Author: Neon Vincent

Last week, I posted  A comparison of two measures of media bias, which was modified from A comparison of two measures of media bias shows readers and viewers respond to both ideology and quality at my personal blog.  It’s time to post its sequel.

Of all the stories I could have used to follow up on this entry, which was the last one to enter the all-time top ten, the rating of Wonkette is by far the funniest.  Ad Fontes Media, which produces the Media Bias Chart, placed Wonkette on the chart in September 2018, one month after I posted the entry.  Wonkette was not pleased and had pointed things to say about its placement.

Here at Wonkette, we often make #jokes in our headlines and say things that are not literally true for humor purposes, and when we do that it’s pretty fucking spelled out, honestly. For instance, when we wrote that Pat Robertson beat up Hurricane Florence with his Bible and now Hurricane Florence is dead, we do not expect Ms. Otero to literally believe the hurricane is gone because Robertson beat it up!

Shorter Wonkette: Ad Fontes Media has no sense of humor.  I’ve seen that before.

I’m not sure how Wonkette would react to being called a bunch of evil clowns.  They would probably agree about the clown part, but maybe not the evil, although it would depend on the writer.  I’m sure some of them would take it as a badge of honor.

Back to Wonkette’s reaction.

Wonkette is not to the left of Jacobin. In fact, Jacobin would probably tell you that their own selves, verrrrry self-righteously. We are also not to the left of The Intercept.
…
I would agree we are ‘nonsense damaging to discourse’ but we’re HYPERPARTISAN LEFT not EXTREME LEFT and we do NOT BELONG IN MISLEADING, we belong in EXTREME/UNFAIR INTERPRETATION OF THE NEWS.

In other words, “Yeah, we’re biased, but not that biased!”  According to their own view of their site, it belongs on that chart next to Daily Kos, not where it is the the left of Jacobin (I agree, that’s silly) and just above Patribotics (that’s insulting).

Ad Fontes Media responded to Wonkette’s reaction.

The main reasons for Wonkette’s low quality placement are that in our ranking methodology, highly unfair characterizations of political opponents, such as ad hominem attacks, name calling, and foul language result in low scores for quality and high scores for bias–even if it’s for humor.

I see they object to this. I am not calling them “fake news.” That term is not on the chart. Note that the category they are in for quality is “propaganda/ contains misleading info,” which is an “and/or” category. That is, the category is propaganda OR misleading. My ranking categorized them as “propaganda” because its articles get such high scores in the “unfairness instances” metric on the article grading rubric. Propaganda is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as “information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view.” Many Wonkette headlines are also misleading–for example, though the headline says otherwise, the chart does not say it is “fake news,” and, it is ranked meaningfully higher than Louise Mensch’s blog, Patribotics. However, Wonkette’s articles can be categorized more often as “propaganda” than “misleading.”

That was Ad Fontes Media’s justification of its placement of Wonkette.  What about Wonkette’s defense that it’s all a joke?

“It’s funny/it’s just a joke/it’s “clever snark”

This is true. Their writing is hilarious, especially as viewed through the lens of other liberal, internet savvy, politically astute readers who love a sick burn. However, things that are funny can also be unfair at the same time. So insults, ad hominem attacks, curse words, and name calling, WHILE VERY FUNNY, are still unfair means of persuasion. We categorize several rhetorical devices and statements as unfair in our rankings. A general guideline for what counts as “unfair” are 1) practices not in accordance with journalism ethics and writing style guides and 2) types of information that would not be admissible in court according to rules of evidence. I’ve written more on the “unfairness instances” metric in this previous post.

You may not be convinced that funny insults make a source low quality (just merely biased, you may concede), especially if you like and agree with them. If you like Wonkette and the names it calls Republicans and Trump, consider what you would think of the quality of a source on the right if it regularly called Hillary Clinton a bitch or a hag or worse. Also consider what moderate or slightly conservative readers would think of the quality of Wonkette’s stories in terms of how persuasive they are to them.

