tagged w/ Darren Foster
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Darren Foster is a producer for Vanguard.
If the BP oil spill happened in Nigeria would it still make a sound? Apparently, not. But some kidnappings might.
The New York Times did a great story from the Niger Delta, where on average an Exxon Valdez disaster happens every year… for the last 50 years. In 1989, the Valdez spilled nearly 11 million gallons of oil into the waters off Alaska. The latest estimates of the BP disaster say that up to 2.5 million gallons a day may be pouring in the Gulf of Mexico. That’d make it the worst in US history, but rather pedestrian for the Niger Delta.
Perhaps no place on earth has been as battered by oil, experts say, leaving residents here astonished at the nonstop attention paid to the gusher half a world away in the Gulf of Mexico. It was only a few weeks ago, they say, that a burst pipe belonging to Royal Dutch Shell in the mangroves was finally shut after flowing for two months: now nothing living moves in a black-and-brown world once teeming with shrimp and crab.…
The oil spews from rusted and aging pipes, unchecked by what analysts say is ineffectual or collusive regulation, and abetted by deficient maintenance and sabotage. In the face of this black tide is an infrequent protest — soldiers guarding an Exxon Mobil site beat women who were demonstrating last month, according to witnesses — but mostly resentful resignation.
In 2007, I traveled with Vanguard correspondent Mariana van Zeller to the Niger Delta in Nigeria to look into a growing insurgency there. We visited at the height of a kidnapping for ransom campaign, where rebels were regularly attacking oil facilities and taking foreign workers hostage. The rash of violence managed to capture some international attention, but we wanted to know what was behind the unrest in one of the US’s most important energy suppliers.
For many of the delta’s residents, the violence was 50 years in the making, ever since oil was first discovered in the country.
The two big takeaways from my trip were:
Despite becoming one of the world’s leading oil producers, Nigeria has very little to show for it. The Niger Delta, for example, is responsible for 80 percent of the entire country’s total revenue, but it remains one of the poorest regions. Most of its inhabitants live on less than $1 a day.
For many communities in the delta, the failed promises of development are nothing compared to the environmental damage oil has caused.
Since it was first pumped in Nigeria, more than 1.5 million tons of oil has spilled in the delta, that’s more than 500 million gallons or about 50 Exxon Valdez disasters. One a year since oil was first pumped in 1961.
Activists in the delta have for years been trying to attract international attention to this environmental devastation and to make oil companies accountable, but to no avail.
The sight of oil company executives being brought before Congress for a tongue-lashing—or, better yet, setting up a $20 billion fund to pay damage claims—must seem as foreign to Nigerians as a bunch of masked rebels attacking oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico would be to Americans. But all things are not equal.
Watch Vanguard's "Rebels in the Pipeline" after the jump.Darren Foster is a producer for Vanguard.
If the BP oil spill happened in Nigeria... more
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An exclusive, extended interview with David Bahati, the Ugandan member of parliament who introduced the anti-gay bill calling for use of the death penalty. Correspondent Mariana van Zeller asks Bahati about his reaction to President Obama's and Rev. Rick Warren's condemnation of the bill, how he would respond if had a gay family member, and his belief that Uganda may have been chosen by God to fight this "spiritual battle."
"Vanguard," airing weekly on Current TV Wednesdays at 10/9c, is a no-limits documentary series whose award-winning correspondents put themselves in extraordinary situations to immerse viewers in global issues that have a large social significance. Unlike sound-bite driven reporting, the show's correspondents, Adam Yamaguchi, Kaj Larsen, Christof Putzel and Mariana van Zeller, serve as trusted guides who take viewers on in-depth real life adventures in pursuit of some of the world's most important stories.An exclusive, extended interview with David Bahati, the Ugandan member of parliament... more
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Correspondent Mariana Van Zeller and producers Darren Foster and Cerissa Tanner were honored today with a Peabody Award—electronic journalism's most distinguished prize—for their work on the Vanguard documentary "The OxyContin Express."
This morning we learned that "The OxyContin Express" will be the recipient of a Peabody Award. It’s one of the highest acheivements in our field and we’re deeply honored for being recognized and in such esteemed company.
But we don’t want to let this moment pass without acknowledging the tremendous debt we owe to the people who helped us make the film. Journalism is a strange business. We sometimes ask people to share deeply personal parts of their lives in exchange for a very idealistic notion: that somehow their personal story will help to serve a greater good.
Maureen and her son Tod took that brave leap of faith. And their cooperation and incredible honesty provided the emotional heart of this piece.
In addition, there are many people who shared their valuable time and expertise to help us understand prescription drug abuse and what was going on in Florida and Kentucky. Several of them appeared in the documentary, many did not, but their contribution was no less valuable.
