General Motors ends funding for PBS filmmaker Ken Burns

[Bozita]

Source: Detroit News

Monday, March 9, 2009
General Motors ends funding for PBS filmmaker Ken Burns
Robert Snell / The Detroit News


General Motors Corp. will stop bankrolling movies made by PBS filmmaker Ken Burns as it tries to conserve cash and survive the worst sales market in 27 years.

GM, which is in danger of running out of money this month and has asked for as much as $30 billion in federal aid, is curtailing corporate sponsorships and slashing marketing expenses. The automaker, which has lost about $82 billion in recent years, recently ended an endorsement deal with PGA golfer Tiger Woods and opted not to advertise during Super Bowl XLIII, the prime time Emmy Awards and the 2009 Academy Awards, among other moves.

The cash crunch ends a 22-year relationship between GM and Burns, a graduate of Ann Arbor's Pioneer High School and award-winning filmmaker who has created documentaries for public television about the nation's wars, jazz and baseball, among others. Under a 10-year deal that started in 1999, GM paid for 35 percent of each film's budget and funded educational outreach programs tied to each documentary.

While exact figures were not available, GM has spent millions underwriting Burns' films. The last film made under the deal is "The National Parks: America's Best Idea," a six-part series that airs this fall.

Read more: http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090309/AUTO01/903090353/&imw=Y

[bluestateguy]

1. Well that ought to give GM, what, one more day of oxygen?

nt

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

2. Exactly. They could fund Burns for years on one, count 'em one, CEO bonus.

[bluestateguy]

5. This is a good thing

Corporate sponsorship of PBS documentaries is just asking for trouble.

[No Elephants]

6. And the alternative would be? Funding by the govt is more trouble, as 8 years of Bush proved. And

individuals and foundations don't give enough. They can't survive on oxygen.

[JayMusgrove]

32. NO, it's not "asking for trouble" it's funding for facts and the truth!

Sorry you think we have to kiss the asses of big business to get the truth out.

By the way, PBS did NOT ask for this, GM just decided it on their own, what part of this decision is noble?

[Ikonoklast]

3. I'm old enough to remember when car companies

focused their profits on making...cars.

Seemed that was a winning strategy for many year before companies like GM lost their way, after accountants instead of 'car guys' started to run the company.

Bean counters deciding car design seems like a destination guided by failure.

[TwilightGardener]

4. Sad to see GM do so poorly. I know everyone here loves to kick big corporations

when they're down, but I had relatives who worked for GM (now retired), I've owned their cars, and I didn't know that they funded some of the most worthwhile TV I've ever watched. They're really an American institution--hate to see them go bankrupt.

[No Elephants]

7. Yes, but they brought a lot of this on themselves. I thought American car companies

learned their lesson when the Volkwagon Beetle burst on the scene. They should have been working on safer, cleaner, more fuel efficient cars all along, rather than lobbying to be free from emissions standards and the like. I don't want any company in America to fail, but I do want them to be good citizens. Funding Ken Burns was a great pr move, but I would rather be able to breathe than to watch TV, even good TV.

[TwilightGardener]

8. I buy only American cars--always have, always will. I love them.

Since the mid/late 80's, American car companies have been giving consumers what they asked for--and now everyone's pretending that the last 20 years didn't happen, we're still trapped in the 30-year-old "Japanese cars are better" bullshit myth, or the "why did they make SUV's instead of econoboxes" crap--people didn't WANT econoboxes until two years ago. And they are all either working on or offering hybrids, etc.--but they'll never be good enough for the assholes that buy Hyundais and believe the bullshit.

[No Elephants]

11. On what specific basis did American car mfrs. conclude that Americans did not want

cleaner, safer more affordable cars? A lot of what Americans "want" depends on what is offered to them, how it is marketed to them and its price. Americans never knew they "wanted" the VW until those small, reliable for that time), fuel efficient, affordable cars got here. Once they did, they sold like gangbusters.

While I don't buy foreign cars, I know people who buy Hyundais, not from preference, but simply bc that is all they can afford.

