></font></h2><h3 style="margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom-style: none; line-height: 1.6; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Production">Production</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px;">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joseph_Medawar&action=edit&section=7&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Production" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">]</span></span></font></h3><ul style="margin: 0.3em 0px 0px 1.6em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: url(data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%3F%3E%0A%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20version%3D%221.1%22%20width%3D%225%22%20height%3D%2213%22%3E%0A%3Ccircle%20cx%3D%222.5%22%20cy%3D%229.5%22%20r%3D%222.5%22%20fill%3D%22%2300528c%22%2F%3E%0A%3C%2Fsvg%3E%0A);"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1986: <i>Vendetta</i> (executive producer)</font></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1986: <i>Hardbodies 2</i> (assistant producer)</font></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1987: <i>Pretty Smart</i> (executive producer)</font></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1988: <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slaughterhouse_Rock" title="Slaughterhouse Rock" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Slaughterhouse Rock</a></i> (executive producer)</font></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1989: <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Champions_Forever&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Champions Forever (page does not exist)" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Champions Forever</a> (documentary) (producer)</i></font></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1990: <i>The Closer</i> (producer)</font></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1992: <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleepwalkers(film)" title="Sleepwalkers (film)" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Sleepwalkers</a> (executive producer)</i></font></li></ul><h3 style="margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom-style: none; line-height: 1.6; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Acting">Acting</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px;">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joseph_Medawar&action=edit&section=8&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Acting" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">]</span></span></font></h3><ul style="margin: 0.3em 0px 0px 1.6em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: url(data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%3F%3E%0A%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20version%3D%221.1%22%20width%3D%225%22%20height%3D%2213%22%3E%0A%3Ccircle%20cx%3D%222.5%22%20cy%3D%229.5%22%20r%3D%222.5%22%20fill%3D%22%2300528c%22%2F%3E%0A%3C%2Fsvg%3E%0A);"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1987: <i>Pretty Smart</i> as The Lebanese</font></li></ul><h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); line-height: 1.3; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="References">References</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select: none; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px;">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joseph_Medawar&action=edit&section=9&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: References" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">]</span></span></font></h2><div class="reflist" style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; list-style-type: decimal;"><ol class="references" style="margin: 0.3em 0px 0.5em 3.2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none; list-style-type: inherit;"><li id="cite_note-bloomberg.com-1" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="mw-cite-backlink" style="-webkit-user-select: none;">^ <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#cite_ref-bloomberg.com_1-0" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><span class="cite-accessibility-label" style="top: -99999px; clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px); overflow: hidden; position: absolute !important; padding: 0px !important; border: 0px !important; height: 1px !important; width: 1px !important; -webkit-user-select: none;">Jump up to:</span><sup style="line-height: 1;"><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#cite_ref-bloomberg.com_1-1" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><sup style="line-height: 1;"><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#cite_ref-bloomberg.com_1-2" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><sup style="line-height: 