In Florida, we’d like to thank Sgt. Lisa McElhaney, Sgt. Richard Pisanti and the Broward County Sheriff’s Department; Representative Kelly Skidmore; Dr. Sanford Silverman and the Task Force for Prescription Drug Abuse; Joel Kaufman and the United Way of Broward County; Pastor John Ramseur and Calvary House.
In Kentucky, Greenup County Sheriff Keith Cooper was all southern charm and hospitallity. He opened the doors to everything, including the prison where Dawna, Jessica, Holly, Tiffany, Tim and Terry graciously shared their stories.
Thanks also to Lt. Govenor Dan Mangiardo, Dr. John Morgan and Valerie Campbell at St. Claire Regional Medical Center in Morehead. And next door in West By God Virginia, Dr. Carl Rolly Sullivan at the home of the Mountaineers provided incredible insight into addiction and recovery.
This story would have never make it off the ground without the support and care of the people who are living it everyday. We owe this incredible honor to them. And hope that in some way the piece made a difference.
Thank you!
—Mariana, Darren and Cerissa
Watch "The OxyContin Express" here (or here if you're in the UK)
Correspondent Mariana Van Zeller and producers Darren Foster and Cerissa Tanner were... more
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An opinion piece in today's Wall Street Journal serves up Sri Lanka as an example of the importance of getting the Afghanistan surge strategy right. The editorial concludes that with the defeat of the Tamil Tigers, a designated terrorist organization, Sri Lanka "is closer to resolving its problems than at any time since the Tigers started fighting in 1983. Sri Lanka isn't exactly analogous to Afghanistan. But the island does demonstrate the benefits of defeating terrorists on the battlefield."
The one benefit – “the green shoot” -- the WSJ highlights is that Sri Lanka's president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, who called early elections to capitalize on his popularity after defeating the Tigers after 26-years of fighting, is now facing a surprise challenge in a race that he must have assumed was already in the bag. The challenge comes from none other than General Sarath Fonseka, the military commander who also takes much credit for winning the war. The two candidates will likely split the vote among the country's Sinhalese majority, which means they will have to reach out to Sri Lanka's Tamil minority, many of whom were on the shit end of Sri Lanka's military “surge”.
We examined the end of Sri Lanka's war in the Vanguard piece "Notes from a War on Terror", including the argument that some security analysts have made that the country provides a case study in how to defeat an insurgency. The Journal is right that "Sri Lanka isn't exactly analogous to Afghanistan". But the differences are perhaps more important than any similarities.
First, Sri Lanka is an island. The Tamil Tigers didn't have a Pakistan to retreat to. Unlike Bin Laden, Mullah Omar or other key Taliban commanders, who are apparently able to slip across an international border, the elusive and charismatic leader of the Tigers, Velupillai Prabhakaran, eventually ran out of real estate. In a scene that a US administration has thus far only been able to dream about, Prabakharan’s body was displayed on national television after he was reportedly killed in a last ditch battle.
Second, the Tamil Tigers didn't have heroin. When the US and Europe began enforcing anti-terror finance laws after 9/11, the Tigers found much of their funding cut off. With access to 90-percent of the world's heroin supply, the Taliban probably aren’t too concerned with having their assets frozen by some bank.
Third, and most important, the Sri Lankan military didn't care about winning hearts and minds. While no one would argue that there aren’t benefits to “defeating terrorists on the battlefield”, the Journal glosses over how the war in Sri Lanka was prosecuted. While "hearts and minds" is central to US counter-insurgency strategy, I never once heard the words uttered while reporting in Sri Lanka. In fact, the Sri Lankan military seemed to employ the opposite strategy, showing not only wanton disregard for Tamil hearts and minds, but also lives and limbs.
With the defeat of a brutal terror organization like the Tamil Tigers its easy to say the end justified the means. But if we’re looking for examples on how to "get it right" in Afghanistan, you can probably forget about Sri Lanka. I don’t think the US or citizens of our NATO allies could ever stomach the brutal and draconian measures that Sri Lanka resorted to in the final weeks and months of the Sri Lankan surge.
And for those few who think that winning “hearts and minds” isn’t important, just ask President Rajapaksa and General Fonseka who’s presidential ambitions now ultimately depend on it.
An opinion piece in today's Wall Street Journal serves up Sri Lanka as an example... more
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Yesterday my colleague Darren wrote about how the world is becoming increasingly dangerous for journalists. While the recent high profile events that Darren mentioned (Roxana Saberi, Laura Ling) have put a spotlight on the perils of journalism, there is an interesting corollary trend that has largely escaped mainstream attention. Slowly but steadily the world is becoming a more dangerous place for humanitarian organizations.
