Health care reform was the first big policy deal taken on by the Obama administration. Many say the young president has bet the mid-term elections, possibly his presidency, on the outcome. In a new investigation FRONTLINE goes behind closed doors at the White House, in Congress and the boardrooms of the giant health-care lobby to examine the political battles and costly compromises that defined Barack Obama’s endeavor. From early positive efforts, through the bitter battles with the Tea Party, the elation of apparent success at Christmas, to the crushing failure in the Massachusetts Senatorial election, FRONTLINE follows the story and reveals the first in-depth look at how the Obama administration operates. In Obama’s Deal, FRONTLINE veteran producer Michael Kirk (Bush’s War, Dreams of Obama, Inside the Meltdown, The Warning) provides a sobering expose’ of the realities of American politics, the power of special interest groups, and the role of money in policy making.
Producers: PBS Distribution
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Frontline: The Vaccine War – Public Performance
Public health scientists and clinicians tout vaccines as one of the greatest achievements of modern medicine. But for many ordinary Americans vaccines have become controversial. Young parents are concerned at the sheer number of shots-some 26 inoculations for 14 different diseases by age 6-and follow alternative vaccination schedules advocated by gurus like Dr. Robert Sears. Other parents go further. In communities like Ashland, Oregon, up to one-third of parents are choosing not to vaccinate their kids at all. And some advocacy groups, like Generation Rescue, argue that vaccines are no longer a public health miracle but a scourge; they view vaccines as responsible for alarming rises in certain disorders, including ADHD and autism. This is the vaccine war: On one side sits scientific medicine and the public health establishment; on the other a populist coalition of parents, celebrities (like Jenny McCarthy), politicians and activists. It’s a war that increasingly takes place on the Internet with both sides using the latest social media tools, including Facebook and Twitter, to win the hearts and minds of the public.
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Frontline: The Vaccine War – Home Use
Public health scientists and clinicians tout vaccines as one of the greatest achievements of modern medicine. But for many ordinary Americans vaccines have become controversial. Young parents are concerned at the sheer number of shots-some 26 inoculations for 14 different diseases by age 6-and follow alternative vaccination schedules advocated by gurus like Dr. Robert Sears. Other parents go further. In communities like Ashland, Oregon, up to one-third of parents are choosing not to vaccinate their kids at all. And some advocacy groups, like Generation Rescue, argue that vaccines are no longer a public health miracle but a scourge; they view vaccines as responsible for alarming rises in certain disorders, including ADHD and autism. This is the vaccine war: On one side sits scientific medicine and the public health establishment; on the other a populist coalition of parents, celebrities (like Jenny McCarthy), politicians and activists. It’s a war that increasingly takes place on the Internet with both sides using the latest social media tools, including Facebook and Twitter, to win the hearts and minds of the public.
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Frontline: College Inc. – Public Performance
The business of higher education is booming. It’s a $400 billion industry fueled by taxpayer money. But what are students getting out of the deal? Critics say a worthless degree and a mountain of debt. Investors insist they’re innovators, widening access to education. FRONTLINE follows the money to uncover how Wall Street and a new breed of for-profit universities are transforming the way we think about college in America.
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Frontline: Digital Nation – Home Use
Over a single generation, the Web and digital media have remade nearly every aspect of modern culture, transforming the way we work, learn, and connect in ways that we’re only beginning to understand. FRONTLINE producer Rachel Dretzin (Growing up Online) teams up with one of the leading thinkers of the digital age, Douglas Rushkoff (The Persuaders, Merchants of Cool), to continue to explore life on the virtual frontier. The film is the product of a unique collaboration with visitors to the Digital Nation Web site, who for the past year have been able to react to the work in progress and post their own stories online. Dretzin and her team report from the front lines of digital culture-from love affairs blossoming in virtual worlds, to the thoroughly wired classrooms of the future, to military bases where the Air Force is fighting a new form of digital warfare. Along the way, they begin to map the critical ways that technology is transforming us, and what we may be learning about ourselves in the process.
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Frontline: Flying Cheap – Public Performance
One year after the deadliest domestic airline accident in seven years, FRONTLINE investigates the crash of Continental 3407 in Buffalo, NY, and discovers a dramatically changed airline industry, where regional carriers now account for half of the nation’s daily departures. The rise of the regionals and arrival of low-cost carriers have been a huge boon to consumers, and the industry insists that the skies remain safe. But many insiders are worried that now, thirty years after airline deregulation, the aviation system is being stretched beyond its capacity to deliver service that is both cheap and safe.
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Frontline: Flying Cheap – Home Use
One year after the deadliest domestic airline accident in seven years, FRONTLINE investigates the crash of Continental 3407 in Buffalo, NY, and discovers a dramatically changed airline industry, where regional carriers now account for half of the nation’s daily departures. The rise of the regionals and arrival of low-cost carriers have been a huge boon to consumers, and the industry insists that the skies remain safe. But many insiders are worried that now, thirty years after airline deregulation, the aviation system is being stretched beyond its capacity to deliver service that is both cheap and safe.
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Frontline: Behind Taliban Lines – Home Use
This past Fall, an Afghan video journalist negotiated extraordinary access to a part of the country that has quietly reverted back to Taliban control. For close to two weeks, the journalist traveled a region that he found was now largely under control of the Taliban “shadow” government. He also tracked members of an insurgent cell working with members of Al Qaeda on a mission to sabotage a major U.S./NATO supply route. As the new U.S. strategy focuses on the south and eastern parts of the country, this film opens up a window onto a potential new front in the north, and sheds an important light on who’s fighting the U.S. efforts in Afghanistan and why. Also in this hour: A report from Pakistan on the country’s troubled public school system which is among the worst in the world, despite years of U.S. aid.
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Frontline: The Quake – Public Performance
On January 12, 2010, Haiti was leveled by one of the most devastating earthquakes in recorded history. Those responsible for handling the catastrophe, including the Haitian state and the United Nations, were crippled by the magnitude of the disaster and struggled to respond. In the confused aftermath, survivors were left without food, water or shelter. FRONTLINE correspondent Martin Smith and team arrived in Port-au-Prince within days, and in this powerful report, bears witness to the disaster and the ill-coordinated relief efforts in the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. Drawing on interviews with key officials and humanitarian experts from Port-au-Prince to New York, The Quake asks, can the world do better? And how?
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Frontline: The Quake – Home Use
On January 12, 2010, Haiti was leveled by one of the most devastating earthquakes in recorded history. Those responsible for handling the catastrophe, including the Haitian state and the United Nations, were crippled by the magnitude of the disaster and struggled to respond. In the confused aftermath, survivors were left without food, water or shelter. FRONTLINE correspondent Martin Smith and team arrived in Port-au-Prince within days, and in this powerful report, bears witness to the disaster and the ill-coordinated relief efforts in the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. Drawing on interviews with key officials and humanitarian experts from Port-au-Prince to New York, The Quake asks, can the world do better? And how?