BNF Attacks: Judy, Rudy, 9/11 Booty

As promised, I have the second half of my interview with Brave New Films' Robert Greenwald. There's an interesting bit of coincidence here. As I was interviewing Robert last night about Fox News and Rudy Giuliani, he got a call to appear on MSNBC regarding the breaking Judith Regan story. That story just happens to tie together Greenwald's favorite 2 bogeymen.

The Judith Regan (of "OJ Simpson: IF I Did it" fame.) story is being worked on by my colleague Denise Williams. Greenwald did send me the following statement today:

Judith Regan's lawsuit describing FOX's support for Giuliani is no
surprise to anyone watching the love fest between FOX and Rudy.
Hannity has thrown a fundraiser for Rudy. The fact that they have
chosen one Republican over another should make everyone pissed off at
FOX.

In this second half of our interview, we talked more about his "Real Rudy" series of films, and I sensed that his campaign against Hizzoner came from a different place than the Fox pieces. While the Fox issue seems to be more of an intellectual affront, the Rudy pieces seem to stem from a deeper, more personal outrage.

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You can hear the whole interview at the end of this post. Here are some choice excerpts. Some are paraphrased for brevity.

Tommy Christopher: What's the impetus behind the "Real Rudy" films? Why the ire at Rudy?

Robert Greenwald: A couple of things...being a New Yorker...Once a New Yorker, always a New Yorker, ..and I remember very clearly (my friends and relatives' and colleagues') anger and pain and outrage as Rudy over the years has hijacked 9/11 and turned a tragedy into his own personal platform both for making money and for running for office...and I started to hear these horrific stories from family members..many of whom voted for Rudy...who had had their sons killed in 9/11..and they were very upset about the errors, the mistakes, the wrong decisions that he made around 9/11, and the fact that he would then use that to run for President...Then my friend Danny Goldberg was telling me, "Look, the real story is not that he got dressed in drag, or that he married his cousin, the real story is the 9/11 distortion."

TC: Is there anybody refuting the content of your films?

RG: We go to great lengths to make these films factually airtight. So when Rudy attacks us..what he does is like Fox,..he calls names. He says, this is the irony, he says I (Greenwald) am a profiteer. Now, this is a double irony, this is a man that has made millions off of 9/11, and I..volunteer..take not a penny for this..that's the best they can do (to) respond..but there's been nothing from his campaign,..from any reporter..or anyone saying, "You're wrong about this data."..at one point he was making a million dollars a day profiting from 9/11.

TC: You get on an elevator, there's Rudy, what do you say?

RG: ...I would ask him how he can look at himself in the mirror (pause) when he gets up in the morning...knowing the extraordinary mistakes and misjudgments that he's made, and then how he can run to be President of the United States on such an amazing record of disaster.

Robert Greenwald On Mukasey: Horriible. It is disgusting that it was voted on by 2 Democrats...we will look back on those who voted for it with shame and embarrassment and anger.

On Hillary and Barack's lack of leadership on FISA, etc.: ...Grover Norquist says, "If President Bush doesn't do something, because it's too politically difficult..I blame..us, because we need to make it politically possible for the politicians to do certain things..."

(Yes, Robert Greenwald just quoted Grover Norquist. Now that's fair and balanced!)

On ENDA: There are times when it's better to lose and make the bigger point...and times when you need to..get legislation through..

On Glenn Beck:...we absolutely want to go after some of the aberrant individuals like Glenn Beck... but as horrible as he is, it's not the same as an entire network dedicated philosophically to one point of view.

On Mainstream Hackery:..I hope we have the resources to go after..some of the networks when they fall into the "Iraq Pattern" around Iran...

I recommend listening to the interview, there's a lot of shading. This second half of the interview really convinced me that Robert, right or wrong, is heartfelt in his motivation, and not simply a publicity junkie or anything like that. He was very generous with his time, and was a good sport about some tough questions. I hope to do it again soon. I'll end the piece with a quote from Robert on yesterday's article:

"Thanks. Very fair and very balanced"



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