Non-profits, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), aid agencies all used to be afforded a larger degree of protection in the countries and conflicts in which they operated. It’s difficult to define when the trend started occurring, but there has been a rapid escalation in the last two decades of violence against aid organizations. Perhaps the most notable example is the withdrawal of Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF, or known commonly as Doctors Without Borders in the US) from Afghanistan in 2004. Doctors Without Borders had been providing medical services in Afghanistan since 1980. They fearlessly worked throughout the bloody confrontation with the Soviets, the brutal civil war that followed, and the repressive regime of the Taliban in the 1990s. But, after 24 years of operating in one of the most difficult places on earth, coupled with an incident in which five of their staff members were killed, MSF decided that it was too dangerous to operate in the country. This left a major void and a population without access to basic medical treatment at a time it was desperately needed.
Similarly, last year in Somalia, MSF was forced to halt all operations and withdraw 87 staff members after three of its people were killed in a roadside bomb. This was on the heels of an incident in which two staff members were kidnapped. I was in Somalia in 2006 and could see the rampant escalation of violence against what used to be perceived as neutral actors. When I was in Mogadishu, the UN had pulled out all international staff, using only local Somalis as proxies to conduct their activities.
These are but a few examples. The general trend line is that more and more aid organizations are being targeted in conflict zones. The humanitarian space is rapidly shrinking. Even in places where NGOs can still operate, they have to devote a larger and larger portion of their resources to security, thereby diminishing the care they are able to give to the local population, which in turn makes them perceived less as allies and more as foreigners, which makes the aid organizations more vulnerable. It’s a vicious cycle.
Its reasonable to ask why the humanitarian space is rapidly disintegrating. There is a combination of factors. One component is that in both Iraq and Afghanistan the insurgency style conflict has blurred the lines between combatant and non-combatant. This has had spill-over effect to the NGO community. The UN peacekeeping branding has lost some of its perception as a strict peacekeeping force as well. Blue Helmets with .50 cals don’t exactly scream peace, and it is likely that the NGO community as a whole has been impacted by the changing perception of the UN. Finally there is a more worrisome reason that has been whispered about in the aid community. It has been suggested that the military itself is blurring the line between military action and humanitarian action. In an effort to win hearts and minds, the military is engaging in many of the same types of missions that have traditionally been the domain of humanitarian organizations. Detractors say that when the missions are the same, it makes it less important for combatants to distinguish between the motivations of different organizations. For example when I was in Afghanistan in 2005, I was embedded with the US military when they went on a mission called a MedCap. The purpose was to provide medical care in rural Afghanistan. Some in the humanitarian world claim this is exactly the kind of thing that pollutes the line between aid and military action, and puts providers at risk.
The military disagrees with this analysis and believes it is critical to their efforts to engender good will among the civilian populace. Its difficult to know the answer, but it is troubling that an organization like MSF which survived the Russians, a Civil War, and the Taliban in Afghanistan, couldn’t survive the American occupation.
What is clear though is that what (and who) were once considered safe in some of the most difficult areas in the world are no longer so. Aid workers joke with the gallows style humor that the famous red cross plus sign, used to act a bullet proof vest. A vehicle emblazoned with it on the side could drive through the middle of a fire fight and the shooting would stop. Now its considered a bulls-eye.
Whatever the reasons, the shrinking humanitarian space is a reality with fairly severe consequences. In many places organizations like MSF are the only people operating there. Without them, the populations, become less healthy, more impoverished, and increasingly isolated from the outside world; exactly the root conditions that make them ripe to become conflict zones in the first place.
Recently on the Vanguard Blog:
- The world: A dangerous place for reporters - Darren Foster
- Sometimes that which seemed impossible actually comes to pass - Mitch Koss
- Doctors Wanted: no experience necessary! - Cerissa Tanner
- All you ever needed to know about Vanguard, and then some. - Mariana van Zeller
- Kentucky Targets “The OxyContin Express” - Mariana van ZellerYesterday my colleague Darren wrote about how the world is becoming increasingly... more
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There’s a lot of soul searching going on in the field of journalism these days. It’s been a tough year. And I don’t just mean for the declining newspaper industry.
It’s a little early to be doing end-of-year accounting, but it relates to Vanguard’s story this week, so bear with me.
Looking back, 2009 was a year that saw perhaps more high profile cases of journalists in jeopardy than in a long while: freelance reporter Roxana Saberi, New York Times reporters David Rohde and Stephen Farrell, Newsweek’s Maziar Bahari and of course our colleagues Laura Ling and Euna Lee, just to name a few.
Reporting, especially in conflict zones and repressive environments, has always been and will always be a risky endeavor. Our president of programming likes to quote “The Godfather” when we talk here about the risks that reporters often assume: “This is the business that we have chosen.”
And while it’s true that many of us often choose to parachute in and out of risky places in order to tell stories that we believe need to be told, there is also the understanding that we have a safe place to retreat when things get too dodgy.
