Summary: This episode tells how, by the end of the 19th century, industrialization had left many Americans worried about whether the country would have any pristine land left. Poachers in the parks were rampant, and visitors were littering or carving their names in wilderness sites. Congress had yet to establish judicial authority or set aside appropriations for protection of the parks. This sparked a...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: This episode follows the growth of the NPS after the advent of the automobile gave more people than ever the ability to travel to visit the parks. Stephen Mather embraced this opportunity and worked to build more roads in the parks. In North Carolina, Horace Kephart, a reclusive writer, and George Masa, a Japanese immigrant, launched a campaign to protect the last stands of virgin forest in the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: Have security tactics damaged our individual liberties? How much independent power should we give the FBI? And do the FBI abuses of Americans’ rights during the Cold War prove that its power must be counterbalanced by the courts? Security versus Liberty, a part of the PBS America at a Crossroads series, is a post 9/11 look at “questionable security practices” - and those who challenge them. ...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: Following World War II, the parks were overwhelmed as visitation reached 62 million people a year. This final episode describes how a billion-dollar campaign, Mission 66, was created to build facilities and infrastructure to accommodate the growing flood of visitors. Biologist Adolph Murie introduced the revolutionary notion that predatory animals deserved the same protection as other wildlife....
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: As the war in Iraq continues, the first measures of its psychological toll are appearing. This episode of Frontline tells the stories of soldiers who have come home haunted by their experiences and asks whether the military and the government are doing enough to help. A medical study estimates that more than one in seven returning veterans are expected to suffer from major depression, anxiety,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: In the early 20th century, America had a dozen national parks, but they were a haphazard patchwork of special places under the supervision of different federal agencies. This episode traces how the conservation movement pushed the government to establish one unified agency to oversee all the parks. This led to the establishment of the National Park Service in 1916. Its first director, Stephen...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: America's unions have bet on Barack Obama to initiate a recovery that will revive not only the economy, but the organized labor movement as well. In this program, Bill Moyers and United Steelworkers International's Leo Gerard address topics ranging from economic justice for workers, to the future of American manufacturing, to Gerard's hopes for how unions will fare under the Obama...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: America's frenzied debate over government health insurance has eclipsed another, no less challenging, national health care crisis-the plight of people with serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. This Fred Friendly Seminar sheds light on barriers to treatment, ethical and legal dilemmas, and fragmented social policies that are creating a nightmare for families, filling...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: In 1932, the United States had almost no provision by which the federal government could offer a helping hand to the victims of economic collapse. But with a staggering number of Americans out of work, soup kitchens and private charities were simply overwhelmed. Enter Franklin D. Roosevelt-a leader ready to act, armed with a New Deal for the country. Bill Moyers explores America's...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: How far can a President go to defend the nation? This program examines the unprecedented presidential power that some say has been amassed by the Bush administration-and wielded, often secretly, in the name of national security. Bill Moyers gets perspective from two experts on the limits and abuses of federal power: Charles Fried, who teaches Constitutional law at Harvard Law School and served...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: Almost one-fifth of the world's electricity comes from nuclear power. Supporters claim it is safe, cheap, and the answer to global warming. Critics call it dangerous, expensive, and hardly the solution to climate change. This program presents arguments for and against nuclear energy while exploring scientific concepts behind it. Topics include: the disposal or storage of radioactive waste; the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: This Frontline program examines the current controversy surrounding the issue of childhood vaccination in America. Young parents are concerned over the sheer number of shots - up to 26 inoculations for 14 different diseases by age 6. Advocacy groups, such as Generation Rescue, view vaccines as responsible for rising rates of autism and ADHD. Yet public health officials tout vaccines as one of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: During the 1980s, a new civil rights movement got underway-for people with disabilities. In this program, Larry Paradis, executive director of Disability Rights Advocates, speaks with NewsHour correspondent Spencer Michels about the importance of litigation in pressuring companies and communities to comply with the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act. But are such legal actions actually...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: When it comes to today's important public policy issues, the opportunity to be heard depends on whether you can afford it. In this program, Bill Moyers and key legal and public interest advocates examine how industries with deep pockets use their access to the media to overwhelm the public debate, from North Carolina's hog industry to the defeat of the McCain Tobacco Bill to the passage of the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Currently, three-quarters of all U.S. healthcare dollars are spent on 100 million people with chronic illnesses and conditions. Will a cost-conscious healthcare system, increasingly driven by the market and oriented toward acute care, give them the proper care? This program examines how the chronically ill are faring today in seeking the high-quality, long-term care they need. Special reports...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: Corporate cost-cutting, downsizing, temporary employment, and other business imperatives are making today's pricey health insurance either unavailable or unaffordable for 44 million Americans-of which 85 percent are in working families. With employers cutting back on offering insurance and with shrinking access to charity care as hospitals face their own funding shortfalls, where can America's...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: Why have America's health care costs skyrocketed? In this NBC News program, Tom Brokaw follows several cases at Staten Island University Hospital as he explores reasons behind financial turmoil in the U.S. health-care system. Among the patients: a 24-year-old man with no insurance who lost both legs in the Staten Island Ferry accident of October 2003. Another victim: a 62-year-old woman with a...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: Mexican citizens working in the United States and Canada can face difficult conditions, even when they are employed legally. Filmed over an entire growing season, El Contrato documents the experiences of a group of laborers contracted to work in a sprawling tomato greenhouse. Tensions between workers, growers, and government officials reveal disturbing aspects of the hugely profitable...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: When Americans become outraged with behavior considered immoral or unethical, a typical response is to call on state legislatures or Congress to pass legislation outlawing it. Can government impose morality on its people by banning negative behavior or mandating positive behavior? History suggests that such efforts, though well-intentioned in many cases, are often ineffective. This program...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: While politicians grapple with reforming welfare, those who receive benefits worry about how welfare reform will affect their lives. Critics of welfare argue that it has created a psychology of dependency, and that it is rife with fraud and abuse. This program traces the history of welfare beginning with the Depression, then examines the complex issues involved in reforming it. Experts discuss...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: While poverty has traditionally been a problem only for the unemployed, a new demographic of Americans has emerged-the working poor. This program explores the disturbing realities that many people in low-wage jobs face every day-such as having to decide whether to pay the rent, buy groceries, or see a doctor. Viewers will learn how standards of living are often measured, how suburban areas have...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: With mortgages entering foreclosure at a record pace, the implications for financial markets-and for ordinary Americans-are far-reaching and severe. For insight into this potential meltdown, Bill Moyers talks with New York Times assistant business and financial editor Gretchen Morgenson, who has covered the story. In addition, Lori Wallach, Director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: Challenging viewers to look beyond mainstream media treatment of the death penalty, this program portrays capital punishment as a blunt instrument that disproportionately targets racial minorities and the poor. The film highlights several difficult issues, concepts, and social conditions-including statistics on the racial makeup of America's death row population; questionable convictions...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program with Bill Moyers focuses on what we can do to repair the U.S. economy. A business executive explains why his company closed its factories in the U.S. and moved manufacturing operations to Mexico. Among those who discuss potential solutions to problems facing the American economy are Robert Kuttner, co-editor of The American Prospect; Henry Nau, author of The Myth of America's...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006