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 Deconstructing RudyPosted on Nov 10, 2007
The limitations of the old-fashioned mainstream media prevent it from portraying the true horror of what a Giuliani administration would mean to the United States and the rest of the world. Such a huge media failure prompted filmmaker and political activist Robert Greenwald to make and distribute powerful, short documentaries built around the theme of the real Rudy Giuliani. It’s a timely effort. Giuliani has a substantial lead over his Republican competitors in national polls and was endorsed this week by televangelist Pat Robertson, a leader of the Christian right. That may help Giuliani among religious conservatives. They don’t understand that he is really a mean-spirited, dictatorial boss and not a true believer in their hard-line religiosity. For Giuliani has the dangerous ability to say outrageous things—his defense of torture, for example—in a reasonable tone. Television’s short and superficial interviews permit him to get away with it. Print does somewhat better. A recent New York Times story on Giuliani’s friend and onetime police commissioner, Bernard Kerik, was a powerful argument against electing the ex-mayor as president. So was “Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11,” a book by Wayne Barrett and Dan Collins, which was excerpted in the Village Voice. Kerik has been indicted by a federal grand jury for tax fraud, obstruction of justice and lying to the White House. He pleaded not guilty. But these are exceptions. The story of the real Rudy has a hard time making it to the states where the presidential election is being fought: Iowa, New Hampshire and the big states holding their primaries on Feb. 5. Advertisement That’s not how Greenwald feels the story should be told. Greenwald dug deeply into his subjects for his documentaries “Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers”; “Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price”; and “Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism.” He wanted to do the same with Giuliani. Greenwald had read about Giuliani’s New York reign. His friend, music business executive Danny Goldberg, told Greenwald that it was important to explain how bad it was. So, Greenwald proceeded in a manner designed for the Internet with short documentaries on the theme of “The Real Rudy.” His Giuliani is not the reasonable candidate from the television interviews. Instead, Greenwald shows a headstrong boss who played favorites, punished dissenters and made decisions damaging to the city. One of these short documentaries tells the story of how Giuliani put the command post in the World Trade Center complex before Sept. 11, even though the area had been attacked in 1993. It was wiped out on the fatal day. I found another documentary, “The REAL Rudy: Radios,” especially moving. Firefighters and their spouses who lost family members in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11 told how the police and fire departments could not communicate with each other because the Giuliani administration had given them radios operating on different frequencies. As a result, many firefighters did not receive the order to evacuate. I have seen stories about this, but nothing I’ve read has the impact of the simple words of a mourning father, mother or sister seated in a kitchen or front room. Many other people had the same reaction, signing petitions urging the New York City Council to investigate the radio situation. The documentary “raised important questions,” said Councilman Eric Gioa, chair of the council’s investigations committee. He said he’d do everything he could to get answers. Greenwald told me, “We have been able to use all our skills to tell the story and put the spotlight on his [Giuliani’s] running for office where he should be running and hiding in the closet.” The documentaries are posted on Greenwald’s Brave New Films site and move through the Internet like a virus, via YouTube, blogs and e-mail. A network of progressive organizations spreads the word. Greenwald’s associate, Jim Gilliam, has developed software that allows anyone to easily host a screening. Communications director Leighton Woodhouse spends most of his time pitching the documentaries to bloggers and Web sites. “In July, September, October, we got more than a million views for our combined videos,” Greenwald said. He’s working on putting the documentaries on cell phones. “This would not have been possible in the old media landscape. There would have been no way to do the Giuliani piece or to get the bloggers to write about it or to do the investigation.” When I was a newspaper reporter, we investigated candidates. One, two or maybe more reporters would check out the candidate’s life in a process called a “scrub.” After a time the “scrub” would appear, so detailed and long that readers probably put it aside to read at a later time, which seldom arrived. Greenwald operates like a tabloid—- bang, bang, bang—firing away with hot information in small doses. It’s a guerrilla operation, raising money for each short documentary, keeping production costs low and using the Internet for distribution and advertising. Purists will protest that his advocacy isn’t journalism. But it is. He’s a throwback. Greenwald is a crusader demanding attention, just as the old-time muckraking editors did a century ago, except that his message is carried on the Internet rather than by newsboys on street corners. He’s found the best way to tell the story of the real Rudy.
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By Ed Oleen, November 15, 2007 at 6:07 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
I am most definitely NOT standing up for Rudy. HOWEVER!
