these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. trying to corporations rule the day. we go to the public option. it's our past now ahead in moscow japan a desperately trying to cool down the stricken focus she would need to react as if the water in the arab news was a kind of truck preventing full meltdown. neither only fifty words his remaining will be on stable talent long time times at the u.n. in new york city wondering why it's taking them so don't react to the atomic danger on holding in japan. the u.s. says it's along by the mounting problems are fresh and she never troubles may have

started out the drawing board of the american from behind the power stations design . and in other news libyan opposition supporters called for an end of the month long violence in the country of pushes for a cease fire resolution but the u.n. is yet to make in the. next week take a look at how schools and politics are mixed in american culture on the role of both in shaping the life of the country that's next. to me. politics says no profit to play on the field of strife of competition. throughout history we've been told that sports and politics don't mix and this is. what. i read or i lose you think that sports people should say american political you know the guy we've been told that in the arena of sports it's all about things

like achievement athletic performance competition individual is teamwork playing the game and playing it well that's all that matters. to a shilling and yet everywhere we look there seems to be a strange contradiction of this no politics rule prominent and powerful displays of nationalism and patriotism and military might that seen nothing if not. all of it set against politics of an entirely different kind throughout the history of sport performances and actions patriotic in their own right and seemingly in keeping with one of the oldest credos of athletics to do one's best with respect for others and the rules of the game without feeling. this is a film that takes ports seriously as a cultural force a shared social space and a political force that reflects an intern shapes are often conflicting ideas and beliefs about who we are how we view others and how we see ourselves as

a country. i'm dave zirin and i love sports i grew up idolizing guys like lawrence taylor gary carter and magic johnson. i played baseball in high school and was the starting. my basketball team of fighting quakers at new york friends my god we were terrible at sports remain a life unlike most young boys in this country one message was fed to me every time i took the field or watched a game the idea that sports and politics just don't mix we're all supposed to just kick back relax and enjoy the show everyone to welcome to madison square garden her mystery but for me all of that changed back one day in the early one nine

hundred ninety s. i'll never forget it i went to madison square garden the world's most famous arena to watch a basketball game it was during the lead up to the first gulf war in one thousand nine hundred one and at half time i kid you know one of the mascots started to beat up this guy who was wearing this arab costume and the jumbotron was whipping the crowd up into a frenzy getting everybody to chance usa usa usa i mean it was sick i came to watch a game but i got served something else entirely. this was about as explicit a political spectacle as you could imagine to discuss athletes and activism we now welcome dave zirin and i've basically made a career out of trying to understand that murky place where sports and politics collide as a writer as a commentator on e.s.p.n. and other major networks and in my sports radio show you know we got a hell of a show this week you know what's up with this is where sports and politics collide

and one of the first things i discovered was that sports is political in ways we don't often even notice especially on the level of culture where our ideas and attitudes as a society are shaped. historians have long known that you can find out a lot about the wider culture by looking at sports culture. and history has taught us that sports is never just something that we just sit back and watch a sports always. it had an important social function and the history of american sports is no different it's here where societal and cultural meanings play out our very notions of who we are and how we see each other not only as americans but as individuals as boys and girls and men and women ideas about gender and race and class. and as will see sports culture produces stories that become the dominant narratives that make certain ways of seeing the world normal conventional just the

way it is while the same time actively trying to silence anything or anybody who doesn't fit in this accepted frame this is what our football. value. with everything you know what the world of sports has traditionally been thought of as a male i. masculine pumped up comfortable violence immunes of like they get shown vulnerability of any kind of. sports culture offers a role models for what it means to be a man and real men will do whatever it takes to win. winning. seven whether that means taking steroids to hit more home runs or pitching on a bloody ankle sports culture tells us that real men are willing to sacrifice their

