NEW DOCUMENTARY: "THE CORPORATION"
commondreams.org
Published on Tuesday, February 24, 2004 by the Toronto Star
Canadian Film May Put Nader on Radar
by Antonia Zerbisias
Ralph Nader doesn't need the hundreds of millions that his Democratic and Republican rivals for the White House have in their campaign war chests.
Thanks to a Canadian documentary, the independent candidate for the U.S. presidency has political advertising for his message beyond what he could ever have planned.
The doc is, of course, The Corporation, a critical and box office hit, now in theatres across the country. In June, it opens south of the border where it could become as popular as another Canadian-backed documentary of recent years, Michael Moore's Bowling For Columbine.
And there was Nader, worried that the U.S. media would marginalize him as a "spoiler." That's because, as many maintain happened in 2000, Nader's candidacy could tip the voting balance in favor of another four years of George W. Bush.
But now, of all things, a Canadian documentary could put his anti-corporatist agenda on the public agenda.
The film, which airs in three parts on TVO starting tomorrow at 10, is a visually arresting montage of interviews, archival footage and animation, demonstrating how corporations, which have the legal rights of persons, exhibit all the clinical signs of psychopaths.
One of those personality traits? A reckless disregard for the safety of others.
Which Nader well knows, as he made his name attacking automobile manufacturers for their flawed designs. Countless lives have been saved because of his relentless advocacy.
So you can bet what's good for Nader isn't good for General Motors, or for General Electric, which owns NBC, or for any other media giant.
Yesterday, at his first post-announcement news conference, Nader complained that the corporate media "will be focused on the giant corporation in the White House masquerading as a human being, George W. Bush."
Which they are — at least judging from what CNN carried yesterday morning.
At 10:01 anchor Daryn Kagan handed off to Nader's appearance at the New York Press Club "for a moment," and then cut out mid-speech with a curt "Not the kind of news a lot of Democrats were looking for." Then CNN went live at length to Washington where Bush was speaking, big surprise, about tax cuts and terrorists.
"If Al Qaeda were a corporation, middle management has been brought to justice," said the "war president," before launching into a review of the Golden Globe-winning movie Osama — and the lie that Afghan women are enjoying wonderful post-Taliban freedoms.
Of course Bush got much more face time than Nader, with his remarks unchallenged as usual. He's the president, after all, and what the president says is, by definition, newsworthy. Even if what he says is nothing new.
Nader's spiel is nothing new either, at least not for Nader.
"Global corporations are bent on strategically planning our future, our politics, our economy, our military expenditures, our education, our environment, our culture, even our genetic inheritance," he told reporters yesterday. "These mass concentrations of power, privilege, wealth, technology and corporate immunity have placed their rampaging global quest for maximum profits in the way of progress, justice and opportunity for the very millions of American workers who made possible these corporate profits but who are falling behind, both excluded and expendable."
Which, far less tediously, is what The Corporation says.
No wonder that the National Post — which has never met a Fraser Institute study it has deemed unworthy of republishing — has been campaigning against the documentary.
It began with financial page editor Terence Corcoran, who railed against the film last month, calling it "an evil, ugly and dishonest pack of lies" — offering little evidence to back up his charge. Then, last week, when the filmmakers challenged Corcoran on his accusations, their refutations were interspersed with his comments which only further attacked the film — mostly unfairly.
But did the Post stop there?
Hah.
Film reviewer Katherine Monk, who last fall raved about The Corporation, slammed the filmmakers in another column that ran with Corcoran's attack.
Editorials editor Jonathan Kay called it "a paranoid anti-corporate snuff film, one that treats capitalism with the same level of insight and sophistication as Reefer Madness did marijuana."
Ideas columnist Gerald Own, in a particularly leaden piece, said it was a "slander."
One can only imagine how the corporate media in the U.S. will diss the documentary.
If they discuss it at all.
If they do, they'll only give it great publicity.
And if they don't, their corporate masters and advertisers will fault them for allowing what will certainly be a blockbuster bust blocks without criticism.
A corporate Catch 22, no?
Either way, Ralph Nader's message will reach its target: if not the mass media, then at least the masses.
Copyright Toronto Star Newspapers Limited.
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