1;"><i><b>c</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=20504286&privcapId=3169486&previousCapId=3169486&previousTitle=QUADTECH%2520INTERNATIONAL%2520INC" style="text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) 100% 50% no-repeat, url(" data:image="data:image" svg="svg" xml="xml" c="C" fxml="Fxml" version="version" d="D" encoding="encoding" utf-8="UTF-8" f="F" e="E" csvg="Csvg" http="http" a="A" fwww.w3.org="Fwww.w3.org" f2000="F2000" fsvg="Fsvg" width="width" height="height" cg="Cg" transform="transform" translate="translate" crect="Crect" x="x" y="y" fill="fill" fff="fff" stroke="stroke" cpath="Cpath" m831.194="M831.194" h5.234v5.391l-1.571="h5.234v5.391l-1.571" z="z" m835.424="M835.424" l.022="l.022" fg="Fg" xmlns="xmlns" xmlns:data="data">[1]</a></span></font></li><li id="cite_note-2" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-cite-backlink" style="-webkit-user-select: none;"><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#cite_ref-2" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><span class="cite-accessibility-label" style="top: -99999px; clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px); overflow: hidden; position: absolute !important; padding: 0px !important; border: 0px !important; height: 1px !important; width: 1px !important; -webkit-user-select: none;">Jump up</span>^{</a></b></span> }<span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt009117/" style="text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) 100% 50% no-repeat, url(" data:image="data:image" svg="svg" xml="xml" c="C" fxml="Fxml" version="version" d="D" encoding="encoding" utf-8="UTF-8" f="F" e="E" csvg="Csvg" http="http" a="A" fwww.w3.org="Fwww.w3.org" f2000="F2000" fsvg="Fsvg" width="width" height="height" cg="Cg" transform="transform" translate="translate" crect="Crect" x="x" y="y" fill="fill" fff="fff" stroke="stroke" cpath="Cpath" m831.194="M831.194" h5.234v5.391l-1.571="h5.234v5.391l-1.571" z="z" m835.424="M835.424" l.022="l.022" fg="Fg" xmlns="xmlns" xmlns:data="data">IMDb.com: <i>Hardbodies II</i> page</a></span></font></li><li id="cite_note-3" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-cite-backlink" style="-webkit-user-select: none;"><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#cite_ref-3" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><span class="cite-accessibility-label" style="top: -99999px; clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px); overflow: hidden; position: absolute !important; padding: 0px !important; border: 0px !important; height: 1px !important; width: 1px !important; -webkit-user-select: none;">Jump up</span>^{</a></b></span> }<span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096117/" style="text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) 100% 50% no-repeat, url(" data:image="data:image" svg="svg" xml="xml" c="C" fxml="Fxml" version="version" d="D" encoding="encoding" utf-8="UTF-8" f="F" e="E" csvg="Csvg" http="http" a="A" fwww.w3.org="Fwww.w3.org" f2000="F2000" fsvg="Fsvg" width="width" height="height" cg="Cg" transform="transform" translate="translate" crect="Crect" x="x" y="y" fill="fill" fff="fff" stroke="stroke" cpath="Cpath" m831.194="M831.194" h5.234v5.391l-1.571="h5.234v5.391l-1.571" z="z" m835.424="M835.424" l.022="l.022" fg="Fg" xmlns="xmlns" xmlns:data="data">IMDb.com: <i>Slaughterhouse Rock</i> page</a></span></font></li><li id="cite_note-4" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-cite-backlink" style="-webkit-user-select: none;"><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#cite_ref-4" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><span class="cite-accessibility-label" style="top: -99999px; clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px); overflow: hidden; position: absolute !important; padding: 0px !important; border: 0px !important; height: 1px !important; width: 1px !important; -webkit-user-select: none;">Jump up</span>^{</a></b></span> }<span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.imdb.com/company/co0217434/?ref=ttco_co_1" style="text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) 100% 50% no-repeat, url(" data:image="data:image" svg="svg" xml="xml" c="C" fxml="Fxml" version="version" d="D" encoding="encoding" utf-8="UTF-8" f="F" e="E" csvg="Csvg" http="http" a="A" fwww.w3.org="Fwww.w3.org" f2000="F2000" fsvg="Fsvg" width="width" height="height" cg="Cg" transform="transform" translate="translate" crect="Crect" x="x" y="y" fill="fill" fff="fff" stroke="stroke" cpath="Cpath" m831.194="M831.194" h5.234v5.391l-1.571="h5.234v5.391l-1.571" z="z" m835.424="M835.424" l.022="l.022" fg="Fg" xmlns="xmlns" xmlns:data="data">http://www.imdb.com/company/co0217434/?ref_=ttco_co_1</a> Ion Pictures</span></font></li><li id="cite_note-5" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-cite-backlink" style="-webkit-user-select: