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Entertainment is a ghoulish business. Someone dies
and suddenly there’s books, specials and DVDs about that
individual that flood the market. It’s the nature of the
beast. It is like bad news and good news. The bad new travels
fast and far while good news stays close to home and doesn’t
venture out much. This collection of reports was done by
the late anchorman Peter Jennings for ABC’s TV program “20/20”.
All are incisive, intelligent reports on a number of different
issues. I never met Peter Jennings but do know someone who
worked with him at ABC News in New York and by all accounts
despite his privileged upbringing (his father was the Walter
Cronkite of Canada which accounts for his rise in journalism
despite never having finished the Canadian equivalent of
high school) he was a decent guy. I mention this because
many of the prima donnas in broadcast journalism are no
better than their segment producers/writers. Jennings seemed
to be quite a bit more than that and took his profession
seriously. ***
“How To Get Fat Without Really Trying” discusses the
epidemic problem of overweight adults and children. Nearly
2/3s of the population has problem with this. Jennings focuses
on advertising and the preprocessed foods, fast foods and
other junk food in our diet and how it contributes to the
problem. “Guantanamo” allow us a look inside the U.S. military
prison camp off the coast of Florida. Jennings discusses
the issue of torture and whether or not a military prison
acts is the appropriate place for political prisoners. “Ecstasy
Rising” looks at the most popular illegal drug in the United
States. Jennings investigates the effect that Ecstasy has
on the brain and the effort to eradicate its use in the
U.S. He questions the methods currently being used and their
effectiveness as well as if this is the proper place to
be spending our anti-drug dollars. “From the Tobacco Files”
focuses on the political machinery that prevented the tobacco
industry from being regulated like other drugs. “No Place
to Hide” looks at the explosion of security surveillance
and if it is truly effective at preventing tragedies like
9/11 or if it is just an invasive tool that undermines our
privacy. “LAPD” has Jennings and his producer spent time
with one division with in the Los Angeles Police Department
and documents their efforts to deal with gang activity and
violence in a very bad neighborhood in California. ---
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