[TwilightGardener]

20. "Cleaner", I don't know--emissions and mileage wise, certainly

the companies dragged their feet and should bear blame, although I'm sure there are models that are comparable to foreign makers at least in terms of mileage--partly that's our fault as consumers, though. Up until a couple years ago, people wanted their Durangos and Suburbans and Excursions, and the companies churned them out. I hadn't heard many people buying a car based on mileage until gas prices went up, and I don't exactly live in a highly environmentally-conscious area, so I have no idea how much demand there was specifically for low-emission vehicles. How are American cars unsafe? I haven't heard or experienced that at all--not since the Explorer-Firestone rollover deal. And in terms of affordability, there are such wide differences in price and models and options (including buying used and leasing), not sure that argument holds up either. Point is, the Big Three have churned out such a huge variety in all price and mileage ranges over the years that the case for buying foreign, or for resting all the blame for current economic woes on American companies, becomes very muddy--unless, of course, you simply rely on the old "Japanese/German cars are just better" bullshit knee-jerk excuse. Toyota et al aren't doing so hot either, right now, and Japan will certainly be shoring them up--we apparently prefer to watch our companies drown, and have a good laugh about it.

[CRF450]

37. Unless you look at compact econo cars, everything else between domestics and imports get the same...

fuel milage through the different classes. I looked at 05+ Toyota Tacoma's loaded out the same as my Dodge Dakota, crew cab 4x4 and 230hp 4.7 v8, only they have a 4.0 230 something HP v6. They dont get much better fuel milage than my Dakota with is getting 16 to 17mpg on average, and has gotten 21mpg on the highway, maybe 1 or 2mpg more because they're a few hundred pounds lighter. I would've bought a Tacoma but the Dakota I got instead is a real nice truck, and having a v8 in a midsize truck is a big plus. The car I have is an 01 Trans Am, despite being a high powered sports car with a 350hp v8, it gets much better fuel milage, average me around 22mpg, and actually got (I kid you not!) 31mpg on the interstate! High performance cars from the import makers can only rival the fuel milage I'm getting, they actually don't get any better.

[xxqqqzme]

18. "American car companies have been giving

consumers what they asked for"....Talk about a myth of epic proportions. If they had been giving consumers what they asked for, Honda, Toyota and Hyundai would not be selling more autos; would not be manufacturing autos in the US; would not be the leaders of hybrids.

[TwilightGardener]

21. They gave me what I asked for, and I'm a consumer. I've been

extremely satisfied with my cars. I made a point to support American workers and American industry. Other people couldn't be bothered. Oh well.

[Plucketeer]

23. I'm still driving an American-made vehicle

My daily driver is a 1957 Studebaker pickup truck. Built in South Bend Indiana - in an era when ALL of an American vehicle was built IN North America (they had some of their upholstery pieces done in Canada).

[Demit]

25. I bought my first Toyota in 1975 and never looked back.

If a company loses a customer because of poor products, that's on them. Not on me. The problem for companies like that is that customers have no reason to look at them again if we're happy with the alternative we found.

[TwilightGardener]

26. Yep, I'm sure you're smiling today.

[Demit]

29. Every time the car starts up. I found a good product. It earned my loyalty.

[TwilightGardener]

39. My car starts up every time, too.

And I know I supported American jobs and workers.

[JayMusgrove]

33. Then you have contributed to global warming more than others, you have

wasted your money, you have sponsored corporate irresponsibility, sponsored lack of creativity, and you can be proud of your decisions to do so.

You seem to have a flag in front of your eyes and fail to see how to make reasonable and logical choices as a consumer.

Hundreds of gallons of gasoline wasted, and you STILL want to support these corrupt corporations, who reward waste, ignore unions, and give giant bonuses to irresponsible executives.

This is NOT about "America versus Japan"... it's about smart management versus wasteful irresponsible management as GM, Ford, Chrysler, and all other dead American auto companies have exhibited since WW II.

[Dreamer Tatum]

10. There's a little more to it than that

They made promises to take care of everyone who retired from there. Did anyone think that could go on for forever?

People love to drop the phrase 'Ponzi scheme.' Well, planning to sell enough cars to support the needs of geometrically
increasing numbers of retirees...THAT'S a Ponzi scheme.

