PopPolitics: Will Bill O’Reilly’s Ouster Lead to Further Changes in the Workplace? (Listen)
After the departure of Bill O’Reilly at Fox News, groups that put pressure on advertisers for his show continue to criticize the culture of the newsroom.
Lisa Bloom, who represents three of O’Reilly’s accusers of sexual harassment and inappropriate comments, says that she still wants New York state authorities to conduct an investigation.
On the latest edition of Variety‘s “PopPolitics” on SiriusXM, Mary Murphy of USC Annenberg and Nikki Schwab of Daily Mail talk about whether O’Reilly’s firing will lead to changes in the workplace, not just at Fox News but in the media in general. Murphy shares her own experiences of what has been said to her in her career, and she recalls O’Reilly’s reaction to a profile she did of him when he published a 1998 novel in which a fired TV newscaster gets revenge by killing former co-workers.
Listen here.
O’Reilly has denied the merits of the claims — and has accused left wing groups of orchestrating the effort to oust him. We may hear more on Monday, when he launches a new episode of his podcast.
An Iraqi Vet’s Screenplay Lands on Netflix
Chris Roessner aspired to go to film school but was pressed to find a way to pay for it. So he joined the military right before 9/11, and ended up in Iraq in the early days of the invasion. His screenplay was made into the movie “Sand Castle,” which debuted on Netflix over the weekend.
It focuses on a young private, Matt Ocre (Nicholas Hoult), who, along with other soldiers, is sent to a small Iraqi village to repair a water pumping station damaged in an American bombing. Their effort becomes an exercise in winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people, against an atmosphere of anger and resentment.
Roessner and director Fernando Coimbra talk about how the movie, coming 14 years after the U.S. invasion, gained from the perspective.
Listen below:
What the Trump-Era Protesters Can Learn From ‘Citizen Jane’
Matt Tyrnauer is the director of the new movie “Citizen Jane: Battle for the City,” about author and urban activist Jane Jacobs, who fought in the 1950s and ’60s against the accepted wisdom that cities could only be saved through urban renewal and slum clearance.
“When we started the film we couldn’t have anticipated a Donald Trump presidency and a climate in the United States that was very much about activism and protest. I think the film takes on new significance because of that,” he says.
Much of “Citizen Jane” focuses on Jacobs’ efforts to beat back attempts by New York “power broker” Robert Moses to clear out a neighborhood in Greenwich Village and build a superhighway through Lower Manhattan. Jacobs’ work ended up starting a nationwide movement of preservation and grassroots planning.
Listen below:
Tyrnauer also talks about what Jacobs had to say about issues like gentrification, which many cities are grappling with today, as well as the fast urbanization in countries like China.
“PopPolitics,” hosted by Variety‘s Ted Johnson, airs from 2-3 p.m. ET/11-noon PT on SiriusXM’s political channel POTUS. It also is available on demand.
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