Ad Fontes Media then goes on from Wonkette to all kinds of political humor.

I admit it was my subjective decision to have that underlying premise, but I submit that this type of content only serves to reinforce one’s existing beliefs and alienate the other side, and is therefore, highly polarizing. There are certainly lots of sources that do this: for example, John Oliver, Bill Maher, and other evening comedy shows also use pretty cruel humor. There is an audience for it because it is cathartic. There is an important place in our discourse and democracy for humor–we need to have the freedom to be able to make fun of our leaders. But to the extent people rely on it for 1) news ( i.e., fact reporting) and 2) takes on the news (i.e., analysis/opinion), I think that kind of content  is highly polarizing, and thus, extremely damaging.

As support for the proposition that it is damaging, I point to the state of our country’s current discourse and the resulting election of our current president.

I’m not saying these sources have no merit. Humor has purpose. I watch these shows. I’ve read lots on Wonkette. But to the extent people rely on these for news, I argue they should not rely on them, and to the extent these sources try to fill the space where news is, they do damage.

That’s a sobering thought.  It won’t stop me from using John Oliver, Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, Trevor Noah, or Samantha Bee to comment on the news, but I will be more cautious about doing so when I could use a more serious news source.

In Alex Jones removed from Facebook, Apple, YouTube, and Spotify, prompting free speech concerns on my personal blog, I mentioned the Media Bias Chart (above), which rates news sources on their bias and quality.  The next day, FiveThirtyEight displayed another chart about media bias from Nieman Labs that showed Democrats see most news outlets as unbiased. Republicans think they’re almost all biased.  After seeing both, I thought it would be interesting to compare the two to see if they agree and if they share any common patterns.  Besides, I’ve found it’s a good idea to listen when the universe is talking.

The first chart from Nieman Labs displays “‘net bias’ scores for news organizations: ‘the percentage who see each as `not biased at all’ or `not very biased’ minus the percentage who see each as `extremely biased’ or `very biased.’ On this measure, positive scores indicate that more people consider the news source unbiased than biased, and negative scores mean more people consider it biased than unbiased.'”

The news sources with positive scores in this study all fit in the green top box of the Media Bias Chart as “fact reporting” and “original fact reporting,” although the order differs; the Media Bias Charts ranks the Associated Press highest, followed by ABC News and CBS News, then NPR and PBS, followed by USA Today then The Wall Street Journal.  However, three sources that the Media Bias Chart displays in the green box as quality outlets, NBC News, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, all have negative scores.  Both The New York Times and The Washington Post fall in the “skews liberal” column, while NBC sits at the left end of the three broadcast networks, although still in the “minimal partisan bias or balance of biases” column, so conservatives may see them as biased despite the quality of their reporting.  To test that, I’m sharing charts of the perceived biases of news sources side-by-side with the results from Democrats on the left and Republicans on the right.

Nieman Labs quoted the original study’s findings.

“Democrats, including Democratic-leaning independents, tend to see most news organizations as unbiased, except for Fox News, Breitbart News, Mother Jones, the Huffington Post, and Vox,” the authors write. “Republicans, including Republican-leaning independents, tend to see all news organizations as biased. The two exceptions are Fox News and The Wall Street Journal.”

Sure enough, Republicans think that NBC News, The New York Times, and The Washington Post are all very biased, while Democrats consider them relatively unbiased.  In addition, Republicans appear to be picking up the slight differences in bias among other news sources.  Of the outlets with positive ratings, The Wall Street Journal skews conservative, while PBS, CBS News, and ABC News are all arrayed from right-to-left in the top center box, exactly the same order in which Republicans rate them as being biased.  In addition, the Media Bias Charts shows the Associated Press slightly to the left of PBS, which could be enough to flip their order on the chart from Nieman Labs of net bias.  All this is enough to make me conclude that for fact-reporting sources, slight differences in ideological slant are enough to affect their perceived bias by readers and viewers.