The commo problem(s) at WTC on 9/11 are largely the fault of the FDNY: after the first bombing a repeater system was installed throughout the WTC complex. It worked. I know: i listened to the tests. It was FINE.
The problem on 9/11 was that the FD bigwigs swept into the fire command center off the lobby, pushed the building’s operating people (the people who were most familiar with it’s operation…) “out of the way” and proceeded to throw switchs and in other ways misuse the system.
From the 9/11 Commission testimony, it would appear that an “anti-feed-back” system was ON - as it should be - and the FDNY brass didn’t know it, or, apparently, didn’t even know it existed. The lack of signal to the immediate area - the fire-control-center - lead the people there to conclude that the system wasn’t working at all, when, in fact, it was operating as designed: preventing feed-back squeal in local hand-held radios. Things went from bad to worse starting there.
————————————
For reasons obvious to anyone who has ever tried to operate a hand-held radio in turn-out gear, and who realizes that (a) any pair of companies (in theory) may have to operate at the same location, and (b) that separate fires may be located within a couple of blocks from each other, and (c) used while wearing turn-out gear, FD radios need to be (1) low-powered and (2) have only 1 or two channels, selected by a single toggle switch - i.e. extremely simple to use. A fireman just doesn’t have the time or the dexterity ON THE JOB to fiddle with fancy stuff.
They also have to be EXTREMELY rugged: fire-fighting is an arduous occupation and the equipment gets a LOT of abuse.
————————
As far as “single-source” goes: Motorola HT-220’s (and their successor models) are the gold-platinum-diamond standard for rugged hand-held radios. Period.
Yes, there is far more “versatile” equipment out there. The problem is that it will fail in use due to fragility and/or be too complicated to be used by a fireman performing his job.
————————-
As for “police and filremen not being able to communicate”: that is nonsense. They do it ALL the time. At EVERY fire NYPD turns out and does their job while FDNY does their’s. They co-operate like a well lubricated machine.
It’s just that 99.999999999% of the time they operate together so well that there is no need or very little need for FD/PD radio communications.
If you will look closely you will notice that the fire-command group includes a cop, if the fire is large enough to require a fire command group - not all do - and for those that don’t, the lead cop is keeping an eye on the lead fireman and vice versa: again, no need for inter-operability.
9/11 was an exception: a MASSIVE exception. You don’t live in a bomb-shelter, do you???
Report thisBy mythbreaker, November 13, 2007 at 9:43 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
Rudy flew to Israel a couple a days after 9/11. He was told he’d be the next president and that he’d be given a little Investment banking/consulting partnership to hold him over and build up his funds.
Steal today’s WSJrl. and watch, read and listen as the fraud unfolds.
Report thisBy alicecbrown, November 13, 2007 at 6:20 pm #
Is this just another sign of our deteriorating society? a savage who speaks so calmly of torture and ‘waterboarding’ as though it were a sport. When we now know that it isn’t simulating drowning, it is drowning and can be if not stopped.
When did we become so dumb, so savage, that we will accept nice-sounding words for horrendous acts? ‘spin’, instead of ‘lie’, ‘insurgent’ instead of ‘enraged Iraqis who have had their country invaded by a hypocritical enemy who speaks of ‘freedom’ and puts their own puppets in the government of Iraq.
Report thisGuiliani is just another mask for the face of corruption and moral insanity that now grips our nation of peasants.
By cann4ing, November 13, 2007 at 12:13 am #
What Greewald has done is to deconstruct the media-constructed myth that falsely portrayed Guiliani as a 9/11 hero. Once deconstructed, Guiliani is truly exposed as the would-be emperor who has no clothes.
Report thisBy hazmaq, November 12, 2007 at 7:12 pm #
Well, here’s a very fine howdy doody to Rudy:
According to 3rd quarter donations, Barack Obama has raised almost as much as Rudy raised—in Rudy’s own charred 9-11 neighborhood hometurf of New York!
Florida reports similar figures.
A very specific breakdown is now emerging:
Barack has the peoples support.
Report thisWhere Hillary has special interests and business.
With Gore now really out of the picture, and after Iowa, Obama absolutely can win.
And I’m switching to support him.
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/2008-presidential-candidates/finance/states/ny/
By PatrickHenry, November 12, 2007 at 1:13 pm #
Rudy is perhaps the most compelling clear cut example of the MSM shoving a candidate down our throats with fake polls and plenty of press while the peoples choice of candidates Kucinich and Ron Paul goes relatively unreported.
