In a four-part special series, “News War”, Frontline examines the political, cultural, legal, and economic forces challenging the American news media today. Through interviews with key figures in print, broadcast and electronic media over the past four decades, and with behind-the-scenes access to some of today’s most important news organizations, the documentary film traces the recent history of American journalism. It tries to explain media history from the Nixon administration’s attacks on the media to the post-Watergate popularity of the press, to the new challenges presented by the war on terror, and also covering other global forces now changing - and challenging - the role of the American press.
You can watch all four parts on the Frontline website.
A powerful American documentary about child molestation is available for online viewing at the PBS Frontline portal. Filmmaker Joe Cultrera explores the case of his brother, who was one of the approx. 10,000 children abused by Catholic priests in the US.
14-year-old Paul was sexually abused in the 1960s by Father Joseph Birmingham (see photo), who allegedly molested nearly a hundred other children in the Boston area. The film tells the story of faith betrayed, and how Paul and the rest of the Cultrera family fought back against a scandal that continues to afflict churches across America.
Paul kept his secret for nearly 30 years, until he decided to finally confront the church and launch his own investigation into whether the Archdiocese of Boston had covered up allegations against Birmingham by moving him from parish to parish.
Watch the film on PBS Frontline, or read more about the story in the Boston Globe. 
After a quarter century of political denial and social stigma, of stunning scientific breakthroughs, and inadequate prevention campaigns, HIV/AIDS continues to spread rapidly throughout much of the world, particularly in developing nations. An extensive 2-part documentary by PBS’s Frontline, made for the 25th anniversary of the first diagnosed cases of AIDS, looks at the state of the disease which has killed over 25 million people to date.
“It’s a very human virus, a very human epidemic. It touches right to the heart of our existence,” says Dr. Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS. “When you think of it, that in let’s say 25 years, about 70 million people have become infected with this virus, probably coming from one [transmission] … it’s mind blowing.”
Continue reading ‘Online documentary: The Age of AIDS’
As the US looks for an exit strategy, FRONTLINE examines the initial, critical decisions of the US-led regime in Baghdad.
From the same team that produced Rumsfeld’s War, The Torture Question and The Dark Side, the film is based on more than 30 interviews, most of them with the officials charged with building a “new and democratic” Iraq.
The Lost Year in Iraq begins on April 9, 2003, as American troops help a crowd of Iraqis topple a statue of Saddam Hussein. In Washington there was celebration, but in Baghdad the looting was beginning. Jay Garner, the retired general picked by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to lead reconstruction, was forced to wait in Kuwait for authorization to enter Iraq. He and his team had arrived from Washington without computers, telephones or a plan.
“Everybody was focused on the war; they were focused on regime change,” Garner tells FRONTLINE. “That took all of their energy. I wasn’t the central focus.” On the day Garner finally arrived in Baghdad, he received a phone call from Rumsfeld: He was being replaced by L. Paul Bremer.
Continue reading ‘Online documentary: The Lost Year in Iraq’