For sources that fall in the analysis, opinion, and propaganda boxes, ideological positions appear to be less important than the quality of reporting.  Both Democrats and Republicans think Vox and Mother Jones are biased, but Republicans think that CNN is more biased than either, while Democrats rank it between USA Today and The Wall Street Journal.  Looking at the Media Bias Chart might explain why.  While CNN is only as far left as The New York Times and Washington Post, it straddles the line between fair and unfair interpretations of the news, so its quality of reporting is rated lower than Vox, Mother Jones, and MSNBC, all of which present fair interpretations of news according to the Media Bias Chart while still in the “skews liberal” and “hyper-partisan liberal” columns.  The Republicans seem to pick up on this, rating CNN as the most biased news source, even more so than MSNBC, which makes no effort to hide its liberal leanings, especially in its evening shows.*  Both liberals and conservatives consider The Huffington Post as biased, an assessment the Media Bias Chart agrees with.  It also considers its reporting to be unfair interpretations of the news, so its lower quality places it below CNN on a survey of all respondents.  Finally, the most biased sources overall are Breitbart News and Fox News, which are both “hyper-partisan conservative” and “nonsense damaging to public discourse.”  Democrats drive that rating of Fox News, as they consider it the most biased news source, while Republicans consider it the least.  The power of ideology returns!  At least both sides agree that Breitbart is biased.  That’s reassuring.

*I think they are right to consider CNN biased, but I think it’s a personal bias against Trump, not an ideological bias against conservatives.

Happy Hump Day!  I’m continuing to be the DJ and bartender for this weekly series while Don Durito is returning from his walkabout.  For today’s theme, I’m sharing selections from soundtracks of movies nominated at the Golden Globe Awards.  This continues the theme of movie music and awards shows that I started in Midweek Cafe and Lounge, Vol. 94 and continued in last week’s Midweek Cafe and Lounge, Vol. 95.

I begin with United Nations / End Titles by Ludwig Goransson from “Black Panther.”

This score has also been nominated for a Grammy and a Critics’ Choice Award and, like all the rest of the Golden Globes nominees, is on the shortlist for an Oscar nomination.

Next, “Isle of Dogs” End Titles by Alexandre Desplat.

This is also nominated for a Critics’ Choice Award.

I’m continuing with Marco Beltrami – “A Quiet Life” from “A Quiet Place.”

This is the only Golden Globe nomination for this movie.

The selection from the fourth nominated score is “The Landing (from First Man)” by Justin Hurwitz.

This is also nominated for a Critics’ Choice Award.

The final selection from a nominated score is Marc Shaiman – Theme from Mary Poppins Returns

This is also nominated for a Critics’ Choice Award.
Once again, I’m concluding the diary proper by quoting Don Durito.

For those of you wondering how I and Neon Vincent are circumventing Sucuri to embed videos, here is an example of the embed code we use, so that you can replicate as wanted:

Just remember that each unique 11-digit video code in YouTube needs to be pasted in two separate locations within the embed code in order for your video to show up properly. So easy that I can do it!

With those instructions, feel free to post your favorite music videos in the comments.

Happy Hump Day!  I’m continuing to be the DJ and bartender for this weekly series while Don Durito is returning from his walkabout.  For today’s theme, I’m sharing songs from movies nominated at the Golden Globe Awards.  This continues the theme of movie music and awards shows that I started in last week’s Midweek Cafe and Lounge, Vol. 94.

I begin with Dolly Parton: Girl in the Movies from the movie “Dumplin’.”  This performance is from The Tonight Show.

Music guest Dolly Parton performs “Girl in the Movies,” with special guest Linda Perry, for the Tonight Show audience.

Next, Annie Lennox – Requiem For A Private War from “A Private War.”

