NPR: Forging Our Way

Forging Our Way

Listen to the Pilot

Full Pilot Hour: 'Tell Me More' with Michel Martin

Another week of piloting... and BREAKING NEWS!
Are you ready??
We have a name!!!!!!
Drumroll (cue announce)...
Are you ready?

TELL ME MORE with Michel Martin

It has been a long process...
I can't even tell you how many names we explored. Thousands, literally. YOU sent us some great ones... but alas, SO many great ones were already taken!

So, here's why we think this one will work: It says exactly what we're trying to do: We're listening.
We've got our collective ears to the ground.
And to you, it says we want to know more -- so much more.
We're going behind the headlines to give you the angles and the perspectives that others might miss or just not talk about.

So...Tell Me More. That's why we're here.

(And sorry! Nobody won the dinner. The name came from in-house!)

And even more BIG NEWS! In honor of our new name and our drive toward our on-the-air launch, this week, we share with you our first FULL pilot hour!
(Um, sorry... give me a minute. Sniff!) Sorry to get emotional. This is kind of a big deal to us because it's the first entire show that we're making available to you

As you know, our earlier posts have just featured "samples" from our piloting. We wanted to tweak things just right -- at least to us -- before revealing ALL. (Just like I wouldn't come out of the house with my hair in a doo-rag... ya feel me? )

So, here's what's up for today's full hour:

Award-winning documentarian Ken Burns is facing controversy. Critics say his upcoming 14-hour series on World War II overlooks the contributions and experiences of Latinos who fought and served. Some believe Burns' omission is a major slap in the face, while some other documentary filmmakers say, "Not so fast." We wanted to hear from both sides.

We talked to Maggie Rivas Rodriguez, a journalist and historian at a major Texas university and Nina Gilden-Seavey, a filmmaker in her own right. In a separate conversation, Latino filmmaker Hector Galan also weighs in. We were debating whether a film that has yet to premiere really merits so much attention. But we decided the issues raised were so interesting -- and that these three points of view were so compelling we really couldn't handle it in less time. Hope you agree.

By now, we are probably all aware of major conflict in Darfur and how it's affecting lives. (If not, catch up here). We hear a lot about the number of people displaced. But one thing I always wonder when I hear that is: Where do the people go? One answer (although not the whole answer, by any means) is: a small Midwestern town. Where? You'll have to listen. Suliman Giddo, co-founder of Darfur Peace and Development Association, and Abdula Salah, a Dafari refugee.

Barbershop -- It's back! We took your advice. I'm just eavesdropping this time. (I have tough skin; it's ok. Brooklyn, remember?) Listen to these fellas talk about some of everything. They cover presidential fundraising and a bit of recent celebrity "baby daddy" drama. In the shop this week is Jimi Izrael, from the last go-around;
Michael David Cobb Bowen, freelance writer and author; Quibian Salazar-Moreno, a freelance writer whose work has appeared in URB magazine and AOL Black Voices, and Ruben Navarrette, a syndicated columnist for the San Diego Union-Tribune and CNN.com.

Lastly, it's your turn. No, really! We read from your blog posts and feedback to what we're doing. Take a listen. You might hear from yourself!

That's a wrap. Do you think that Ken Burns is obligated to be more inclusive in his war documentary? Or is his artistic freedom more important? What do you think about all the fuss?

Let us know what you think about the full selection of content...and listening to our first release of a (mock) full show.

We love hearing from you -- and you hearing us. We're getting closer to our launch!

Michel Martin

6:03 PM ET | 04- 9-2007 | permalink

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6:03 PM ET | 04- 9-2007 | permalink

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Congratulations on your impending launch Michel! Regarding Ken Burns' WWII Docu: You're right, its hard to judge without seeing the film! If its about the contributions of ethnic groups then little or no mention of one group seems to fall short of correctly presenting history. If the Docu is not about ethnic groups then I would expect people to be presented based upon their contributions regardless of race, ancestry, shoe size etc. Integration and being part of a collective village would be more meaningful when examining how we united to defend the world against dangers in the past. Thank you for your moto "discovering how other people think". Everyone should work to hear other perspectives and not just those that re-inforce our own views whether they are right or left.
-John
Long Beach, CA

Sent by John Vertrees | 4:38 PM ET | 04-10-2007

Thanks for your comment. Hope you like what you're hearing so far...tell your (smart) friends...scratch that...tell everybody because we want to TELL THEM MORE...(I'm getting punchy..up too early..)

Sent by Michel Martin and the Tell Me More team | 7:34 PM ET | 04-10-2007

LOVE the barbershop; but why limit your options, Michel? If the subject is interesting to you, sit in. If not, or if the energy flows well all by itself, eavesdrop. Bet you could say "How 'bout that Imus" and take a long break.

Sent by Tom Strauss | 9:46 PM ET | 04-10-2007

Congratulations! I've enjoyed your pilot posts, and reading the comments of your evidently very thoughtful listeners.

Here's a topic for the future -- American Eduction. I know that's a big field, but I talk to a lot of people who care deeply about education -- parents, teachers, and interested intellectuals like me -- and who would enjoy listening to other people, like us and unlike us, talk about the challenges we are facing in providing public education, and good ideas for the future.

