Spring Break
Film raises questions mainstream media are afraid to ask
Selma Skokic
Issue date: 12/4/08 Section: Student Culture
America is slowly becoming a police state through acts of surveillance, torture, wire-tapping and abridgement of the freedom of speech - at least as far as Joseph Sottile's documentary film, "The Warning," is concerned.
"If we do not undo the damage that was done to the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights in the last seven years … and we just sort of let it slide, that stuff will be cemented for the next generation," said
Sottile, who wrote, produced and directed the documentary for Truth to Power TV.
According to its Web site, Truth to Power TV produces "aggressive and independent media that asks questions the mainstream media ignores."
The screening was co-sponsored by SJSU's history,
political science, anthropology and sociology departments on Tuesday evening in the Engineering Auditorium.
According to the flier for the screening, the documentary "traces the dangerous path America has taken toward a new undemocratic form of government with some startling similarities to authoritarian regimes of the past."
The documentary is led by five authors: Robert Kennedy Jr., Naomi Wolf, Chris Hedges, Naomi Klein and Joe Conason.
"Something traumatic happened to us as a nation, and the media is trying to really portray some sort of a bad guy and is trying to put blame on something rather than ourselves," said Charisse Sare, a junior history major.
Naomi Wolf, one of the authors in the film, wrote a book titled "The End of America." In the film, she said that the war America is leading is an imaginary war because it was declared on terror, not the terrorists.
Wolf added that the war is open-ended and global.
The authors featured said the Sept. 11 attacks have changed the nature of the presidency by giving the president unlimited presidential and war power.
Kennedy said America is trying to lead as a world power but that its leadership does not know what goes on in the world.
Shana Bliss, a senior liberal studies major, said she credited the media with trying to dig deep and portray the news angles they want people to see, and that sometimes withholding the truth may be beneficial to the public.
"If we do not undo the damage that was done to the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights in the last seven years … and we just sort of let it slide, that stuff will be cemented for the next generation," said
Sottile, who wrote, produced and directed the documentary for Truth to Power TV.
According to its Web site, Truth to Power TV produces "aggressive and independent media that asks questions the mainstream media ignores."
The screening was co-sponsored by SJSU's history,
political science, anthropology and sociology departments on Tuesday evening in the Engineering Auditorium.
According to the flier for the screening, the documentary "traces the dangerous path America has taken toward a new undemocratic form of government with some startling similarities to authoritarian regimes of the past."
The documentary is led by five authors: Robert Kennedy Jr., Naomi Wolf, Chris Hedges, Naomi Klein and Joe Conason.
"Something traumatic happened to us as a nation, and the media is trying to really portray some sort of a bad guy and is trying to put blame on something rather than ourselves," said Charisse Sare, a junior history major.
Naomi Wolf, one of the authors in the film, wrote a book titled "The End of America." In the film, she said that the war America is leading is an imaginary war because it was declared on terror, not the terrorists.
Wolf added that the war is open-ended and global.
The authors featured said the Sept. 11 attacks have changed the nature of the presidency by giving the president unlimited presidential and war power.
Kennedy said America is trying to lead as a world power but that its leadership does not know what goes on in the world.
Shana Bliss, a senior liberal studies major, said she credited the media with trying to dig deep and portray the news angles they want people to see, and that sometimes withholding the truth may be beneficial to the public.
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