“Writing `Requiem for a Private War’ for the film `A Private War’ has not only given me an opportunity to honour Marie Colvin, but also aims to amplify the `truth to power’ message she fought all her life to convey to the world, regarding the atrocious consequences of warfare and it’s effects upon innocent civilian populations.” Annie Lennox

The last song I’m sharing in the diary proper is REVELATION (Lyric Video) – Troye Sivan and Jónsi from “Boy Erased.”

The other two nominees are “All The Stars” from “Black Panther” and “Shallow” from “A Star Is Born,” which I’ll post in the comments.  They had their time in the diary proper last week.
Once again, I’m concluding the diary proper by quoting Don Durito.

For those of you wondering how I and Neon Vincent are circumventing Sucuri to embed videos, here is an example of the embed code we use, so that you can replicate as wanted:

Just remember that each unique 11-digit video code in YouTube needs to be pasted in two separate locations within the embed code in order for your video to show up properly. So easy that I can do it!

With those instructions, feel free to post your favorite music videos in the comments.

A belated Happy Hump Day!  I’m continuing to be the DJ and bartender for this weekly series while Don Durito is returning from his walkabout.  For today’s theme, I’m sharing songs from movies nominated at the Grammy Awards.  Yes, I’m a sucker for movie music and awards shows.  Today’s category is Best Song Written For Visual Media.

I begin with a song that I predicted would earn a Grammy nomination last May, Kendrick Lamar, SZA – All The Stars from “Black Panther.”

I also predicted that it would earn an Oscar nomination.  I’ll have to wait until next month to find out if I’m right, but it did earn a Golden Globe nomination, so that’s a start.  In the meantime, I’ll note that “All the Stars” is also nominated for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Rap/Sung Performance.

Also earning nominations at both the Grammy Awards and Golden Globes is “Shallow” by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper from “A Star Is Born.”

Like “All the Stars,” “Shallow” has four Grammy nominations.  In addition to Best Song Written For Visual Media, it is also nominated for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance.

The last song I’m sharing in the diary proper is the Oscar winning “Remember Me” from “Coco,” which I used in a comment to Midweek Cafe and Lounge, Vol. 49.  Hey, I’m an environmentalist, I recycle.

I’ll post the rest of the nominees for Best Song Written For Visual Media in the comments.
Once again, I’m concluding the diary proper by quoting Don Durito.

For those of you wondering how I and Neon Vincent are circumventing Sucuri to embed videos, here is an example of the embed code we use, so that you can replicate as wanted:

Just remember that each unique 11-digit video code in YouTube needs to be pasted in two separate locations within the embed code in order for your video to show up properly. So easy that I can do it!

With those instructions, feel free to post your favorite music videos in the comments.

Happy Hump Day!  I’m continuing to be the DJ and bartender for this weekly series while Don Durito is on walkabout.  For today’s theme, I’m posting my favorite songs from the Amazon Prime series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, the second season of which debuted today.

I begin with A Wonderful Day – The Roar of the Greasepaint, the Smell of the Crowd.

Next, Perry Como – Papa Loves Mambo.

For the final song in the diary, I’m sharing Fever – Peggy Lee.*

Once again, I’m concluding the diary proper by quoting Don Durito.

For those of you wondering how I and Neon Vincent are circumventing Sucuri to embed videos, here is an example of the embed code we use, so that you can replicate as wanted:

Just remember that each unique 11-digit video code in YouTube needs to be pasted in two separate locations within the embed code in order for your video to show up properly. So easy that I can do it!

With those instructions, feel free to post your favorite music videos in the comments.

*I’ll post more from the playlist in the comments.

