No, I am not talking about Rick Perry. I am talking about Democratic political strategist Perry Woods.
As you may recall, a company called Brave New Films produced a documentary that accused the Koch brothers of using their fortune to re-segregate the Wake County Schools. (Quick review: 0 out of 5 stars. This film takes dishonesty to the next level.) Perry Woods appeared in the film as the “Wake County Resident” vox pop at the 7:03 mark.
Woods now claims that the filmmakers misrepresented his opinions. On the News & Observer’s WakeEd blog, he comments,
In my interview with Brave New Films I said repeatedly that AFP [Americans for Prosperity] had little to no impact on the elections in 2009, that it was far more the efforts of grassroots groups like WSCA [Wake Schools Community Alliance], and general frustration with constant re-assignments brought about by growth. The election results where far more a function of the old Board trying to govern, and not playing politics than anything AFP might have done. WSCA, more than AFP or the GOP for that matter, were responsible for organizing and capturing the frustration that lead to the results in ’09. Pope and Luddy money did help give the opposition legs, but not the Koch Brothers.
I believe him. I have heard Perry say this a number of times. However, I do take issue with the following claim,
The reason I agreed to be interviewed by BNF [Brave New Films] is because I wanted [to] avoid an obvious hit piece that further nationalizes our school board because I do not think that is good for our schools or our community. I have not seen video yet, but apparently they took only one of my comments to further their naritive [sic], and ignored everything else I told them. This in no way aids anyone I would support for the BoE.
This explanation is preposterous.
Robert Greenwald, the founder and president of Brave New Films, has a website that clearly describes his approach to filmmaking – the “guerrilla” documentary. (It took Google 0.08 seconds to find his website.) On his homepage, Greenwald links to a 2004 New York Times Magazine article that discusses this approach in detail. In “How to Make a Guerrilla Documentary,” reporter Robert S. Boynton writes,
Over the past couple of years, Greenwald has developed a ”guerrilla” method of documentary filmmaking, creating timely political films on short schedules and small budgets and then promoting and selling them on DVD through partnerships with grass-roots political organizations like MoveOn.org.
In this and a number of other articles available on the web, Greenwald readily admits that he makes hit pieces for a living. And, yes, even the words of Perry Woods will not convince him to do otherwise.