bodies for the team they play with and they man up they shake it off they get back in the game circle physical investment where you're hurt you're sure you're tired just what you'll be killed and nothing in bodies and reproduces this masculine ideal better or more effectively than n.f.l. football they were shown weakness never shown weakness old friend of mares the pain you learn from being masculine means being able to inflict pain and to endure it no matter. violence and without regard for the consequences. least. important. to him personally. but this where image moves beyond personal identity to link up with and reinforce larger forces and values in the culture most notably militarist in football the

object is for the quarterback otherwise known as the field general to be on target with his aerial assault riddling the defense by hitting his receivers with deadly accuracy in spite of the political events he has to use the shotgun. which sure would pass in the long bombs he marches troops into enemy territory balancing this aerial assault with a sustained ground attack which punches holes in the forward wall of the enemy the friends of line. and the militarization of sports culture might be even funnier if so many guys didn't take it so literally they swore. they will do a freaking you know what about you they will kill you they're out there to kill you if i don't hurt him you hurt me you're going to for my legs i'm a troll right back out of. soldier professional sports leagues actively promote this idea making it so commonplace in our culture that we don't even notice it we

don't even question rationalizations and go to the super bowl forty three general david petraeus cuts off the killing. and it's not just the national football league i went to a baseball game a few years back and it turned out i was also attending something called military appreciation night before the opening pitch with george w. bush in attendance a whole group of marines were sworn in at home plate then the p.a. announcer came in and said for those of you in the audience who also want a career in the military please. at the appropriate kiosks. if going a war isn't political then nothing if. this is our works naturalizes ideas and images that deflect attention away from other realities and this is where it really starts to. many people who follow professional football were saddened to learn last week that the hall of fame shattered like webster died at the age of fifty after years of combat on the field he had heart disease and

brain damage however it is hard to find a former pro football player whose body hasn't paid a very high price the dominant narrative in sports culture presents a narrow glamorized view of militarism and violence that conceals many of the costs and consequences of this fictionalized ideal of male invulnerability you do feel like you are. the thing. where you want to go in the militarized spectacle of football especially there seems to be no room for the statistical fact that this sport takes a terrible toll on the human body. one. c three right. three. six. hernia surgery six out of tune former players say they have suffered at least one

concussion while playing the average n.f.l. career is three and a half years and the average player will die twenty years sooner than the rest of the population twenty years it probably wasn't worth the kind of pain i'm in now but what i do again absolutely all of which raises the question does the cartoon version of violence we see in american sports culture sanitized and a lot about the real life consequences of violence. and most of. courtly if sports glamorize war if they in effect deceive us about the reality and tragedy of war are we looking at a form of propaganda here. i see back in two thousand and one tillman was coming off the best year of his career he was picked for sports illustrated's all pro team and he just turned down a nine million dollar contract to stay with his team the arizona cardinals pat

someone was tough and he was loyal then came nine eleven. respect for the unfolding tragedy the n.f.l. postponed a week of games but tillman went further than that he joined the army rangers my great grandfather was a pro harbor and a lot of my family has given up i don't have is gone foreign wars and i really haven't done a damn thing this was the real deal a pro football player giving up a lucrative career to serve his country in the field of battle a true patriot and a true american hero the news of another american has refocused attention on the me of sacrifice and service the tillman who gave up a multi-million dollar contract in professional football has been killed pat tillman was dead his memorial service was aired on national television the army awarded him a silver star for his gallantry in action against an armed enemy they said

tillman's convoy had been ambushed in afghanistan they said tillman charged up the hill to protect his men but was shot down by the taliban but there was only one problem it was a lie when he died in afghanistan on april twenty second two thousand and four the army told his family he'd been killed by enemy fire after courageously charging up a hill to protect his fellow army rangers but that story didn't hold up he was really killed by friendly fire shot accidentally by his fellow soldiers. maybe the worst part about all of this was that this white washing of tillman story also hid what might be the most important part of his story thought it was real you thought it was a mistake you thought it was going to be a disaster and you know you don't in the army you're not going to talk about that there's you could you not supposed to talk politics and pat didn't shut up you know he told everyone you encounter this was he was in fact when tillman was redeployed