Happy Hump Day!  I’m continuing to be the DJ and bartender for this weekly series while Don Durito is on walkabout.  For today’s theme, I’m posting my favorite songs from the “Ozark” soundtrack.*  For those of my readers who don’t know about this Netflix series, IMDB states its premise as “A financial adviser drags his family from Chicago to the Missouri Ozarks, where he must launder $500 million in five years to appease a drug boss.”  Imagine “Breaking Bad” where the whole family, the Byrds, played by Jason Bateman, Laura Linney, Sofia Hublitz, and Skylar Gaertner, is in on it, not just Walter “Heisenberg” White, and they’re laundering the money, not making and selling the drugs.

The first song that caught my attention was Radiohead’s “Deck’s Dark,” which played over the final scene of the first episode.  It really helped convey the Byrd family’s isolation in a new and unfamiliar, if spectacular, environment.  Since the original studio version by Radiohead is unavailable on YouTube, here is Jardim America’s cover.

Next, Still the Same by Bob Segar, which gets played over and over on a jukebox at the resort where

The final one for tonight is “That Will Be the Day” by Buddy Holly, which plays over a car accident.

Once again, I’m concluding the diary proper by quoting Don Durito.

For those of you wondering how I and Neon Vincent are circumventing Sucuri to embed videos, here is an example of the embed code we use, so that you can replicate as wanted:

Just remember that each unique 11-digit video code in YouTube needs to be pasted in two separate locations within the embed code in order for your video to show up properly. So easy that I can do it!

With those instructions, feel free to post your favorite music videos in the comments.

*I’ll post more from the playlist in the comments.

Happy Hump Day and happy Thanksgiving Eve!  I’m continuing to be the DJ and bartender for this weekly series while Don Durito is on walkabout.  For today’s theme, I’m picking songs from Billboard’s Thanksgiving Songs: Music About Food, Giving Thanks, and the Holiday.

The first song on the list just happens to tie into my love of awards shows, in this case,  the 2018 Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards.  As I reported in ‘RBG’ wins Best Political Documentary, ‘Won’t You Be My Neighbor?’ Best Documentary at my personal blog, Quincy Jones received Most Compelling Living Subject of a Documentary and the documentary “Quincy” won Best Music Documentary.  With no further ado, here is Groovy Gravy.

Next, James Brown with Mashed Potatoes, U.S.A.

For the last song in the diary proper, I’m sharing Thanksgiving Theme by Vince Guaraldi from the Peanuts specials.*

I had to have some music for Snoopy to dance to.
Once again, I’m concluding the diary proper by quoting Don Durito.

For those of you wondering how I and Neon Vincent are circumventing Sucuri to embed videos, here is an example of the embed code we use, so that you can replicate as wanted:

Just remember that each unique 11-digit video code in YouTube needs to be pasted in two separate locations within the embed code in order for your video to show up properly. So easy that I can do it!

With those instructions, feel free to post your favorite music videos in the comments.

*I’ll post more from the playlist in the comments.

Happy Hump Day!  I’m taking over the DJ and bartender duties while Don Durito is on walkabout.  For today’s theme, I’m being a good environmentalist and recycling the songs I posted in the comments to Midweek Cafe and Lounge, Vol. 85, which were the finalists for Music Video of 2018 at the People’s Choice Awards.  Yes, I love awards shows.

Selena Gomez, “Back to You”

Ariana Grande, “No Tears Left to Cry”

Childish Gambino, “This Is America”

Camila Cabello, “Never Be the Same”

BTS, “Idol”

I begin with the winner of not only Music Video of 2018, but also Song of 2018, Group of 2018, and Social Celebrity of 2018, BTS with “Idol.”

While I voted for “This Is America” by Childish Gambino, I can see why “Idol” won.  Speaking of which, here is my personal favorite among the finalists.

My second favorite nominee was “No Tears Left To Cry” by Ariana Grande.

I’ll post the videos of the other two finalists plus videos of songs by the other music winners in the comments.
Once again, I’m concluding the diary proper by quoting Don Durito.

For those of you wondering how I and Neon Vincent are circumventing Sucuri to embed videos, here is an example of the embed code we use, so that you can replicate as wanted:

Just remember that each unique 11-digit video code in YouTube needs to be pasted in two separate locations within the embed code in order for your video to show up properly. So easy that I can do it!