I still love Ron Pauls response to Hannity’s questioning of the veracity of Fox’s post debate poll, “I don’t know, its your poll”.
Report thisBy mary, November 12, 2007 at 12:58 pm #
How did the “Greatest Generation” raise such Head-in-the-sand morons! How did some of the most famous Americans, journalists, manage to miss passing on some of their talents for digging out and exposing the most vile. I just can’t understand why Americans aren’t out in the streets demanding our law makers represent the people of this country and the arrest of those criminals in charge. How is it one bad generation of Americans will be the undoing of over 200 years of progess and democracy. This man should not get one moment of positive press. He should be testifing before a Fed Grand Jury for his criminal actions while mayor. It’s time to demand MSM and their journalists to do their job…..
Report thisBy Verne Arnold, November 12, 2007 at 11:23 am #
Giuliani;
Report thisWhat a maroon!
By cyrena, November 12, 2007 at 10:47 am #
Reading through these comments, (and having viewed the excellent work from Mr. Greenwald) reminded me of the close connection Id previously read about, between Giuliani and Mukasey, the newly confirmed AG. Its enough to scare the living shit out of anybody who connect even two dots.
In 1985, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Rudolph W. Giuliani, was coming under intense criticism for his aggressive tactics in prosecuting organized crime, including his use of mass trials, his habit of holding defendants without bail and his practice of subpoenaing defense lawyers to testify at their clients’ grand jury hearings, which lawyers argued was a violation of client confidentiality .
Springing to Giuliani’s defense was a former colleague, Michael B. Mukasey, who argued in a strongly worded opinion piece that Giuliani’s tough tactics were justified to defeat an enemy that, he said, was far more dangerous and powerful than Giuliani’s critics were willing to acknowledge.
In 1994, Giuliani selected Mukasey, then a federal judge, to preside over his inauguration as mayor. The ties only strengthened after Giuliani left City Hall. Mukasey’s son, Marc, a former assistant U.S. attorney himself, works as a partner at Giuliani’s consulting firm, and Giuliani named Mukasey and his son to one of his presidential campaign advisory committees .
As far as I know, Mukasey and his son are STILL on Giulianis presidential campaign advisory committees. The entire piece is at this link.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/17/AR2007091701892.html
Heres some additional stuff on Mukasey- but obviously includes Giuliani as well, considering that this info shows them as joined at the hip.
Surely it is NOT a casual coincidence that Mukasey has been put in place as the new AG.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Michael_Mukasey
Report thisBy Douglas Chalmers, November 12, 2007 at 7:22 am #
Quote The REAL Rudy: Command Center: “...I don’t know what he’s talking about…. he pulls ideas out of the air…. but they’re simply not true…”
Some people have the kind of face that looks good in 2D - on TV, that is. I knew a guy like that once (also Italian) who would say things, promise things and then believe that they had been done - just because he said them. Bad things happened to people as a result of the disasters he inevitably caused, people were injured on the job, including myself, uhh.
Report thisBy kevin99999, November 12, 2007 at 3:17 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
What a despicable man?
Report thisBy PatrickHenry, November 12, 2007 at 1:12 am #
Sean Hannity likes him, what an endorsement.
Report thisBy quixotic, November 11, 2007 at 6:03 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
In one week Rudy Giuliani was anointed by Pat Roberson and his long time ally was indicted on 15 counts of fraud. Giuliani, like Nixon, has surrounded himself with crooks (lookup Spiro Agnew and Nixon administration). I would hope that one crook after another in his close circle of campaign advisor’s would scare off a GOP that has endured endless scandals with this white house, but Rudy like Nixon will keep attacking even if he looks dead, which is what his campaign should be. Rudy and his 9-11 legacy should abandon the presidency as he is not qualified, corrupt, is a war monger and used Kerek to make money for himself despite being warned about the mafia connection.
I personally think Rudy is channeling Nixon and to quote Hunter S Thompson, “He ha(s) the fighting instincts of a badger trapped by hounds. The badger will roll over on its back and emit a smell of death, which confuses the dogs and lures them in for the traditional ripping and tearing action. But it is usually the badger who does the ripping and tearing. It is a beast that fights best on its back: rolling under the throat of the enemy and seizing it by the head with all four claws.