none;"><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#cite_ref-5" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><span class="cite-accessibility-label" style="top: -99999px; clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px); overflow: hidden; position: absolute !important; padding: 0px !important; border: 0px !important; height: 1px !important; width: 1px !important; -webkit-user-select: none;">Jump up</span>^{</a></b></span> }<span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.justice.gov/usao/cac/Pressroom/pr2005/Medawar.html" style="text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) 100% 50% no-repeat, url(" data:image="data:image" svg="svg" xml="xml" c="C" fxml="Fxml" version="version" d="D" encoding="encoding" utf-8="UTF-8" f="F" e="E" csvg="Csvg" http="http" a="A" fwww.w3.org="Fwww.w3.org" f2000="F2000" fsvg="Fsvg" width="width" height="height" cg="Cg" transform="transform" translate="translate" crect="Crect" x="x" y="y" fill="fill" fff="fff" stroke="stroke" cpath="Cpath" m831.194="M831.194" h5.234v5.391l-1.571="h5.234v5.391l-1.571" z="z" m835.424="M835.424" l.022="l.022" fg="Fg" xmlns="xmlns" xmlns:data="data">Justice.gov: Hollywood producer arrested in investment scam relating to phony television series about the Department of Homeland Security (September 23, 2005)</a></span></font></li><li id="cite_note-6" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-cite-backlink" style="-webkit-user-select: none;"><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#cite_ref-6" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><span class="cite-accessibility-label" style="top: -99999px; clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px); overflow: hidden; position: absolute !important; padding: 0px !important; border: 0px !important; height: 1px !important; width: 1px !important; -webkit-user-select: none;">Jump up</span>^{</a></b></span> }<span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://variety.com/2005/scene/news/producer-pinched-over-faux-show-1117929648/" style="text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) 100% 50% no-repeat, url(" data:image="data:image" svg="svg" xml="xml" c="C" fxml="Fxml" version="version" d="D" encoding="encoding" utf-8="UTF-8" f="F" e="E" csvg="Csvg" http="http" a="A" fwww.w3.org="Fwww.w3.org" f2000="F2000" fsvg="Fsvg" width="width" height="height" cg="Cg" transform="transform" translate="translate" crect="Crect" x="x" y="y" fill="fill" fff="fff" stroke="stroke" cpath="Cpath" m831.194="M831.194" h5.234v5.391l-1.571="h5.234v5.391l-1.571" z="z" m835.424="M835.424" l.022="l.022" fg="Fg" xmlns="xmlns" xmlns:data="data">Ben Fritz, <i>Variety</i>: 'DHS' creator meets FBI, IRS (September 25, 2005)</a></span></font></li><li id="cite_note-7" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-cite-backlink" style="-webkit-user-select: none;"><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#cite_ref-7" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><span class="cite-accessibility-label" style="top: -99999px; clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px); overflow: hidden; position: absolute !important; padding: 0px !important; border: 0px !important; height: 1px !important; width: 1px !important; -webkit-user-select: none;">Jump up</span>^{</a></b></span> }<span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4278458.stm" style="text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) 100% 50% no-repeat, url(" data:image="data:image" svg="svg" xml="xml" c="C" fxml="Fxml" version="version" d="D" encoding="encoding" utf-8="UTF-8" f="F" e="E" csvg="Csvg" http="http" a="A" fwww.w3.org="Fwww.w3.org" f2000="F2000" fsvg="Fsvg" width="width" height="height" cg="Cg" transform="transform" translate="translate" crect="Crect" x="x" y="y" fill="fill" fff="fff" stroke="stroke" cpath="Cpath" m831.194="M831.194" h5.234v5.391l-1.571="h5.234v5.391l-1.571" z="z" m835.424="M835.424" l.022="l.022" fg="Fg" xmlns="xmlns" xmlns:data="data">BBC News: Producer accused of $5m 'TV scam'</a></span></font></li><li id="cite_note-8" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-cite-backlink" style="-webkit-user-select: none;"><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#cite_ref-8" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><span class="cite-accessibility-label" style="top: -99999px; clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px); overflow: hidden; position: absolute !important; padding: 0px !important; border: 0px !important; height: 1px !important; width: 1px !important; -webkit-user-select: none;">Jump up</span>^{</a></b></span> }<span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://articles.latimes.com/2005/sep/24/local/me-hollywood24" style="text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) 