With those instructions, feel free to post your favorite music videos in the comments.

The Critics’ Choice Documentary awards are tonight, so I am sharing an entry on the nominees.  I begin a with a video listing all of the nominees from Brian Sanchez: Critics Choice Documentary Awards 2018.

See what the Critics nominated for the Best in Documentary film. RBG? Won’t You Be My Neighbor? Free Solo? Making a Murder?

For today’s entry, I am focusing on the nominees for Best Political Documentary.  Here they are from the Critics’ Choice Awards website.

BEST POLITICAL DOCUMENTARY

RBG – Directors: Julie Cohen, Betsy West (Magnolia Pictures, Participant Media)
Dark Money – Director: Kimberly Reed (PBS)
Fahrenheit 11/9 – Director: Michael Moore (Briarcliff Entertainment)
Flint Town – Directors: Zackary Canepari, Drea Cooper, Jessica Dimmock (Netflix)
Hitler’s Hollywood – Director: Rüdiger Suchsland (Kino Lorber)
John McCain: For Whom the Bell Tolls – Directors: George Kunhardt, Peter W. Kunhardt, Teddy Kunhardt (HBO)
The Fourth Estate – Directors: Liz Garbus, Jenny Carchman (Showtime Networks)

Out of this field, the most nominated entries are “Dark Money” and “Hitler’s Hollywood” with four nominations each. “Dark Money” earned nominations for Best Documentary, Best Director for Kimberly Reed, and Best Editing in addition to Best Political Documentary.  The nominations for “Hitler’s Hollywood” are Best Documentary, Best Political Documentary, Best Director for Rüdiger Suchsland, and Most Innovative Documentary.  For this award, I suspect the contest will end up being between these two and “RBG,” which is the third nominee for Best Political Documentary also nominated for Best Documentary.

The other nominees for Best Political Documentary with a second nomination are “Flint Town” and “The Fourth Estate,” both of which earned nominations for Best Limited Documentary Series.  I doubt two nominations will be enough to put either in the role of favorite for that award.  That distinction goes to Wild Wild Country, which won Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards.  The series has nods for Best Documentary, Best Director for Chapman Way and Maclain Way, Most Innovative Documentary, Best Cinematography, and Best Limited Documentary Series.  As for “Fahrenheit 11/9” and “John McCain: For Whom the Bell Tolls,” each has only the one nomination for Best Political Documentary.

Meanwhile, “RBG” has already earned an award for Ruth Bader Ginsburg as Most Compelling Living Subject of a Documentary in addition to the film’s nominations for Best Documentary and Best Political Documentary.  Also, “The Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA) and the Broadcast Television Journalists Association (BTJA) have named Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Michael Moore as the recipient of the Critics’ Choice Lifetime Achievement Award.”  Congratulations to both of them in addition to all the others who will be honored for Most Compelling Living Subject of a Documentary.

Scotty Bowers – Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood (Greenwich Entertainment)
Ruth Bader Ginsburg – RBG (Magnolia Pictures, Participant Media)
Alex Honnold – Free Solo (National Geographic Documentary Film)
Joan Jett – Bad Reputation (Magnolia Pictures)
Quincy Jones – Quincy (Netflix)
David Kellman and Bobby Shafran – Three Identical Strangers (Neon, CNN Films)
John McEnroe – John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection (Oscilloscope Laboratories)
Leon Vitali – Filmworker (Kino Lorber)

Follow over the jump for my takes on some of the other categories in which these films earned nominations plus the other nominees I think will be of interest to fans of political films.

Four of the entries I’ve mentioned also earned nominations for Best Documentary, so I’ll begin with the top category.