to afghanistan in two thousand and four he began reading the anti-war activists noam chomsky in the last ten years the united states has devastated so the. tillman told his mother he wanted to meet chomsky in person after he returned to the united states was there any solace in the story the military told you about how courageous had been oh of course but what's interesting is the story itself seems so contrived this soldier you know running up the ridge line firing at the enemy you know saving his and. it did sound kind of like a john wayne movie the reason this misrepresentation of pat tillman matter so much is because it's still vividly exposes a fault line in the political mythology of sport it shows how the real man miss that gets reinforced in sports culture often works to marginalize actual men whose true acts of courage even if these take the form of standing up to the government

may be more admirable than the fictional half truths assigned to them by the media sports complex forming a good deal to work with this. book which is exactly what happened recently when fox and f.l. sunday commemorated veterans day i broadcasting from airfield in afghanistan and proceeded to pay tribute to pat tillman without even hinting at the more complicated facts of his story the memory of pat tillman live at the u. . on this very airfield here rather than bothering to mention that stillman had turned against the war the fox commentators dressed in full camouflage used his life in death to promote war. time. and the n.f.l. has always been the school. the ties between professional football in the us military have existed since the start of the n.f.l. back in one nine hundred twenty eight that relationship grew immensely during world

war two and today that bonds is stronger than ever they allowed pat tillman's personal story to circulate within a larger political mythology in sports culture that seems more comfortable with men who fight wars and with men who fight against them when they believe them to be unjust. when you think. that it would be you know just insanely upset and then i think you know when you kind of look back on it and just can't just laugh you know i can't you know this is just come out and those are those in five years exact words this is chris. it's is the questioning and wondering and thinking critically about the role sports plays in the wider culture is somehow abnormal uncool and unmanly and it's just this attitude that throughout the history of american sports has marginalized entire groups of people. seemingly

exhaustible storage. when schools began offering physical education in the late eighteenth hundreds the profiling belief was that women were too fragile for such physical exertion. and respected scientists even argue that sports would make women infertile sex crazed or just plain insane then along came the bicycle why circling is a lot of good exercise in the fine print as absurd as it seems now. the idea of women riding bicycles was a profound threat to the male social order the so-called experts scientists how old that riding a bike would implode a woman's uterus or give her what they called quote the bicycle face which was marked by peculiarities including kale complection and an anxious expression this was all part of a larger attitude toward women and physical activity take basketball the sport was

invented in eight hundred ninety one and women started playing it right away they were rough and aggressive despite having to wear dresses on the court alarmed these players were becoming too manly organizers instituted new rules that actually prohibited physical contact and any effort to hinder the shooter and just like that what started as scrappy and fun was made dainty and dull all in the name of keeping men manly and women womanly. surely women would be allowed to run right i mean it's a no bicycle face no contact sport so what could be the problem the women's eight hundred meters debuted at the nineteen twenty eight olympics but at the finish some of the runners fell to the ground to catch their breath perfectly reasonable right they were when did you see this with men all the time too but for some reason this was considered so unladylike it caused an international scandal. deeming the sport

too strenuous for the frail female form a limp it officials promptly banned the women's eight hundred meters for thirty years. but the idea stuck so much so that one member of the international olympic committee would actually say in one thousand nine hundred fifty two that he hoped to eliminate women's track and field competition altogether from the olympics so that we all might be as he put it spare the unaesthetic spectacle of women trying to look an act like men. this all changed in the one nine hundred sixty s. and seventy's when women began to organise they broke out of traditional gender roles and took on responsibilities outside of the home it was called the women's movement and the world has never been the same since. i'm a guy. and this struggle reflected itself on battlefields as unlikely as the boston marathon race the twenty six miles three hundred eighty five yards from out in front of boston this is normally all nailed down most believe

