A Great Documentary - Banned from PBS
 

A Great Documentary - banned from PBS, thanks to the billionaire Koch brothers...

View it here, for free..

Park Avenue: Money, Power & The American Dream

another hate the rich, you'll never make it video.

this doc was shown on pbs last year and more is available at pbs, not banned.

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/park-avenue/

I long for the day when facts actually matter again and people are called idiots and shunned when they misrepresent facts or flat out lie.

i would argue that "documentaries" of this sort do more to keep people complacently living our lives of quiet desperation instead of actually trying to follow through on the american dream the documentary so childishly compares to a game of monopoly.

fact is there is opportunity here, more so than most other places. that's not a guarantee.

Where do you get this banned by PBS? http://video.pbs.org/video/2296684923

Doesn't look very banned to me.

:helpme

.

it's amazing how money 'created itself, magically appeared' then the rich people stole it from the poor people... :2 cents:

As none of you have watched the documentary, and none of you are billionaires, please feel free to continue speaking out of your asses, and against your very own interests.

You may be right that the documentary eventually aired, but not until it was diluted and edited...

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2...urrentPage=all

But please, feel free to carry on with your ignorant critiques.

i watched it on pbs last year, it's not worth watching again.

So you watched the edited version - cool.

i have an opinion on the doc, which i posted. what kinds of replies are you wanting?

Why? I'm happy with my success. Call me ignorant if you like, but I'm the one that's happy, successful, and growing every year.

You obviously are not based on all of the threads like this that you start. Perhaps it's you that should take a step back and think about what you are doing, whether or not it's improving your life, and make appropriate changes. I'm not saying this to be mean, I'm saying this because I like seeing others do well and when they hold themselves back, through behaviors like this, it bothers me. You can do so much better. We all can.

Hating brings nothing good into your life and it doesn't change the thing that you hate. What do you get out of it? An excuse?

If you watched this documentary and don't come away from it with anger against the manipulation of Washington by billionaires, ultimately resulting in a shittier world for non-billionaires, then I guess you've already made your position clear.

You are a non-billionaire, not benefiting one iota by a corrupt system. You have decided to vilify the regular people instead. Any idea why this is?

Ignoring the realities around you, under the guise that happiness is simply a state of mind, may work for you, but when all of your foods are genetically modified, your water is polluted, your air is unbreathable, and the class system is so divided we find ourselves in a police state, or worse, a civil war, remind me again, about how ATTEMPTING to wake up the sheeple to actual reality, is such a terrible thing to do.

why are you making this about me? i would think the topic should be about the doc's message.

It's not about you, but within minutes, you were the first to comment, and this was your comment...

"another hate the rich, you'll never make it video."

Which was clearly dismissive.

LOL. Okay. I can see you are set in your ways. That's fine, I am set in mine as well.

If I die in five years from fluoride poisoning, I'm cool with that. I've lived a good life.

i also posted that therei s opportunity here, more than most other places.

so it's not dismissive in the slightest. it's my view that the doc is misaligned and does not understand the concept of the american dream, comparing it to the board game monopoly only confirms that.

As opposed to posting it with the claim that it was "banned" by PBS because of two billionaires? Thats honest?

The OP is 100% correct. Just because someone can earn even MILLIONS of dollars in a system designed to benefit BILLIONAIRES (who laugh their asses off at the loser "millionaires") does NOT mean "everything is ok if you just make more money".

People are so myopic that they can't even see their own reality let alone "real" reality. LOL

Carry on.

Anyone care to comment on the documentary? Koch brothers support a lot of PBS programming, so it's not a stretch to believe they don't always support every project.

I don't mind give a brother a helping hand; however, I don't think I should be required to support some shiftless, lazy, dope-headed dumbass who is not willing to put in a day's work.

I suggest we bring back the WPA and CCP to get these permanently unemployed people working again on public projects like parks, schools, libraries, etc.

:2 cents::2 cents::thumbsup

So far none of the comments regarding this documentary make any sense at all. It's as if people are commenting on something they never watched.

The "monopoly game" portion of this documentary was metamorphic and symbolic, and maybe took up 3 minutes of a 70 minute documentary filled with actual facts and figures.

I guess a preconceived belief, regarding that which one does not comprehend, is enough to fabricate an opinion based upon nothing. This is why we all lose in the end.

no, people lose when they watch videos like that, which portray life such that it's impossible to change your position in the world.

why try when a documentary tell me it's fruitless.

Lets start with the most basic comment. You stating it was "banned" by PBS by the Koch Brothers. Can you support this with fact?

We all "lose in the end" as dyna_mo is saying when you stop accepting responsibility for the outcomes in your life and start looking outside yourself for answers. (well.. the truth is that we don't "all" lose. The world needs burger flippers, cab drivers and ditch diggers... so the truth is that its an essential part of the equation that balances out the natural order of things and strengthens our ability to survive as a species. The day everyone gets to be an astronaut is the day we have no future as a species.)

I am not arguing with you. There is much truth to the saying "Ignorance is bliss."

Unfortunately, ignorance does not motivate for change.

you find that video motivating? i'm open, fill me in.