Carp all you want about executive pay. Execs working for free would have forestalled this debacle by a couple of weeks, maybe.

[sufrommich]

13. "They made promises to take care of everyone who retired from there"

Those bastards!!!! :eyes:

[Dreamer Tatum]

14. Which implied selling enough cars to support that promise

And people are SHOCKED and OUTRAGED that they just couldn't do it.

Yeah, it's nice to take care of your workers. It's also nice to have a business that can be scaled to support that goal.

[No Elephants]

16. I did not post anything about executive pay. You probably have

a point about the retirement plans. Then again, their customer base could have expanded, too, if boomers bought only U.S. cars. And what you say applies to any retirement plan, including Social Security.

As far as execs working for free, sure, at this stage, controls on spending would not help all that. I'm betting different behavior, as to spending and other things, for the last 40 years would have, though.

[ogneopasno]

9. Oh, that's OK -- I'm sure the Toyota Foundation will pick it right up.

[Jivenwail]

12. So does GM also plan to cease its NASCAR affiliation?

Perhaps I am totally off base here but seems to me that if GM is "curtailing corporate sponsorships" that their affiliation with stock car racing would be cut, if not eliminated. Just how much does GM sink into NASCAR racing? And how do they really, for all intents and purposes, justify that anyway? To what purpose, exactly, would they have in continuing to sink money into racing at this point? Have they even mentioned that? There are a number of race teams that drive the Chevy...

[ogneopasno]

15. GM has already cut back quite a bit on its NASCAR sponsorships.

They justified "sinking money into it" because it was good advertising. At least, it was when people had money to spend.

[JayMusgrove]

34. Nascar, that fuel wasting American gladiatorial battle, where

men and women race against each other, get injured, killed, and maimed. THAT'S MUCH MORE VITAL than

PBS............oh yes!

[BumRushDaShow]

17. Well at least this current President

supports the NEA (and included some funding for it in the stimulus).

[antimatter98]

19. GM could make Burns a VP and that salary would fund his films. n/t

[JayMusgrove]

35. Yup........and the creaativity of current VP's at GM

would fit in Ken Burn's ear!

[tuckessee]

22. Good. Burns is a hack who should fade away. n/t

[maxsolomon]

24. he's boring & sentimental

but not quite to "hack" level.

he's like the barry manilow of documentary filmmakers. he fills a need in the american psyche.

[EFerrari]

28. I still resent that he couldn't find a chicano in SACRAMENTO.

LOL. (Let go, Beth, let it go!)

[slampoet]

30. I still can't forgive him for fucking up the jazz documentary.

He let Winton spout off about crap he didn't know anything about and certainly didn't WITNESS plus amended jazz to eliminate everything that happened from 1968 until 1990.

[RandomKoolzip]

31. HOLYSHIT that pissed me off too. No Ayler? No David Murray? No Art Ensemble of Chicago?

Um, Cecil Taylor, anyone? Braxton? Free Jazz is an enormous, expansive tibutary of the jazz river. That Burns omitted it from the "official" history of the genre is a supreme "fuck you" to music fans everywhere.

Burns and Marsalis seem to think Jazz died after Miles went electric. Didn't they learn anything from Dylan and his folk flock? Buncha reactionary hidebound no-nothings with no fucking guts.

The Civil War thing was okay, though, I guess. Corny, but okay.

[slampoet]

38. It was a big slap in the face of Elis Regina, Bobby McFerrin and ALL of Fusion too.

No Chic Corea?

No Jo Zawinul?

No Jaco ?!!!



The whole documentary was jazz framed in BS. Framed on the end my BS omission and framed at the beginning by idiot Wynton going on about crap that he only heard as stories from other musicians about the ragime era.

It was especially insulting because this was before Katrina and some of the people who were ACTUALLY THERE during ragtime were still alive.

[Dover]

27. DONATE TO PBS!.....now more than ever before they need funding...n/t

[Bozita]

36. My local PBS just started the 2nd week of what seems to be a monthly fund-raiser

I really miss the programming.