“That was Nixon’s(Rudy’s) style—and if you forgot, he would kill you as a lesson to the others. Badgers don’t fight fair, bubba. That’s why God made dachshunds.”
Report thisBy don knutsen, November 11, 2007 at 4:49 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
His candidacy points out very well the hypocracy of the GOP in pushing him out there riding a wave of complete bullshit over 9-11. The GOP with their so-called family values platform, following an individual who’s own children refuse to support. What does that say of the man ? If he was so heroic after 9-11, why are the fireman and policeman who were the real heros against him ? Its all bullshit, from beginning to end, after 7+ years of the chimp-in-chief the republican party has obviously come to the realization that whomever their candidate is, he certainly doesn’t have to have any qualifications. Its all about keeping the corporations in power. After all, its they, with their lucrative positions offered in complanies like the Carlyle group that will make them rich beyond their dreams after they are thru bilking the nation’s treasury and ignoring the people of this country, following in Bush Sr.‘s footsteps. A vote for Rudy, is a vote to continue the insanity of this administration. If you watch any of the republican presidential debates, its as if they are inhabiting a different universe. All they can speak of is banalities about family values and playing the fear card for all it worth. Theres absolutely no discussion, with the exception of Ron Paul, of finding a fix for any of the domestic issues that are making america lag behind more each year in our quality of life for the average citizen of our nation. All they can talk of is ways to keep us in a confused state of fear..There is an anxiety thruout the nation atleast partly compounded by the realization that we have an administration that has no qualms about lying directly to the american people over and over. They, like all pathological liars have no credibility with the american people. But, from their point of view thats unimportant. They only need to impress the corporations that write the checks..Rudy portays himself as the “Law & Order Guy”....I’m quite sure he can hardly wait to take the reins of our currrent warrior king to continue where bu$h / cheney left off. Since K. Rove has obviously had the time to put in place a much more thourough rigging of the next election, and since our elected representitives seem unable or unwilling to confront that one issue ( which pretty much trumps all others ) Rudy , despite the low approval rating of the republicans may very welll steal the 2008 election. Will we all, collectively , finally be able to admit we’ve lost our democracy then ?
Report thisBy thomas billis, November 11, 2007 at 4:43 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
What a joke.The New York media has highlighted Rudi’s faults for years.The mainstream media has chosen to ignore it.It is the same free ride that George Bush got.You think they did not know in media offices that he was he a moron.For those of you interested in finding the real Rudi just dig into the archives of the Daily News or the New York Times.It does not require the interrogation skills of Columbo to get the truth from a New York Fire Fighter or a New York City policeman.Or to find a member of the minority community in New York to be interviewed on his dismissiveness of their concerns.What surprises me with so much available the media lets Rudi get away with his statements.On Sept 10 Rudi could not have been elected dog catcher in New York.If he was such a hero in New York on 911 why does Hillary consistently beat him in New York in polls if they go head to head.the only people who are for Rudi are the ones who do not really know Rudi.
Report thisBy boggs, November 11, 2007 at 2:07 pm #
You can know all you need to know about Rudy by researching his buddies. “Birds of a feather…..” it’s true you know!
Report thisYou can also tell something of his dishonor toward wives and children.
He is dedicated to Israel more then to the U.S. and that alone makes him very dangerous.
By Conservative Yankee, November 11, 2007 at 12:49 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
Most of the front-runner candidates countenance torture in Iraq, and of foreigners.
Rudy believes in torture here at home, in the confines of the New York City Police Department.
This guy is a dirty rag with one clean spot. we can do better.
Report thisBy DennisD, November 11, 2007 at 11:59 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
Why would I expect to actually be informed by our MSM. It’s one big Entertainment Tonight with interchangeable Ken and Barbie dolls reading from a teleprompter.
These so-called news stations have unlimited money to spend on celebrity news but none to provide any insight into the people running for the highest office in the country.
The Fourth Estate is just another totally dysfunctional system in our dysfunctional country. A corporate tool used to further dumb down the majority of voters too lazy to question the propaganda they see and hear.
Report thisBy Verne Arnold, November 11, 2007 at 6:51 am #
Rudi is single-handedly the cheney/bush admin redux.
Report thisBy waxman, November 11, 2007 at 12:22 am #
SOMEONE NEEDS TO TELL THE TRUTH ABOUT MR. SLEEZE…WHO’S THE MONKEY IN THE PICTURE WITH HIM ???
Report this