100% 50% no-repeat, url(" data:image="data:image" svg="svg" xml="xml" c="C" fxml="Fxml" version="version" d="D" encoding="encoding" utf-8="UTF-8" f="F" e="E" csvg="Csvg" http="http" a="A" fwww.w3.org="Fwww.w3.org" f2000="F2000" fsvg="Fsvg" width="width" height="height" cg="Cg" transform="transform" translate="translate" crect="Crect" x="x" y="y" fill="fill" fff="fff" stroke="stroke" cpath="Cpath" m831.194="M831.194" h5.234v5.391l-1.571="h5.234v5.391l-1.571" z="z" m835.424="M835.424" l.022="l.022" fg="Fg" xmlns="xmlns" xmlns:data="data">Greg Krikorian, <i>Los Angeles Times</i>: TV series pitch ends in arrest on fraud charges</a></span></font></li><li id="cite_note-9" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-cite-backlink" style="-webkit-user-select: none;"><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#cite_ref-9" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><span class="cite-accessibility-label" style="top: -99999px; clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px); overflow: hidden; position: absolute !important; padding: 0px !important; border: 0px !important; height: 1px !important; width: 1px !important; -webkit-user-select: none;">Jump up</span>^{</a></b></span> }<span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.justice.gov/usao/cac/Pressroom/pr2006/043.html" style="text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) 100% 50% no-repeat, url(" data:image="data:image" svg="svg" xml="xml" c="C" fxml="Fxml" version="version" d="D" encoding="encoding" utf-8="UTF-8" f="F" e="E" csvg="Csvg" http="http" a="A" fwww.w3.org="Fwww.w3.org" f2000="F2000" fsvg="Fsvg" width="width" height="height" cg="Cg" transform="transform" translate="translate" crect="Crect" x="x" y="y" fill="fill" fff="fff" stroke="stroke" cpath="Cpath" m831.194="M831.194" h5.234v5.391l-1.571="h5.234v5.391l-1.571" z="z" m835.424="M835.424" l.022="l.022" fg="Fg" xmlns="xmlns" xmlns:data="data">Justice.gov: Actress pleads guilty to covering up investment scam related to phony Department of Homeland Security TV show (April 19, 2006)</a></span></font></li><li id="cite_note-10" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-cite-backlink" style="-webkit-user-select: none;"><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#cite_ref-10" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><span class="cite-accessibility-label" style="top: -99999px; clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px); overflow: hidden; position: absolute !important; padding: 0px !important; border: 0px !important; height: 1px !important; width: 1px !important; -webkit-user-select: none;">Jump up</span>^{</a></b></span> }<span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.justice.gov/usao/cac/Pressroom/pr2006/057.html" style="text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) 100% 50% no-repeat, url(" data:image="data:image" svg="svg" xml="xml" c="C" fxml="Fxml" version="version" d="D" encoding="encoding" utf-8="UTF-8" f="F" e="E" csvg="Csvg" http="http" a="A" fwww.w3.org="Fwww.w3.org" f2000="F2000" fsvg="Fsvg" width="width" height="height" cg="Cg" transform="transform" translate="translate" crect="Crect" x="x" y="y" fill="fill" fff="fff" stroke="stroke" cpath="Cpath" m831.194="M831.194" h5.234v5.391l-1.571="h5.234v5.391l-1.571" z="z" m835.424="M835.424" l.022="l.022" fg="Fg" xmlns="xmlns" xmlns:data="data">Justice.gov: Hollywood producer pleads guilty to running investment scam related to phony DHS TV show (May 16, 2006)</a></span></font></li><li id="cite_note-:0-11" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-cite-backlink" style="-webkit-user-select: none;"><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#cite_ref-:0_11-0" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><span class="cite-accessibility-label" style="top: -99999px; clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px); overflow: hidden; position: absolute !important; padding: 0px !important; border: 0px !important; height: 1px !important; width: 1px !important; -webkit-user-select: none;">Jump up</span>^{</a></b></span> }<span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jan/19/local/la-me-medawar-20110119" style="text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) 100% 50% no-repeat, url(" data:image="data:image" svg="svg" xml="xml" c="C" fxml="Fxml" version="version" d="D" encoding="encoding" utf-8="UTF-8" f="F" e="E" csvg="Csvg" http="http" a="A" fwww.w3.org="Fwww.w3.org" f2000="F2000" fsvg="Fsvg" width="width" height="height" cg="Cg" transform="transform" translate="translate" crect="Crect" x="x" y="y" fill="fill" fff="fff" stroke="stroke" cpath="Cpath" m831.194="M831.194" h5.234v5.391l-1.571="h5.234v5.391l-1.571" z="z" m835.424="M835.424" l.022="l.022" fg="Fg" xmlns="xmlns" xmlns:data="data">Los Angeles Times<i>: Producer Joseph Medawar gets longer resentence in scam</i></a></span></font></li><li id="cite_note-12" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-cite-backlink" style="-webkit-user-select: none;"><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#cite_ref-12" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><span class="cite-accessibility-label" style="top: -99999px; clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px); overflow: hidden; position: absolute !important; padding: 0px !important; border: 0px !important; height: 1px !important; width: 1px !important; -webkit-user-select: none;">Jump up</span>^{</a></b></span> }<span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/100000090" style="text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) 100% 50% no-repeat, url(" data:image="data:image" svg="svg" xml="xml" c="C" fxml="Fxml" version="version" d="D" encoding="encoding" utf-8="UTF-8" f="F" e="E" csvg="Csvg" http="http" a="A" fwww.w3.org="Fwww.w3.org" f2000="F2000" fsvg="Fsvg" width="width" height="height" cg="Cg" transform="transform" translate="translate" crect="Crect" x="x" y="y" fill="fill" fff="fff" stroke="stroke" cpath="Cpath" m831.194="M831.194" h5.234v5.391l-1.571="h5.234v5.391l-1.571" z="z" m835.424="M835.424" l.022="l.022" fg="Fg" xmlns="xmlns" xmlns:data="data">CNBC: American Greed</a></span></font></li><li id="cite_note-13" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-cite-backlink" style="-webkit-user-select: none;"><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medawar#cite_ref-13" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><span class="cite-accessibility-label" style="top: -99999px; clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px); overflow: hidden; position: absolute !important; padding: 0px !important; border: 0px !important; height: 1px !important; width: 1px !important; -webkit-user-select: none;">Jump up</span>^{</a></b></span> }<span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://vimeo.com/46552401" style="text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) 100% 50% no-repeat, url(" data:image="data:image" svg="svg" xml="xml" c="C" fxml="Fxml" version="version" d="D" encoding="encoding" utf-8="UTF-8" f="F" e="E" csvg="Csvg" http="http" a="A" fwww.w3.org="Fwww.w3.org" f2000="F2000" fsvg="Fsvg" width="width" height="height" cg="Cg" transform="transform" translate="translate" crect="Crect" x="x" y="y" fill="fill" fff="fff" stroke="stroke" cpath="Cpath" m831.194="M831.194" h5.234v5.391l-1.571="h5.234v5.391l-1.571" z="z" m835.424="M835.424" l.022="l.022" fg="Fg" xmlns="xmlns" xmlns:data="data">Vimeo.com: Excerpts from episode 12 of <i>American Greed</i> on Joseph Medawar</a></span></font></li></ol></div></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">---</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" /><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Producer Joseph Medawar gets longer resentence in scam</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>Originally given a lenient term after bilking investors, </div><div>producer Joseph Medawar is resentenced to four years because of cheating on his community service</div><div>
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</div><div>January 19, 2011|By Carol J. Williams, Los Angeles Times</div><div>
</div><div>A former Hollywood producer whose lenient sentence on a 2006 fraud conviction outraged his victims and led to reversal by a federal appeals court drew a fresh four-year sentence Tuesday for padding his community service hours to go to movies and the gym.</div><div>
</div><div>U.S. District Judge Manuel L. Real ordered Joseph Medawar to prison for 45 months for violating the probation to which he was sentenced after "scamming" friends and business colleagues out of millions of dollars with a bogus television show. Real also accused Medawar of deceiving his court, which had given him a break when originally sentencing him to only a year and a day in prison and later reducing it to probation.</div><div>
</div><div>FOR THE RECORD:</div><div>Medawar fraud case: An article in the Jan. 19 LATExtra section about the sentencing of former Hollywood producer Joseph Medawar for probation violations reported that the former chief financial officer of his Steeple Productions company, Jeffrey Rosenberg, was sentenced to 10 months in prison for lying to federal agents about fraud. The court later amended Rosenberg's sentence to five years' probation and 2,000 hours of community service. —</div><div>
</div><div>Real, whose erratic sentences have led to accusations of judicial misconduct and disciplinary procedures, had sentenced Medawar to a term far below federal guidelines for swindling about 70 investors with his purported reality series about the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>The judge deviated from the recommended sentencing range of 57 to 71 months, without explanation. After a unanimous panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the sentence in March 2008, Real resentenced Medawar to just supervised probation.</div><div>