that women just couldn't handle the distance but one nine hundred sixty seven a woman by the name of kathy switzer registered as k.v. switzer and got into the race the first bills are somewhat bewildered when the girl appeared wearing number two sixty one she's listed in the program with leather gave her the first seventy. five miles into the race one of the marathon directors actually jumped off a truck to forcibly remove switzer from the course yelling get the hell out of my race but the men running with her fought him off for them kathy switzer had every right to be there and for them the boston marathon wasn't about proving male supremacy getting boys against girls it was about people running a race when the pictures from the marathon were transmitted across the globe the world saw two opposing mine. of masculinity the violence and paranoia of the

marathon director vs the strength and solidarity of the other male runners and at the center of it all the resolute focus of kathy switzer in that moment sports bridge the gender divide and gave the world a glimpse into what was possible. but maybe the most influential example of the fight for women's equality in american sports was embodied in the great billie jean king goes so it's a very good trip that it's now worth it i don't you know nuffin really the only thing when we think of politics and billie jean king today but a lot of us remember her famous battle of the sexes match against bobby riggs in the early one nine hundred seventy s. . over and over again i will be aware way. bobby riggs boys mrs billie jean king on a tennis court in houston tonight it's a natural it's being billed as an epic battle of the sexes in front of

a sold out crowd at the houston astrodome she beat the retired tennis star bobby rates in straight sets and what remains one of the most watched television programs in the history of sports to change the world you had to win i had to win you're absolutely correct and even though there's no doubting the importance of this event and the fact that it was a moments of tremendous symbolism billie jean king his contributions to women's equality far transcend that one match. tennis is always going to country club sport but billie jean king came from a working class background and grew up playing on public courts and when she finally got into the game she fought for pay equity every step of the way she was the first ever president of the first ever women's sports union that organized women's tennis and she was also the first prominent woman to ever be out of the closet. right facing what is certainly made the most serious i think. thirty seven

year old really do you admit it you had a home and. now i'm gone and the revelation had an immediate blow back prestigious money billie jean king was contract to make television. is not being renewed the new york daily news called the company a fish. saying she was too strong a personality that she was overpowering the product he denied of the company's decision had anything to do with mrs king's disclosure a lesbian relationship would take her years to win back her credibility but she was somebody who never shied away from who she was and what she believed. the fact that these women refused to accept the restrictive gender roles assigned to them and the fact that their refusal sparked such widespread resentment and backlash from panicked men is a crucial part of the history of sports and of this country it all goes back to title nine in the one nine hundred seventy two law gave young women equal opportunity in education in sports before title nine roughly one out of thirty five

girls played some form of sports today that number is one it out of three is amazing. it's a reform that has literally changed the lives of tens of millions of women you wouldn't know that by looking at our sports media according to a series of studies done by sociologists michel messner and cheryl cookie the major networks have pretty much stopped covering women's sports altogether. coverage of women's sports on t.v. news and highlight shows has nearly evaporated since one thousand nine hundred nine from a high of nine percent of air time devoted to women athletes in one nine hundred ninety nine to an unbelievable one point six percent in two thousand and nine the best deal for show fareed on the bestseller list but you like those are the major

networks are more likely to promote women as swimsuit models cheerleaders were prosper a beer commercial then serious athletes a bikini fashion show illness and old ladies how is that final final call jack silly telly this fixation on women's bodies is no different from playboys women of the olympics issue or n.b.c.'s prime time coverage of women's beach volleyball a sport that just so happens to be played in the bikini's on synthetic retails want to go down as one of the ten that i'll ever forget athletes are no longer the focus they're just another excuse to sell women's bodies to male viewers who may be stuck on the p.s.p. yet. wealthy british style sun it's time to buy.

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yes my name is daniel schmidt this is julian assange we're here to make a short presentation about the wiki leaks project. the first step in the fourth estate is to get information out about the real world. through him war on. her. secret music because things are going to be a democracy. if i ever put in the sauces and danger he would hunt me down and kill. this is exactly one of the reasons why we left the project because it has become more about this old james bond. then the actual information. thank you. so whole people around the wold. pay me.