BEST DOCUMENTARY

Crime + Punishment – Director: Stephen Maing (Hulu)
Dark Money – Director: Kimberly Reed (PBS)
Free Solo – Directors: Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi (National Geographic Documentary Films)
Hal – Director: Amy Scott (Oscilloscope Laboratories)
Hitler’s Hollywood – Director: Rüdiger Suchsland (Kino Lorber)
Minding the Gap – Director: Bing Liu (Hulu)
RBG – Directors: Julie Cohen, Betsy West (Magnolia Pictures, Participant Media)
Three Identical Strangers – Director: Tim Wardle (Neon, CNN Films)
Wild Wild Country – Directors: Chapman Way, Maclain Way (Netflix)
Won’t You Be My Neighbor? – Director: Morgan Neville (Focus Features)

I’ll quote from the press release about the more nominated entries in this category.

Free Solo leads this year with six nominations and one honor, including Best Documentary, Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi for Best Directors, Best Sports Documentary, Most Innovative Documentary, Best Cinematography, Best Editing and a Most Compelling Living Subject of a Documentary honor for Alex Honnold.
…
The nominations for Minding the Gap are Best Documentary, Best Sports Documentary, Bing Liu for Best Director and for Best First Time Director, and Best Cinematography.
…
The nominations for Won’t You Be My Neighbor? are Best Documentary, Morgan Neville for Best Director, Most Innovative Documentary and Best Editing.

Three Identical Strangers received three nominations and an honor, including Best Documentary, Tim Wardle for Best Director, Best Editing and an honor for David Kellman and Bobby Shafran for Most Compelling Living Subjects of a Documentary.

In addition, “Hal” earned a nomination for Best First Time Director, while “Crime + Punishment” only garnered a Best Documentary nomination.

Based on the number of nominations, “Free Solo” looks like the favorite for this award.  However, Box Office Mojo identifies the three most popular based on ticket receipts.  “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” the biography of Fred Rogers, earned $22,609,437 to be the top grossing documentary of 2018 so far.  “RBG” is currently in second among documentaries with $14,017,361, while “Three Identical Strangers” is close behind at $12,320,845.  “Free Solo” with $7,346,873 is currently in fourth.*  Because of that, I think the contest is really among these four movies plus “Minding the Gap,” which is on Hulu, so it doesn’t have a box office to compare, unless the winner of the next category sneaks past them.

BEST LIMITED DOCUMENTARY SERIES

America to Me (Starz)
Dirty Money (Netflix)
Elvis Presley: The Searcher (HBO Documentary Films, Sony Pictures Television)
Flint Town (Netflix)
One Strange Rock (National Geographic)
The Fourth Estate (Showtime Networks)
The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling (HBO)
Wild Wild Country (Netflix)

I’ve already written that “Flint Town” and “The Fourth Estate” are unlikely to prevail over Emmy winner “Wild Wild Country,” but I also have to add that all three are competing against another Emmy winner, “The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling.”  The only good news for either is that journalists are voting for this award, not show business professionals, so the electorate might respond better to good reporting, which the first three nominees showcase, over the portrayal of a popular dead entertainer, which the Emmy electorate rewarded.  That’s the one hope I have for Emmy nominee “The Fourth Estate,” an inside look at the New York Times’ coverage of the first year of the Trump Administration.

Two other nominees might be of interest to fans of political documentaries, “America to Me,” which examines “one of Chicago’s most progressive public schools, located in suburban Oak Park,” and “Dirty Money,” “an American documentary television series which tells stories of corporate corruption.”  Public schools are a function of government and corporate corruption is one of the issues Coffee Party USA, of which I am a director, has as one of its top five reform priorities.

I am also a scientist, so I have a personal interest in “One Strange Rock,” which IMDB calls “The extraordinary story of Earth and why it is special and uniquely brimming with life among a largely unknown but harsh cosmic arena; astronauts tell the story of Earth through unique perspective.”  I don’t think it has a chance of winning, but that doesn’t mean I won’t watch it.