Sent by Rachel H | 11:51 AM ET | 04-11-2007

I would like a future topic to be on housing in America. I keep hearing about the rise in homelessness rates and further cuts to government organizations offering afforable housing. America really needs to understand how housing projects or "ghettos" as some would say came into existence...what occurred prior to the fair housing act...false promises of the G.I. bill..implications of "revitialization" on communities, etc...

Sent by A. Mission | 4:22 PM ET | 04-11-2007

Hey fam, this just in...
http://www.nahj.org/nahjnews/articles/2007/april/defendhonor.shtml

That didn't take long.

Sent by Lee Hill with Tell Me More | 5:26 PM ET | 04-11-2007

"What's mine is mine, and you're just a concubine." -- Michael David Cobb Bowen

Can a child belong to a man? Is that why he should get a vasectomy?

Yikes! Talk about Don Imus...

Sent by Steve Petersen | 11:02 PM ET | 04-11-2007

Lisa de Moraes writes about the Ken Burns compromise in the Washington Post today:

http://tinyurl.com/2k7czp

The article says the documentary itself is done and won't be re-edited, but new materials will be produced and included within the documentary's time slot, or "footprint," as they call it.

(Full disclosure - I'm serving as an advisor to the online components of the documentary, but not the documentary itself.)

Sent by andy carvin | 9:42 AM ET | 04-12-2007

Congratulations. Its been a rare voyeuristic pleasure following the development of this show. I can't wait to hear it on my radio.

Sent by Doug | 7:36 PM ET | 04-12-2007

Your show is amazing, although I have become impartial to the name "Rough Cuts"
I'm glad to see the show is moving forward. I have recently moved to Minneapolis from South Florida and this show has kept me abreast culturally which I miss dearly from back home. I have felt cheated by your segments that were only a few minutes long, I hope that you revisit some of those topics. Will your show be updated daily now?

Keep up the great work!
Felecia Flair!

Sent by Felecia Flair | 12:39 PM ET | 04-13-2007

I want to thank you for being the only news organization to think that my thoughts about the Imus controversy have enough value to print. I must have tried to post on the Daily Nightly blog at MSNBC at least a half a dozen times. For some reason and without violating any of their rules was arbitrarily dismissed. I have been watching NBC all my life. My father, may he rest in peace, was an NBC page over 60 years ago and we were an NBC family. They have insulted me in many ways over the last week, enough to make me change my viewing habits. Thank you.

Sent by B. Newmeyer | 12:44 PM ET | 04-14-2007

Hey Steve, soundbites are what they are. The point of mine was this. If you are a multi-millionaire and you wish to go trysting around with pop singers and models and the like, either you're in it for the fun or you're in it for the kids.

Why would any intelligent man deny a child was his? He must have been in it for the fun. With that in mind, he should have had a legal, or medical hedge. My assumption is that Murphy wants out of child-support for a woman he's obviously not going to marry.

Mine is a strong argument for marriage with children and that if multimillionaires with attorneys think they can weasel their way out of the centuries-old wisdom of that arrangement, then their alternative is the other centuries-old wisdom which is concubinage.

Not that it's any of our business.

Sent by Cobb | 3:15 PM ET | 04-15-2007

Michel,
You are awsome!
Love Rough Cuts xoxox

Peace

Sent by Chris | 8:09 PM ET | 04-16-2007

If its about the contributions of ethnic groups then little or no mention of one group seems to fall short of correctly presenting history. If the Docu is not about ethnic groups then I would expect people to be presented based upon their contributions regardless of race, ancestry, shoe size etc.
***********************************************
I think the above mindset illustrates this controversy. The documentary is supposed to be about the AMERICAN experience in WWII, and what you call "ethnic" groups are part of the American experience. Non-white people are not some subset of America.

And what to make of the comment that if the documentary is not about "ethnic groups" then people should be presented based on their contributions. So Latinos can't make the cut if the litmus test is based on the quality of their contributions?

Hundreds of thousands of Latinos fought in WWII and thirteen were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor from FDR and Truman.

The contributions of Latinos soldiers in WWII was exemplary.

And maybe that's why they were excluded? They couldn't present Latinos veterans as "less than" whites. So they just decided to ignore them and create the illusion that Latinos didn't fight in WWII at all.

Not so fast. We won't let our contributions be ignored any longer.

Sent by Karen | 11:28 PM ET | 04-17-2007

Perhaps I'll be surprised but Ken Burns also probably completely ignored the role of Gay men and Lesbians in WWII as well as that of Latinos/as and Native people. This is an ongoing process where majority culture renders invisible minority members whether ethnic, racial, religious or sexual. Ironically, WWII was significant to the development of more open Gay culture when men and women, often isolated in rural and small town America, were brought together, realizing that they were not the only ones who were that way. The telling of OUR history as only being white straight men (no matter how worthy those people were) is false, dishonest and diminishes all of us, taking from minority citizens their rightful role models and taking from straight white men the opportunity to appreciate the contributions of those who are not just like them. Tom Neal, Tulsa, Oklahoma

Sent by Tom Neal | 7:10 PM ET | 05-01-2007

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'Tell Me More' with Michel Martin

"Nothing is assumed." That's the unofficial motto of Tell Me More, the new Monday-Friday talk show with host Michel Martin. Grounded in lively interviewing and compelling storytelling, the program seeks to present diverse new voices, cross borders, challenge conventional wisdom and discover how other people think.