This is yet another documentary that lays out the corrupt agenda of the few, to degrade and manipulate the lives of the many, and you need an explanation as to how it can be considered motivational? Really?

This is exactly why we all lose.

again you make it about me, i asked you to share your perspective because i don't see it. you choose to take that as an opportunity to point your finger at me as being obtuse.


no biggie, happens all the time here. i understand that, i like to try and converse here, it's rare, but it can happen.

What part of my perspective don't you see? I think my position on these matters is as clear as can be. And how exactly, is any of this, about YOU?

Semi-related: I am extremely happy I don't have any kids. One day the children and grandchildren of today's generation will ask, "How did you let this happen?" and ignorance and apathy will not be an acceptable answer.

May be intriguing but who knows the real actions...

for me, these sorts of videos are demotivating. it's not about ignorance. more like the opposite.

you find the motivating, i was open to trying to understand that. instead of having a dialogue, you replied with a "you really don't get that?" that makes it more about me than the subject.

you really don't get that?

Is the contention that the makers of the film were biased going into the making of it, or that the content they uncovered was itself simply depressing in the end?

I've found PBS to be just about the most unbiased source so I'm concerned if there is anyone thinking they went into it with a preconceived agenda.

pbs had nothing to do with the making of the doc, it was selected to be broadcast as an episode of the independent lens series.

People with money will always have it easier and have the advantage over those that don't. America is no different than any other country.

The thing is in this country you have a much better chance than anywhere else in the world to do well if you work hard and work smart. No one is guaranteed anything, you could work very hard all your life and still end up in a so so position.

However if you do work hard and smart you have a very low chance of being in poverty and will most likely reach mid to upper middle class. Reaching the upper 1% as they show in this doc usually only happens when you are talking actual real "wealth" not a few million a year income but 10s of million or more. This is usually reserved to people whom are born into that money, not people that earned it in a life time.

If the majority of people watch these type of documentaries, and read about the realities that surround them, the world would be a better place.

You cannot fight a cancer, until you identify it, unmask it, and reveal it to the light of day.

People pretend that their lives are better when they only care about themselves, and about their own successes.

One day a family farmer wakes up and finds out corporate greed decided big money trumps his farm, and now he's fucked.

One day a teacher wakes up and finds out corporate greed decided pensions for the middle class are no longer in the cards.

One day a union member wakes up to find corporate greed decided he no longer has the right to overtime, healthcare, collective bargaining, etc.

One day an average citizen wakes up to find there is no more minimum wage, and there is no more paid overtime.

One day a student realizes college costs more than a house, and will hold him in debt until the day he dies from a disease that is not covered by his greedy health insurance.

One day you find your tap water is undrinkable, you have no rights, no privacy, no nothing..

But please, by all means, congratulate yourselves for living your own lives of success, unburdened by the realities that surround you, and start planning on how you will phrase your answer to your children and grandchildren, when they ask, "How did you let this happen? Didn't you see it coming?"

I guess you can say, "Hey, I wasn't motivated by reality. I didn't want it to effect my happiness."

Well then let me restate my concern.
I've found that PBS will rarely air a segment of any of it's programs that is slanted politically by design unless that's the purpose of it. For example they ran pro-Obama and pro-Romney pieces prior to the election. Otherwise I've found the pieces that they choose to air pretty much middle of the road leaving the viewer to come to a conclusion on their own.

Is this documentary any different do you think? Does it seem like it began from a position that is anti-rich for example? Or what's the dealio?

i would tend to agree that pbs reports are less biased than other news agencies. i think they take more of a backseat with their documentary series'. frontline, for instance, well-done but can certainly take a side, which is fine with me, i am not suggesting all documentaries should be completely unbiased.

what i am saying is this doc strikes me as misaligned. it takes 2 groups of people that happen to live on the same street yet are worlds apart and concludes that the reason the one group can't achieve the american dream is due to the other group.

there's more to the story, particularly from the other side in a time of entitlement thinking.

welcome to earth. seriously.

The minute they started talking about Atlas Shrugged I called bullshit on this doc. It's one of those left-leaning docs that demonizes the other side while making no mention of it's own faults; two-party politics is the real hindrance.

Just the facts
 

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2...7fa_fact_mayer


The story behind the watering down of the documentary.

The Kochs control ALEC, a political group to push their agenda such as eliminating public schools so all but the absolute poorest go to schools Koch buddies bleeding the public treasury dry and a generation of children who know nothing but taking tests.

according to that article the park avenue documentary was aired in its entirety on pbs and as a result there is speculation that kock withheld a donation as a result of that.

the article is about another documentary that was originally titles "citizen koch" that was renamed.

jeez . . . you are such an idiot . . .

Whats new baddog? BFT3K bat shit crazy is the only answer due to way too many drugs:thumbsup

I don't know, I grew up during the 60's and 70's and did not do enough drugs to be as nuts as BFT3K

There is opportunity here, but not so sure about that last part. At least not anymore.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/05/us...anted=all&_r=0

Excellent thread!!!!! :upsidedow