War & Truth: Trailer from Michael Samstag on Vimeo.
Sunday, February 01, 2009
Thursday, January 01, 2009
War & Truth to Air on Free Speech TV
War & Truth will be broadcast on the Free Speech TV channel on February 24 and March 5 at 9 p.m.
About Free Speech TV
The Nation's First Progressive Television Channel, Free Speech TV reaches over 25 million homes in the U.S. Finally, after 50 years of television broadcasting, there now exists a national television channel that reflects the diversity of our society, provides perspectives that are under-represented or ignored by the mainstream media, and shines a national spotlight on engaged citizens working for progressive social change.
Free Speech TV is a publicly-supported, independent, non-profit TV channel that is a project of Public Communicators, Inc., a 501(c)3 non-profit, tax-exempt organization. It is available nationally, 24/7, on DISH Satellite Network. Selected programs are available on 189 community access cable stations in 38 states.
About Free Speech TV
The Nation's First Progressive Television Channel, Free Speech TV reaches over 25 million homes in the U.S. Finally, after 50 years of television broadcasting, there now exists a national television channel that reflects the diversity of our society, provides perspectives that are under-represented or ignored by the mainstream media, and shines a national spotlight on engaged citizens working for progressive social change.
Free Speech TV is a publicly-supported, independent, non-profit TV channel that is a project of Public Communicators, Inc., a 501(c)3 non-profit, tax-exempt organization. It is available nationally, 24/7, on DISH Satellite Network. Selected programs are available on 189 community access cable stations in 38 states.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
James Crawley, 1957 - 2008
By ELLEN ROBERTSON
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
James Walter Crawley II wanted so much to cover the Iraq invasion that he had gastric bypass surgery.
James Walter Crawley II was a journalist who climbed ropes, crawled on his belly, lifted weights, marched for miles, learned to use a gas mask and came under gunfire for the privilege of filing his military stories.
The chief military reporter from 1994 until October 2004 for the San Diego Union-Tribune, he specialized in covering the Navy and the Marine Corps.
Mr. Crawley, who from October 2004 until recently covered national security and veterans affairs for Media General News Service, died Tuesday at 51. The Tulsa, Okla., native, who lost a kidney to cancer in early 2007, succumbed in a Rockville, Md., hospital, near his home, to kidney cancer that metastasized to his brain.
During Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003, he was embedded with the Marines' 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion. He covered the invasion from the border to Baghdad. He was among the first group of American journalists the government ever trained prior to a military action.
"He would do anything for a story," said his wife, Melba Crawley.
"He weighed about 340 pounds and couldn't lose the weight to get fit enough to go with the Marines [to Iraq] . . . . He had a gastric bypass and lost 130 pounds."
He also reported on Operation Enduring Freedom, the American action in Afghanistan, from naval warships in the Arabian Sea and from Bahrain.
"He brought to the job encyclopedic knowledge," said Peter Hardin, former Washington correspondent for the Richmond Times-Dispatch. "Jim never was too busy to explain kindly to an inquiring colleague a military acronym, technical terms involved in writing about a missile or a military firearm or the location of a city in Iraq."
Mr. Crawley served as national president and webmaster of Military Reporters and Editors and was a member of Investigative Reporters and Editors.
Mr. Crawley grew up in Oklahoma City and moved to Dallas his junior year in high school, where he joined the newspaper staff to meet girls, his wife said. He was in a pre-medical program at Texas A&M University, on the way to becoming an emergency-room doctor, when he discovered a medical-school executive was taking kickbacks from a supplier, his wife said.
Deciding to write a newspaper story about the situation, he went to the executive for comment. "The man looked over his glasses and said, 'You're a second-year premed student and I can keep you from being able to get into a good medical school.' The next day, Jim changed his major to journalism and printed the story," his wife said.
Mr. Crawley also had a master's degree in journalism from American University.
He also worked, either as a reporter or an editor, for newspapers in Oklahoma, Texas and Florida.
His reporting awards included the San Diego Press Club's Drew Silvern Award for Courage in Journalism and the Navy League of the United States' Alfred Thayer Mahan Award for Literary Achievement.
"Jim was the type of reporter most other reporters dream of having the chance to work with," said Mary Shaffrey, a former Washington correspondent for the Winston-Salem Journal.
Survivors, besides his wife, include a stepson, Raymond Tilley of Ramona, Calif.; his parents, James W. and Jane Crawley of Dallas; and a brother, Karl Crawley of Rowlett, Texas.
A memorial service will be held Monday at 10 a.m. at the Church of the Redeemer, 19425 Woodfield Road in Gaithersburg, Md.
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
James Walter Crawley II wanted so much to cover the Iraq invasion that he had gastric bypass surgery.