</div><div>Medawar, 48, also was ordered to pay $2.6 million in restitution to the defrauded investors and to perform 3,000 hours of community service. His attorney, Darryl Snider, told the court Tuesday that Medawar had repaid about $21,000 to his victims so far.</div><div>
</div><div>Federal authorities brought Medawar back to court for probation violations, including skipping out during the hours he was supposed to be cleaning up at Peck Park Community Center north of San Pedro. Assistant U.S. Atty. Jean-Claude Andre told Real that Medawar spent the time going to films, working out at a gym or putting in hours at his paid job in a family jewelry business.</div><div>
</div><div>Snider appealed to Real to give Medawar another chance to pay back his victims by letting him remain free and working. The onetime producer made a brief statement, apologizing to the court and saying he took responsibility for his actions.</div><div>
</div><div>Real ordered Medawar back to prison and said the 45-month term was not to be reduced by the 317 days served in pretrial custody and on his original sentence.</div><div>
</div><div>"Mr. Medawar was and is a scam performer," Real stated with a steely glare at the defendant. "He scammed people from whom he took money … and he scammed this court."</div><div>
</div><div>Medawar, dressed in a suit and tie, showed little emotion over his sentence and declined to comment as he left the courtroom. He was ordered to surrender to the U.S. Marshals Service by Feb. 14 to begin serving his term.</div><div>
</div><div>In May 2006, Medawar pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and income tax evasion for the<b> fake reality TV project</b>, having used investors' money on luxury cars, high-rolling dinners and shopping sprees and a $40,000-a-month Beverly Hills mansion for the show's purported lead actress, Alison Heruth-Waterbury.</div><div>
</div><div>Heruth-Waterbury, charged as a codefendant in the fraud, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years' probation. Jeffrey Rosenberg, former chief financial officer of Medawar's Steeple Productions company, was sentenced to 10 months in federal prison for lying to agents about the fraud.</div><div>
</div><div>carol.williams@latimes.com</div><div>
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</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Former "Hercules" star Kevin Sorbo, who has a sideline as a political conservative and outspoken Christian, probably should have just sat back and enjoyed Faux News' coverage of the unrest in Ferguson, MO, after police shot an unarmed black teen. Surely, he would have gotten his victim-smearing, race-baiting, Obama-blaming fill there. But no, he took to Facebook to rant about the protestors in Ferguson, calling them "losers" and "animals"—animals with ulterior motives. (Wait, can animals have ulterior motives?)</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">"Ferguson riots have very little to do with the shooting of the young man," <a href="https://www.facebook.com/KevinSorbo/posts/809048709135197" style="text-decoration: none;">Sorbo wrote</a>, because, of course, he knows. "It is an excuse to be the losers these animals truly are. It is a tipping point to frustration built up over years of not trying, but blaming everyone else, the Man, for their failures. It's always someone else's fault when you give up. Hopefully this is a reminder to the African Americans (I always thought we (sic) just Americans. Oh, well) that their President the (sic) voted in has only made things worse for them, not better."</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">He later apologized. “I stand humiliated and humbled. My most sincere apologies for my post on the events in Ferguson,” he said. “I posted out of frustration and anger over the violence and looting. My words were never meant to hurt the African-American community.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Well, who were they meant to hurt?</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The apology rang just a little hollow. It may rank Sorbo slightly lower on the douchebag scale than, say, Ted Nugent, but that’s not saying much. And it’s not like this was his first conservative rant. Earlier this week, <a href="http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/08/18/christian-actor-kevin-sorbo-why-do-atheists-get-so-angry-at-something-you-dont-believe-in/" style="text-decoration: none;">Sorbo dubbed atheists "angry"</a>while promoting his recent film, <em>God Is Not Dead</em>, in which he plays an atheist, according to RawStory. Last year, he <a href="http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/02/06/hercules-actor-kevin-sorbo-bashes-hollywoods-liberal-hypocrisy-and-rips-obama-one-of-the-worst-records-in-american-history/" style="text-decoration: none;">took aim at Hollywood for liberal hypocrisy</a>.