BEST ONGOING DOCUMENTARY SERIES

30 for 30 (ESPN)
American Masters (PBS)
Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown (CNN)
Frontline (PBS)
Independent Lens (PBS)
Making a Murderer (Netflix)
POV (PBS)
The History of Comedy (CNN)

Continuing on with television, this category features a clash of winners between the two Emmy Awards that I cover, the Creative Arts and Primetime Emmys on one hand and the News and Documentary Emmy Awards on the other.  “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown” won six posthumous Creative Arts Emmy Awards, while “Frontline” and “Independent Lens” won two awards each at the News and Documentary Emmys including one for “Tower.”  I suspect the sympathy vote for Bourdain is likely to continue, so I consider his show to be the favorite.  The upset might go to “American Masters,” last year’s winner.

BEST DIRECTOR

Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi – Free Solo (National Geographic Documentary Films)
Bing Liu – Minding the Gap (Hulu)
Morgan Neville – Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (Focus Features)
Kimberly Reed – Dark Money (PBS)
Rüdiger Suchsland – Hitler’s Hollywood (Kino Lorber)
Tim Wardle – Three Identical Strangers (Neon, CNN Films)
Chapman Way and Maclain Way – Wild Wild Country (Netflix)

Based on the number of nominations and type of nominations, I think this will be among Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi for “Free Solo,” Bing Liu for “Minding the Gap,” and Chapman Way and Maclain Way for “Wild Wild Country” with Chin and Vasarhelyi favored.  The Ways might have an issue for directing a television series while Bing is likely to be the favorite for the next award.

BEST FIRST TIME DIRECTOR

Cristina Costantini and Darren Foster – Science Fair (National Geographic Documentary Films)
Heather Lenz – Kusama – Infinity (Magnolia Pictures)
Bing Liu – Minding the Gap (Hulu)
Stephen Nomura Schible – Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda (MUBI)
Amy Scott – Hal (Oscilloscope Laboratories)
Rudy Valdez – The Sentence (HBO Documentary Films)

Bing is the only one of this field also nominated for Best Director, so I think he’s the clear favorite.  With that out of the way, I am calling my readers’ attention to two other nominees, “Science Fair” and “The Sentence.”  I like the first because I teach science, while the second is a more serious film that examines the effects of mandatory minimum sentencing.  Both public education and prisons are functions of government and the laws that govern both are political issues.

I see one final category that includes a new nominee that examines politics, government, or science, so I will conclude with it.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

306 Hollywood – Cinematographers: Elan Bogarin, Jonathan Bogarin, Alejandro Mejía (PBS, El Tigre)
The Dawn Wall – Cinematographer: Brett Lowell (The Orchard)
Free Solo – Cinematographers: Jimmy Chin, Clair Popkin, Mikey Schaefer (National Geographic Documentary Film)
Minding the Gap – Cinematographer: Bing Liu (Hulu)
Pandas – Cinematographer: David Douglas (Warner Bros., IMAX)
Wild Wild Country – Cinematographer: Adam Stone (Netflix)

The nominee is “Pandas,” which qualifies under science for being a nature documentary.  This is its only nomination, so I don’t think it has much of a chance.  Instead, I think the favorite is “Free Solo.”

As I wrote, the awards will be given out on November 10th, so expect a post about the winners on the 11th at Crazy Eddie’s Motie News.  I’ll repost it here, but only after I post a diary entry about the Best Music Documentary nominees and winner for this week’s midweek cafe and lounge.  Stay tuned.

*Despite the press release stating that “‘Fahrenheit 11/9’ is one of the year’s top grossing documentaries,” it sits far behind the top three in fifth with $6,352,306.  Maybe compared to “Whitney” (nominated for Best Music Documentary) at sixth with $3,026,351 and “Pandas” (nominated for Best Cinematography) in seventh with $2,892,597, it could be considered top grossing, but not compared to the four movies ahead of it.