James Walter Crawley II was a journalist who climbed ropes, crawled on his belly, lifted weights, marched for miles, learned to use a gas mask and came under gunfire for the privilege of filing his military stories.
The chief military reporter from 1994 until October 2004 for the San Diego Union-Tribune, he specialized in covering the Navy and the Marine Corps.
Mr. Crawley, who from October 2004 until recently covered national security and veterans affairs for Media General News Service, died Tuesday at 51. The Tulsa, Okla., native, who lost a kidney to cancer in early 2007, succumbed in a Rockville, Md., hospital, near his home, to kidney cancer that metastasized to his brain.
During Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003, he was embedded with the Marines' 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion. He covered the invasion from the border to Baghdad. He was among the first group of American journalists the government ever trained prior to a military action.
"He would do anything for a story," said his wife, Melba Crawley.
"He weighed about 340 pounds and couldn't lose the weight to get fit enough to go with the Marines [to Iraq] . . . . He had a gastric bypass and lost 130 pounds."
He also reported on Operation Enduring Freedom, the American action in Afghanistan, from naval warships in the Arabian Sea and from Bahrain.
"He brought to the job encyclopedic knowledge," said Peter Hardin, former Washington correspondent for the Richmond Times-Dispatch. "Jim never was too busy to explain kindly to an inquiring colleague a military acronym, technical terms involved in writing about a missile or a military firearm or the location of a city in Iraq."
Mr. Crawley served as national president and webmaster of Military Reporters and Editors and was a member of Investigative Reporters and Editors.
Mr. Crawley grew up in Oklahoma City and moved to Dallas his junior year in high school, where he joined the newspaper staff to meet girls, his wife said. He was in a pre-medical program at Texas A&M University, on the way to becoming an emergency-room doctor, when he discovered a medical-school executive was taking kickbacks from a supplier, his wife said.
Deciding to write a newspaper story about the situation, he went to the executive for comment. "The man looked over his glasses and said, 'You're a second-year premed student and I can keep you from being able to get into a good medical school.' The next day, Jim changed his major to journalism and printed the story," his wife said.
Mr. Crawley also had a master's degree in journalism from American University.
He also worked, either as a reporter or an editor, for newspapers in Oklahoma, Texas and Florida.
His reporting awards included the San Diego Press Club's Drew Silvern Award for Courage in Journalism and the Navy League of the United States' Alfred Thayer Mahan Award for Literary Achievement.
"Jim was the type of reporter most other reporters dream of having the chance to work with," said Mary Shaffrey, a former Washington correspondent for the Winston-Salem Journal.
Survivors, besides his wife, include a stepson, Raymond Tilley of Ramona, Calif.; his parents, James W. and Jane Crawley of Dallas; and a brother, Karl Crawley of Rowlett, Texas.
A memorial service will be held Monday at 10 a.m. at the Church of the Redeemer, 19425 Woodfield Road in Gaithersburg, Md.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Death of a Network Career
From www.deusexmalcontent.com:
FULL ARTICLE
With the exception of the period immediately following 9/11, which saw the best characteristics of television journalism shocked back into focus and the passion of even the most jaded and cynical of its practitioners return like a shot of adrenaline to the heart, the profession I once loved and felt honored to be a part of has lost its way.
I say this with the knowledge of implied complicity: I continued to draw a salary from stations at the local level and national networks long after I had noticed an unsettling trend in which real news was being regularly abandoned in favor of, well, crap. I may not have drank the Kool-aid, but I did take the money. I may have been uncomfortable with a lot of what I was putting on the air, but I was comfortable in the life that it provided me. I just figured, screw it, most people don't like their jobs; shut up and do what you're told, or at least try to. Besides, I told myself, what the hell else do you know how to do?
FULL ARTICLE
Sunday, October 07, 2007
New Awards from SSFF!
"War & Truth" won two awards at the Secret City Film Festival, Documentary Director's Choice and Best East Tennessee feature Film!
Thursday, October 04, 2007
"War & Truth" TN Premiere
"War & Truth" is coming home this weekend with it's Tennessee Premiere at the fourth anual Secret City Film Festival. The film will be shown Saturday, Oct. 6, at 9:15 p.m. and a reception hosted by Knoxville Films will follow at 10:30 p.m.
Details on the premiere can be found at www.secretcityfilmfestival.com and www.knoxvillefilms.com.
Details on the premiere can be found at www.secretcityfilmfestival.com and www.knoxvillefilms.com.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Review from The American Prospect
"The discrepancy between what journalists see on assignment and what their publishers approve for dissemination to the American public is the subject of Michael Samstag's new documentary, War & Truth, which chronicles the high-risk careers of embedded war correspondents from World War II to the present day. Supplementing archival footage rescued from a military storage depot with the commentary of retired and active war correspondents, Samstag and producer Debbie Etchison reconstruct the details of war that so often don't make it back to the American people."
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