Frontline

PBS's Frontline has been a source of both information and enlightenment. It's one of the shows that is sorely not advertised enough because it's on public television. They show an unbiased, objective point of view regarding any issue, situation, or circumstances. One of the episodes is about climbing Mount Everest in May 1996 where several experienced climbers died after reaching the summit, a rare accomplishment for anybody. In fact, watching the documentary makes me want to climb it even though I would never get past first camp where you have to spend 3 weeks to get accumulated to the thin air. Everybody in the documentary regarding the climb on Mount Everest comes across as real and authentic. For those of us who would never make it to Everest, this documentary allows us to experience through the people's voices and memories that come alive in their re-telling almost better than any film version.

It seems anytime a program bears witness to the unvarnished facts someone will spring up to claim it's a left leaning piece of biased commentary. What a shame. Frontline has always been a terrific place for clear, concise, information. All sides of an issue are raised and yet most often the subject (usually the antagonist) refuses to appear... only to cry "FOUL" immediately following the episodes air date. Getting into a snit afterwards does nothing to enlighten their point of view to the public and is a lame retort..

For over 30 years the series has tackled a broad range of topics with brave, thorough journalistic excellence and will be an informative legacy providing well researched facts about the issues of our century and will be a reliable reference for those living in the centuries to follow. I've especially enjoyed listening to that deep dispassionate, (yet somewhat sexy), voice of the narrator (Will Lyman) whose words convey a resonate gravitas. My favourite episode was the investigation into NFL head injury claims. It unfolded with all the suspense of a great film noir.... even though I knew nothing about the sport whatsoever!

FRONTLINE is always compelling television.

This show came from a time when people mostly got their information from TV, there were few alternatives other than print media after all, and so on subjects the viewer wasn't familiar with, they were easily persuaded by its authoritative tone. Almost no one before the age of google had the ability to easily fact check this show, and so it carries a legacy it doesn't deserve. Now since the 2016 election its become ever more clear what it is, and I question what else I grew up watching on this show wasn't actually as portrayed.

The show is a demonstration of the techniques of effective propaganda. Voice of god narration by an actor who sounds like some kind of government authority backed by ominous music to set the tone, and then you are fed narratives by chosen talking heads who launder lies, these are after all not the words of the producers, just third parties, its how its done on all such media. On the "Policing the police" episode a talking head states that she knows the police are biased just against black people because of all the white arrests she sees on cops, when the reality is the producer of Cops admitted on tape that their show was deliberately skewing things to show disproportionately more white arrests to be politically correct. This is easily fact checked, but its the kind of thing that never is as it fits their chosen narrative. So as politics becomes ever more radicalized, manipulative shows like this have proven they can no longer be trusted, and frankly they never should have been.

I use to rate this program highly. It had at least at one time, a lot of integrity, and fairly strong investigative reporting. However like a lot of modern media, it has now become little more than biased political propaganda. In their most recent episode, I noticed not only blatant and important pieces of information entirely ignored, but also the other side of the story mostly just glossed over, especially in the last hour of the program. They try to somewhat make it look legit, as if it isn't just a hit piece. However if you follow the stories closely yourself from all sides, don't be surprised to see that these days even this show is now extremely compromised. It's not a wonder that many more independently minded podcasts are now taking over a large portion of the media audience. Television journalism with integrity is essentially dead, the same could mostly be said for newspapers and radio. Science has shown us that fear slows the mind. For us as humans to be focusing on fear over facts, seems to be among the most unscientific things we could possibly be doing. Yet it's exactly this, and the beloved buzzword of the times, 'misinformation' that most media outlets continue to embrace and push.

My old rating of this program - 7.5/10

My rating of the modern program, and this rating may even be somewhat generous I feel. - 2/10.

Hammered Bush for 8 years, made Obama look like a prince for 8, and now... Trump could cure cancer and these producers would find a way to put a negative spin on it.