Unfortunately, that’s not the case for local reporters.
While reporting this week’s episode of Vanguard, "Sri Lanka: Notes from A War on Terror", Mariana van Zeller and I encountered one of the toughest media crackdowns we’ve ever experienced. Like all independent reporters, we were shut out of the war zone, refused entry into hospitals where the sick and wounded were being taken, and banned from refugee camps. But worst of all, in Sri Lanka’s War on Terror the government had drawn an eerily familiar line: “You're either with us or against us in the fight against terror.” And few people felt comfortable speaking openly or challenging the government’s prosecution of the war out of fear that they would be labeled a traitor or worse, a supporter of terrorism.
Much of the risk reporters take on is when trying to navigate around the barriers that are put up to block them from getting information, information that is often vital to drawing a true picture of events. Needless to say, Sri Lanka’s media crackdown was frustrating for us. But the struggles we faced were put into perspective when we visited the office of The Sunday Leader newspaper. There we found the empty office of Lasantha Wickramatunge, a prominent Sri Lankan journalist and editor of the Sunday Leader. Lasantha was a dogged reporter who spent his career exposing corruption and misdeeds in government. He was also a vocal critic of Sri Lanka’s War on Terror. It was a stance that would cost him his life.
In January, just months before the war officially came to an end, Lasantha was shot in the head and killed by unknown gunmen while on his way to work. But knowing that he was a target, just days before he was killed, Lasantha wrote an editorial that on his instructions was only to be published upon his death.
“When finally I am killed,” he wrote. “It will be the government that kills me.“
Lasantha’s letter from the grave received worldwide attention. But he was not alone. According to Amnesty International, at least 14 Sri Lankan journalists and media workers have been killed since 2006. And many others have been assaulted, arrested or fled the country. Unfortunately, Sri Lanka is also not alone. All over the world, there are journalists who daily suffer repression and intimidation, risk imprisonment and sometimes their lives in pursuit of truth.
This is the business we have chosen.
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Within the journalism community there is a healthy debate now taking place about how we can better look after ourselves and members of our community, and still cover important stories. A few weeks ago, Mariana van Zeller and I were invited to New York by PBS’s FRONTLINE/World to participate in a small gathering of journalists and media representatives to discuss the challenges of covering conflicts and working in repressive environments.
The participants ranged from New York Times reporters to freelancers, established media organizations to fairly new upstarts like ourselves.
The idea is to eventually create a resource for journalists of all stripes when it comes to covering difficult stories. For more info go here.
Recently on the Vanguard Blog:
- Sometimes that which seemed impossible actually comes to pass - Mitch Koss
- Doctors Wanted: no experience necessary! - Cerissa Tanner
- All you ever needed to know about Vanguard, and then some. - Mariana van Zeller
- Kentucky Targets “The OxyContin Express” - Mariana van Zeller
- A Shout-Out to Interns Everywhere - Tracey ChangThere’s a lot of soul searching going on in the field of journalism these days.... more
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Every now and then, something that seemed impossible to achieve, comes to pass. But we don’t always notice and say, “Holy Shit!” That’s because we live in an age where an over-abundance of trivial information is coupled with a rapid pace of change. Often, when we learn about a new occurrence, it’s difficult to think back even a few years and remember why it’s significant.
That’s the case with the subject of this week’s Vanguard doc, Mariana van Zeller and Darren Foster’s Sri Lanka: Notes from A War on Terror. Which is one of the reasons why it’s so cool.
Without spoiling the suspense in Wednesday’s episode, in it Mariana and Darren look at the recent demise of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam, the LTTE, one of the nastiest and most formidable insurgent/terror organizations in the world. With the US facing escalating violence in Afghanistan, they’re telling an important and engrossing story with big implications.
But besides plugging their episode, what I want to do here is vouch as to how nasty—and seemingly impossible to defeat—the Tigers really were.
In April of 2000, when the Tigers had a huge offensive going, Laura Ling, Gotham Chopra and I went to Sri Lanka, after Laura succeeded in getting us journalist visas in two days of trying, after I tried for a year and a half and failed. We arrived in Colombo, Sri Lanka’s capital, and found out that in order to get past the military checkpoints to head to the conflict zone, we needed a Road Permit, which we didn’t have. It took Laura a few days of negotiating with the Minister of Defense to get us the permit, and meanwhile we looked around Colombo a bit—what struck us was how common large suicide bombings by Tigers were. Our hotel had been bombed, and many public places had huge doves painted on the pavement—a sign that there had been a bombing. Hundreds of people had been killed in the city in the previous couple of years.
