Spin is a 1995 documentary which gives an interesting behind-the-scenes glimpse of the media in the early 90s. Filmmaker Brian Springer spent an entire year (1992) watching raw satellite feeds, focusing mostly on politicians, newscasters and their manipulations.
Raw satellite feeds show the viewer everything being broadcast live, without any editing. The feed keeps rolling when the news channel might have cut to commercials, or the interview segment ends. Spin shows us newscasters cracking jokes, eating donuts, schmoozing with their guests, or flat out insulting their guest out of earshot.
Springer recorded over 500 hours of video during 1992. This documentary brings us some interesting, amusing, upsetting and even shocking moments during 1992, supposedly off the record.
- Larry King letting Bill Clinton know that Ted Turner is a big fan of his, and that he (Turner) “would ah… serve you, you know what I mean?”
- Larry King discussing medication with George H.W. Bush during a commercial break.
- Bill Clinton’s running mate Al Gore holding his hand over his mic while receiving advice from someone off screen as to how he should redirect certain questions.
- Pat Robertson discussing the “homos” who are getting past the screeners on Larry King.
- Presidential candidate Larry Agran being completely disregarded and ignored as a candidate by the media, even when polling higher than other candidates.
- Pat Robertson informing someone exactly what stories he did not want to see on his network (CBN), specifically anti-abortion protesting.
- Larry King buttering up presidential candidates Bush Sr., Clinton, and Ross Perot all on separate occasions trying to be the moderator for the presidential debates (they didn’t go with him).
Spin is an eye-opener for everyone, you will not view news reporting the same way.
IMDB | Wikipedia | Wiki Brian Springer (I wasn’t able to find much info about him online)
watch Spin:
or you can go to Google Video and watch it there.
Download Spin (Quicktime .mov format) in a .zip file.
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