That's why I was pleased when Russian television came to interview me for a TV network with more than l00 million viewers about my thoughts on the financial crisis and Michael Moore's new movie lambasting Capitalism
The ironies abounded.
It was the old Russia that sounded like Moore well before he made his film trashing Capitalism that made $42 million on its first weekend. The Village Voice reports that the movie is brought to us by a company run by Limbaugh-loving John Malone, once called "The Darth Vader of Cable' by Al Gore and recently fined $1.4 million by the Justice Department for illegal stock purchases. Malone wants to be considered an equal opportunity monopolist---some years ago he bought the McNeil Lehrer NewsHour company.
As Russians, they initially welcomed capitalism because their authoritarian system posing as socialism was such a disaster. They thought all would now be "normal, life would get better. But then, they saw how a handful of oligarchs and Mafia henchmen took over, corrupting the system, stealing resources that used to, theoretically at least, belong to the people, dismantling social safety nets and driving millions into poverty.
And now, they see the collapse of our own system underway, and wonder why capitalist film companies would finance a film blasting the system they profit from. They didn't get it.
They didn't seem to like Moore either, who I ended up defending and explaining, because of his loud and showy antics and what they saw as a superficial approach that jumped from issue to issue. They followed him out to Flint Michigan, his revered hometown, and came across many locals who think he is exploiting their pain. I praised him as one of the few filmmakers who even tackle working class issues.
I then tried to use the interview to talk about my new book, The Crime of Our Time, on the financial crisis as a crime story and share some of the research and investigative reporting I did.
There was a disconnect for me too "trying to put the crisis in language that Russians could relate to while rarely being given the opportunity to go on the air on outlets here, stations I worked for in my own country, like ABC, CNN and CNBC to bring my argument closer to home. They prefer to "use the "experts who got the story so wrong for so long. They, like CBS, want nothing to do with voices outside the certainties of the mainstream conventional wisdom.
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