Outside the capital, fighting between the Tigers and the Sri Lankan government continued to intensify. The week prior to our visit the Tigers had staged an amphibious landing at Elephant Pass and over-run a large Sri Lankan military base. The guys at the US Embassy in Colombo told us: “There are only two groups in the world that could stage an amphibious landing of that size—the US Marine Corps, and the Tamil Tigers.” The city seemed to live on edge.
Laura finally got us our road permit, and we drove out to the east, where the government controlled the main highway via a series of fire bases built along it—until night fell, and then the Tigers controlled the highway, along everything else off the highway which they controlled during daylight also. En route to a safe hotel run by a Tiger sympathizer, the sun set on us, and we had a pretty intense few hours driving the highway in the dark, afraid the soldiers in the fire bases we were passing would mistake us for Tigers and shoot, while the Tigers would mistake our van for a military vehicle and shoot.
The second day, we reached the end of where the government controlled the highway. There was a military base, and a barrier, like a train crossing, leading to Tamil Tiger country. Laura got on the phone with her friend the Minister of Defense back in Colombo, the soldiers raised the gate and we headed into Tiger Territory driving a steady 40 km per hour and honking our horn every 100 meters as a sign to the Tigers not to fire on us. Finally, some Tigers flagged us down, took us to a nearby command post. For such dread folks, they seemed very soft spoken and placid. They served us ice cold Coke—it was hot—and then showed us the cyanide capsules around their necks—they all wore them so they could commit suicide if captured. Then they gave us a tour of the area. We met a couple 16 and 17-year old girl Tigers who’d already had several years of combat experience. They were also placid, but now it began to seem spooky. Not surprisingly the Tigers were big into a culture of martyrdom. They showed us a lot of monuments to dead leaders, and a cemetery with 1000 fresh Tiger graves. They offered to let us stay to the night and go with them to fire mortars at a Sri Lankan military base, but we decided to head back.
My conclusion back then: What a nightmare. So when Laura and I heard early this year that the Tigers might be close to being defeated, we found it astonishing. And then Mariana and Darren went over to check out this important but underappreciated development. And the result is not only fascinating, but important. Check it out Wednesday.
This Week on Vanguard: Sri Lanka: Notes from A War on Terror
"Sri Lanka: Notes from a War on Terror" airs this Wednesday at 10pm ET / 10pm PT on Current TV.
Recently on the Vanguard Blog:
- Doctors Wanted: no experience necessary! - Cerissa Tanner
- All you ever needed to know about Vanguard, and then some. - Mariana van Zeller
- Kentucky Targets “The OxyContin Express” - Mariana van Zeller
- A Shout-Out to Interns Everywhere - Tracey Chang
- The economy is growing again. Where does that leave you? - Mitch KossEvery now and then, something that seemed impossible to achieve, comes to pass. But... more
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I was about to tell you about how Vanguard’s office here in Hollywood is located in the unofficial transgender street hustler capital of Los Angeles County, and about the effect that recession seems to have had on them, when my colleague Darren Foster mailed me this link.
I can switch subjects because even though, in March of 2001, Laura Ling and I shot an hour doc for MTV on street hustlers one block from where my desk at Vanguard now is, Laura and I also shot one last fall on the war among Mexico’s narco-traffickers.
When considering the size of the recent raids around the US against what’s happening in Mexico, one question is why the narco war down there isn’t up here, given how big the narcotics distribution networks here seem to be. The standard answer is that the cartels in Mexico didn’t used to be particularly violent either, until the federal government started to pressure them. In the old days, before the year 2000, when Vincente Fox was elected Mexico’s first president from a party other than the PRI in 70 years, cartels could maintain their position as multi-national corporations pretty much in the way that other multi-national corporations maintain their positions in their host countries—they were too big to fail. But once Fox, and his successor as President, Felipe Calderon, started to act against the web of corruption that bound the cartels to law enforcement and government officials, the cartels were obliged to maintain their positions the old fashioned, Chicago-in-the-1920s way, by shooting it out.
Another view might be that we seem to have just passed out of one of the more violent epochs in American history, the roughly 40-year period from the mid-‘1960s, until just a few years back. And if you look at all the urban homicides we had in that period, and look at how many were related in some way to narcotics, then maybe we already had our narco war. It was simply that, unlike what’s going on now it Mexico, ours wasn’t organized, just low-level dealers and users committing murder, often against each other. And where violence by powerful organized criminal groups can be viewed as a threat to the state, unorganized violence is just a threat to the neighborhood.
On the third hand, we seem to be in an era where globalization brings us all sorts circumstance that we don’t seem to have seen before, and sometimes when you’re in the middle of something, it can be tough to see which way the trend line is moving.I was about to tell you about how Vanguard’s office here in Hollywood is located... more
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It was a big night Wednesday when the new season of Vanguard premiered with "The OxyContin Express" and Embedded premiered with Mos Def in Japan.