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Finally, in an interview with his pal Hannity later in the week, Sorbo pointed out that 97 percent of black people voted for Obama. “Isn’t that kind of racist?”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">A deep thinker, this Sorbo.</font></p></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><p dir="ltr" style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">On <a href="http://www.mediaite.com/tv/jerry-seinfeld-rants-against-creepy-pc-culture-with-seth-meyers/" style="text-decoration: none;">last night’s <em>Late Night</em></a>, noted funnyman and <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/05/showbiz/celebrity-news-gossip/jerry-seinfeld-race-gender-diversity/" style="text-decoration: none;">dismisser</a> of liberal dissent <b>Jerry Seinfeld,</b> doubled down on <a href="http://www.salon.com/2015/06/08/seinfeld_slams_politically_correct_students_for_hurting_comedy_they_just_want_to_use_these_words_that%E2%80%99s_racist_that%E2%80%99s_sexist_that%E2%80%99s_prejudice/" style="text-decoration: none;">recent comments</a> he made to ESPN that he thought “political correctness” was “killing comedy.” Seinfeld told host Seth Meyers and <em>New Yorker</em> editor David Remnick, "there's a creepy, PC thing out that really bothers me" and lambasted Meyers for announcing he would go easy on Caitlyn Jenner after her much-publicized transition.</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">It's a gripe we've heard a million times. Every now and then an entitled, well-positioned heterosexual white male comes along and bravely defends other well-positioned, heterosexual white males’ right to say things minorities, women and LGBT may or may not find offensive. More recently, this intellectual burden was carried by none other than Jonathan Chait of New York magazine, <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/01/not-a-very-pc-thing-to-say.html" style="text-decoration: none;">who declared</a> back in January:</font></p><blockquote style="line-height: 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p dir="ltr" style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Political correctness is a style of politics in which the more radical members of the left attempt to regulate political discourse by defining opposing views as bigoted and illegitimate... Today’s political correctness flourishes most consequentially on social media, where it enjoys a frisson of cool and vast new cultural reach. And since social media is also now the milieu that hosts most political debate, the new PC has attained an influence over mainstream journalism and commentary beyond that of the old.</font></p></blockquote><p dir="ltr" style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">It’s a similar argument to the one Seinfeld - and even Remnick - made on the<em>Late Night</em> last night. That the rise of the “PC culture," combined with the rapid dissemination of information on social media, has turned us all into a bunch of knee-jerk cry babies. To defend his point, Seinfeld pointed to a joke he told recently that he “sensed” some overly-PC audience members got offended by:</font></p><blockquote style="line-height: 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p dir="ltr" style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">I did this joke about the way people always have their cell phone on them because their 'friends are so important.' Well, they don't seem that important [at this point Seinfeld begins flicking his screen in a traditionally flamboyant gay manner] the you way you scroll through them like a gay French King.</font></p></blockquote><p dir="ltr" style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">He would go on to tell his tale of persecution:</font></p><blockquote style="line-height: 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p dir="ltr" style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">I did this [joke] in front of an audicence. Comedy is one of those things where you can feel an opinion. And they thought '<em>what do you mean gay</em>?' '<em>what are you doing</em>?' And I thought, 'you can't be serious'?