The media coverage of Watergate gave us much of today’s concussive, ballistic jargon of scandal. There were “bombshells.” There were “smoking guns.” Ever since, we have measured controversies as if on a decibel meter, judging them by their “fireworks” and “explosive” drama. But the most striking thing for a viewer in 2019, watching the gavel-to-gavel […]
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BEIRUT, Lebanon — The crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, said he bears “all the responsibility” for the killing of a dissident writer by Saudi agents in Istanbul last year, but denied he had prior knowledge of the plot, according to a trailer for a documentary to be released next week. The killing […]
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Tell a lie long enough and it begins to smell like the truth. Tell it even longer and it becomes part of history. Throughout “Country Music,” the new omnibus genre documentary from Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan, there are moments of tension between the stories Nashville likes to tell about itself — some true, some […]
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When two children’s television producers from the East Coast set out to make a show about an Alaska Native girl whose parents run a rural trading post, there was no question that they would need some cultural guidance. Dorothea Gillim, who was executive producer of the “Curious George” television series, grew up in Rochester, N.Y., […]
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While filming a 40th anniversary special for “This Old House” recently, Bob Vila, the show’s original host, stopped to consider why, after all these years, people still can’t seem to get enough of home improvement shows. “This Old House,” which began chronicling home renovations in 1979, was one of the first such shows to air […]
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The Corporation for Public Broadcasting distributes about $450 million annually to public radio and television stations, funding everything from “Frontline” to “Radiolab.” Patricia de Stacy Harrison, the group’s chief executive, is the one holding the purse strings. In the role for well over a decade, Ms. Harrison brings a diverse skill set to the job. […]
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