The teams that worked on these two awesome shows celebrated at Little Bar a few miles from the office with Mediterranean grub and Current playing on about 5 or 6 TVs. The observations from around the bar appeared to be that the premieres went off without a hitch.
The bartender even made a special martini for us -- the Vanbedded.
I'm not sure what was in it, but Vanguard PA Tania Rashid had one!
I didn't even have to buy myself a drink. I tried, but Infomania's Conor Knighton and later Vanguard's Darren Foster had me covered. Thanks dudes!
"The OxyContin Express", Vanguard's first of the new 8-episode season, is a must-see. But so are the exclusive web extras.
You can check out an extended interview and follow up with Todd, who says he's been sober for nearly 100 days. Good for him!
As well, you get to see some footage from the cutting room floor that didn't quite make it into the doc. A jailed addict scares a group of school children straight and Todd's mom confronts Todd about his addiction.
While this is the third official season of Vanguard, to many just discovering us, it's their first. [Side note: if you need to check out previous seasons, they're available here and here]
In case you haven't figured it out, Vanguard's mission is to cover stories that no one else is covering. While many news organizations attempt to do this, the young correspondents at Vanguard aren't afraid to get their feet and hands dirty.
As Vanguarder Mitch Koss put it yesterday, the mission "is to try to keep track of important changes in the world, changes that affect us all, but might not get a thorough examination if we don’t look at them. We try to tell you important stories that otherwise might not get told—because we think it’s important for society that we know and understand" what's going on around us.
So to introduce myself, I'm Vanguard's one and only intern. I've yet to fetch coffee and I haven't even bought my own drinks. So the situation could be much, much worse.
Instead, I get to transcribe interviews from upcoming documentaries. That means sneak peeks at what is to come.
I also do lots of research on potential upcoming stories, like the kidnapping industry (yes, industry) in Mexico and how tourism is starting to pick up in Iraq. Sometimes, I even watch porn in the office to make sure correspondent Christof Putzel is including the best examples of amateur or professional pornography scenes for the upcoming episode "Porn 2.0."
Now I come from a newspaper and web journalism background, but know my way around a videocamera, a voice over and radio. But the question I get all the time is what kind of journalism do you want to do?
That seems like an unfair question: every good journalist knows he or she must be well versed in all mediums. I'm too new to decide on a favorite.
The answer to why I'm here; however, is simple: I really like what Vanguard does, and see a real value in journalism. So many people these days question the existence of true journalism, but when a younger generation is reporting for a younger audience, it's different. Vanguard is one team hoping to make a difference. So here's to us.It was a big night Wednesday when the new season of Vanguard premiered with... more
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Ten years ago this week, Laura Ling and I, along with Serena Altschul and producer Pat Lope, started working on a MTV documentary on the methamphetamine business that led, the following year, to the four of us creating the MTV doc series, “Breaking It Down with Serena.” Back in those days, this was a fairly new genre, and viewed a bit skeptically. The previous year, Serena had had to fight hard for the opportunity that she, and Pat, and Laura and I got in October of 1999. And at that point, we were on the spot to prove that what was then a fairly radical approach to journalism based documentary filmmaking would appeal to viewers.
MTV’s “Breaking It Down,” series went on to become one of the two documentary ancestors to Current’s Vanguard documentary series. The other was a series of PBS documentaries, starting in the mid-90s that first Anderson Cooper and I, and then Lisa Ling and I, and finally Laura and I did. Ten years ago, at the mainstream network news level, there was a degree of formula to the film-making. For trying to deviate from the prevailing standard, Anderson and Lisa and Serena were sometimes figures of controversy and consternation. Behind the scenes, people in power would ask me things like “Why do you let him be so informal?” “Why do you let her be in every shot?” “Why do you trust her?” And “why can’t you hold your f***ing camera steady?” To which I would answer something akin to “Well…” and wait for the subject to change. But the actual answer was that Anderson, and Lisa, Serena, and then Laura were radical. They weren’t interested in annoying the mainstream simply for the sake of pissing people off. But they were interested in using whatever new film-making techniques that they could if they thought this would make their journalism stronger and make their documentaries more illuminating and compelling.
In the ten years since, there has been a lot of change in what the mainstream of this business accepts. Serena is at CBS News, Anderson has his own show on CNN, and you can go into your local video store and rent the National Geographic docs that Lisa has made in recent years. And Laura is the vice president in charge of Vanguard, Current’s documentary making department.