</font></p></blockquote><p dir="ltr" style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">'Serious about what?' would be the first question. His major complaint, like most complaints against "PC culture," is based on a phantom. Since Seinfeld can't really say specifically what the negative feedback was, it's difficult to parse this story. But it does bear mentioning the joke wasn't very funny, which could account for the negative vibes Seinfeld was feeling. In an effort to convey an exaggerated wrist motion, Seinfeld resorted to the two most tired limp-wristed cliches -- gay men and the French. While Seinfeld’s comedy chops are often above reproach, this particular example is uncharacteristically lame. Since cliche is a feature of both stereotyping and bad comedy, perhaps a more PC version of this joke would have actually made the joke<em>funnier, </em>forcing Seinfeld to reach for something a bit more original a “LOL French queers, amirite?” </font></p><p dir="ltr" style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Nevertheless, Seinfeld was upset because this joke didn’t land with his strawman college audience and he wants the world to know this is a crisis in urgent need of our attention. And this is the rub with most “anti-PC” arguments: they almost always rely on a string of anecdotes posing as some great, menacing trend. Because the perspectives of those annoyed by “political correctness” are overwhelmingly white, male, and heteronormative, they are, by definition, given extra purchase in the media and are echo-chambered as such. Three white men sitting around on a major network uncritically complaining about “PC culture” very well may be right, but it bears mentioning that three minorities sitting around a major network complaining about white privilege would be a mathematical impossibility. This is the nature of privilege: its most pernicious features - insularity, lack of self-awareness - become its most amplifying agents. Thus, the Seinfelds of the world take a few bombed jokes and unconfortable groans at Cornell as evidence of an emerging moral weakness rather than run-of-the-mill shifting norms - or more likely, a shitty joke.</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Even granting his fears were justified, Seinfeld still has all of his work ahead of him. He and Remnick's other gripe: that social media has somehow turned us into a hypersensitive outrage culture isn’t really a gripe against "PC culture", it’s a gripe against the democratization of media through social media, namely Twitter, and its ability to level the playing field. <a href="https://twitter.com/adamjohnsonNYC/status/560214638055686144" style="text-decoration: none;">As I noted</a> during Chait's PC pushback last January, to men of previously unchecked privilege and status, cocooned by traditional media models, the idea that a bunch of nobodies online could radically alter the conversation must be explained away as some broader moral failing - <em>everyone’s so sensitive these days!</em>- rather than the amplification of voices that have been, until now, left out. In this sense, their issue isn’t really with the substance of internet push back, but rather its very existence. Much easier to dismiss the preverbal “<a href="http://www.theblaze.com/blog/2012/04/04/joe-scarborough-claims-he-saw-liberal-blogger-cheeto-dust-coming-up-from-the-presidents-bitterly-partisan-speech-yesterday/" style="text-decoration: none;">cheeto-dusted</a>” internet commenter or Twitter activist as some limp-wristed whiner than an individual with a legitimate view whose previous omission from the conversation was more about traditional patriarchal and racist power structures than some long-lost thickskinned-ness.</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">This is the core of what Seinfeld gets wrong: he views the emergence of dissenting voices as evidence of a new dissent, rather than one he is simply being introduced to for the first time. Absence of evidence, as the saying goes, is not evidence of absence. Just as the North America didn't come into existence the second Europeans stepped foot on it. Nor did those who find limp-wristed gay jokes offensive first show up in the 2010's. It just so happens - due to emerging social inclusiveness and the democratization of media - that Seinfeld is noticing it for the first time. In this sense, it appears the only overly-sensitive group to emerge over the past few years is not "college kids" but rather white male anti-PC crusaders getting ever-so-slightly confronted with their privilege for the first time. </font></p><div class="bio-new body_media-culture" style="width: 630px; font-style: italic; line-height: 22px; height: auto; border-top-width: 3px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(223, 223, 218); clear: both; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="author-bio"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Adam Johnson is a contributing writer for AlterNet. Follow him </font></p></div></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">==</font></div></div></div>