Today, I still don’t hold my camera steady, but the approach to film-making that we use in Vanguard is no longer so controversial in the rest of TV. In this week’s premiere episode, The Oxycontin Express, I can’t imagine much criticism coming, say, because Darren Foster chose to shoot an interview without using a tripod. Similarly, Mariana Van Zeller did not have to get in a big fight behind the scenes with anyone here at Current to establish the freedom to ad lib on camera while shooting Oxy. But where we no longer have to fight so much for creative freedom, we still struggle and push ourselves to look for new innovations, for ever-better, ever more compelling and illuminating ways to tell stories that otherwise don’t get told. We really appreciate this opportunity. We hope that you appreciate the result, our new season of Vanguard.
Watch a few episodes of Vanguard:
- Rebels in the Pipeline - Mariana van Zeller reports from Nigeria
- Narco War Next Door - Laura Ling reports from Mexico
- I Heart Global Warming - Adam Yamaguchi reports from GreenlandTen years ago this week, Laura Ling and I, along with Serena Altschul and producer Pat... more
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Sri Lanka's government just won its own long-fought war on terror. After 30 years of bloodshed the army finally defeated the militant insurgency of the Tamil Tigers. But as Mariana van Zeller reported in Vanguard: Sri Lanka: Notes from a War on Terror, critics say it wasn't really a clean victory. One example of this was a video shot at the very end of the war that seemed to show Sri Lankan soldiers executing prisoners. The government has insisted the footage was fabricated. The video is here, however be warned, it is very graphic.
When the video came to light in August, producer Darren Foster was just wrapping up the Vanguard episode about Sri Lanka. He wrote this about the video:
During the last months of the war, independent journalists were banned from reporting in the conflict zone and there were many rumors and leaked videos of atrocities. But this footage would seem to be the worst evidence of war crimes to have emerged thus far.
Well today, the UN said they had verified the video's authenticity and called for a war crimes investigation.
Mr Alston said that three independent experts had confirmed the video was authentic.
"The conclusion clearly is that the video is authentic," he said on Thursday.
He named the three investigators as Peter Diaczuk, an expert in firearms evidence, Daniel Spitz, a prominent forensic pathologist, and Jeff Spivack, an expert in forensic video analysis.
The Sri Lankan government has strongly rebuffed the UN's allegations, but this is likely to spur more calls for investigations into their conduct during the war.
To understand a bit more about Sri Lanka and its conflict - check out Vanguard: Sri Lanka: Notes From a War on Terror.
Recently on the Current News Blog:
- Christmas, Drug Wars and Juarez - guest post by: Jeff Antebi
- Inter-religious violence strikes Egypt
- Slackers in Pakistan
- China's record snowfall - Photos
- Al Qaeda and FARC: BFF?Sri Lanka's government just won its own long-fought war on terror. After 30 years... more
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Tonight is the premiere of a new Vanguard episode: Sri Lanka: Notes from a War on Terror. It is a pretty fantastic piece of journalism and a great exploration of one way to conduct a war on terror: with an iron hand.
This Week on Vanguard: Sri Lanka: Notes from a War on Terror (Video)
The episode airs tonight on Current at 10pm ET/10pm PT. Don't miss it.
Also - check out Mariana's post today about the story: My Second Tour of Sri Lanka
Recently on the Current News Blog:
- 2009 election round-up: NYC, NY-23, NJ and VA, Maine
- The Real Recovery – A collaborative investigation
- Man Makes it Snow in China (Video)
- The EU finally gets Lisbon; Thanks Vaclav Klaus
- Election Perspective: New York and New Jersey by ScorpioGeeTonight is the premiere of a new Vanguard episode: Sri Lanka: Notes from a War on... more
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Interview w/ W. African soccer player in Morocco who's trying to make it to Europe.
At a pick up soccer game for West Africans in Morocco for a Vanguard story due to premiere around World Cup. More to come...
Rare sighting: @darren_foster using a tripod!
Ready to guess our next story yet?
Follow the full Vanguard team using our Twitter list.
Interview w/ W. African soccer player in Morocco who's trying to make it to... more
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A few more photos from our last days in Uganda:
Three mizungos in Uganda: @marianavz, @darren_foster and @arneuganda enjoy our safari van.
Just noticed license plate. Did these guys drive like this all the way from Dubai to Kampala?
A stork over Ugandan Parliament looking for a dead bill to eat.
Final Uganda tape count=52.
More photos of Vanguard in the field while in Uganda.
Follow Vanguard via our Twitter list.
A few more photos from our last days in Uganda:
Three mizungos in Uganda:... more
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Man on the street interviews in Kampala
A few kids playing football here in Kampala
Love the old Chinese bikes in Uganda. (Women aren't supposed to ride solo as it will take virginity.)
Birds in Uganda are the size of a 6th grade bully. And they'll steal your lunch too.
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Read more about Mariana's trip to Uganda and the anti-gay legislation currently being debated there.
Follow Vanguard's Mariana van Zeller (@MarianaVZ), Darren Foster@fineyoungman) and Alex Simmons (@a_simmons) at Current's Twitter list.
Man on the street interviews in Kampala
A few kids playing football here in... more
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Vanguard producer Darren Foster writes from Uganda:
fineyoungman: Our fixer saw our #Vanguard Chinatown, Africa piece and now points out every Chinese project in Kampala. Love it.
Watch the episode—in which Mariana van Zeller goes to Angola to learn more about Chinese and Angolan communities brought together by new construction projects—below.
Follow the Vanguard team using our Twitter list.
Vanguard producer Darren Foster writes from Uganda:
fineyoungman:... more
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We’re here in Uganda tracking a story for the upcoming season of Vanguard.
A Uganda rally goer calls out in response to Pastor Martin Ssempa
Several hundred Ugandans gathered at a church rally today in support of the country’s controversial anti-gay legislation. In recent weeks, the bill has been widely denounced by the international community, with both President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemning it at the annual National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC.
Religious leaders pray over the author of the bill, MP David Bahati
At today’s rally, backers of the bill were keen to respond to Obama, Clinton and other critics, and demonstrate that the proposed legislation has popular support here in Uganda. While the event was a scaled-down version of what was supposed to be a large public demonstration, all the key sponsors of the bill were in attendance, including its author, Member of Parliament David Bahati.
A man protests President Obama, who recently condemned the bill
Follow the Vanguard team via our Twitter list, or catch up on our travels from the US to Uganda in this post.
We’re here in Uganda tracking a story for the upcoming season of... more
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Before you can get the story, you have to get to the story.
Vanguard's Mariana van Zeller (@MarianaVZ), Darren Foster (@fineyoungman) and Alex Simmons (@a_simmons) traveled from Los Angeles to Kampala, Uganda this weekend.
Their trip in Twitters:
fineyoungman: Frantic preparations b4 6 week reporting odyssey w/ @MarianaVZ. Africa->Middle East->Europe->Africa & back. Follow here for updates
fineyoungman: There is an angel at the Nigerian embassy and her name is Martha. #you'resocool
MarianaVZ: After 1 wk snowed in at Nigerian embassy, missing 1st flight out and getting lost at LAX, welcome home passport. Now let's go to Uganda!
fineyoungman: A very cute airport moment. http://twitpic.com/131lp6
a_simmons: @fineyoungman Meet you at the top of the Burj Khalifa.
a_simmons: Just a quick 16 hours in the air and I'll be in Dubai.
a_simmons: The Air Emirates flight attendants have half their faces covered with a veil. They are both modern AND traditional all at once. Like Dubai!
a_simmons: The Emirates personal media system is awesome.
fineyoungman: Love me a good sports doc. More Than A Game, abt LeBron James+ teammates growing up in Akron was a nice treat on UA flight to Dulles.
a_simmons: Just landed in Dubai, as you can see by Runway-Cam. http://twitpic.com/138483
fineyoungman: Reunited with @a_simmons and @MarianaVZ at Dubai airport. In 8 hrs we're off to Uganda. http://twitpic.com/139hzy
fineyoungman: In Dubai International Time Warp. Much like a Vegas casino no idea what time it is, everything is open and lots of ways to spend money
a_simmons: No Egg McMuffins!? @fineyoungman http://twitpic.com/13bivr
fineyoungman: Morning call to prayer at Dubai airport...
a_simmons: Emirates is quickly becoming my favorite airline. http://twitpic.com/13cbe1
fineyoungman: Emirates flight 723 to Entebbe, Uganda (via Addis Ababa) w/ @MarianaVZ + @a_simmons http://twitpic.com/13cc5i
fineyoungman: Got a nice suprise gift in the mail for the Uganda trip. Anyone know this book? http://twitpic.com/13cgzr
a_simmons: We are in Africa and open for business.
fineyoungman: KAMPALA, Uganda-Great 1st day of shooting w/ @MarianaVZ +@a_simmons for next #Vanguard. Hoping to get photos up when connection improves
Follow the Vanguard team on Twitter.
Before you can get the story, you have to get to the story.
Vanguard's Mariana... more
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Vanguard correspondent Mariana van Zeller travels to Sri Lanka to see how the Tamil Tigers, one of the world's most lethal and influential terrorist organizations, were finally defeated.Vanguard correspondent Mariana van Zeller travels to Sri Lanka to see how the Tamil... more
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In this Peabody Award-winning edition of Vanguard, correspondent Mariana van Zeller travels to South Florida--the "Colombia of prescription drugs"--to expose a bustling pill pipeline that stretches from the beaches of Ft. Lauderdale to the rolling hills of Appalachia. "The OxyContin Express" features intimate access with pill addicts, prisoners and law enforcement as each struggles with a lethal national epidemic.In this Peabody Award-winning edition of Vanguard, correspondent Mariana van Zeller... more
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