Author Archives: John Kanelis
‘The Roosevelts’ preview is set
Get ready for the preliminary to the main event. The prelim airs tonight at 7 on Panhandle PBS. It’s a preview to another landmark Ken Burns documentary set to air on public television later this year. It’s called “The Roosevelts”. It looks at three extraordinary American, all related to each other and all of them […]
Freedom became goal in summer of ’64
The American experience has been one of ups and downs, shining triumphs and dark defeats. That’s how it is when a republic tries to find its way into maturity. The summer of 1964 saw triumph and defeat hurtle headlong into each other. To the nation’s great benefit, triumph would win out. The nation’s experience is […]
Iraq … on the brink?
So, just how troubling is the Iraq crisis? Quite. Frontline’s coverage of the turmoil in the Middle East makes an important note. The battle for Syria has spilled across the border into Iraq. Indeed, the militants who have overrun Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, are tied directly to those who are fighting in the Syrian conflict […]
Outreach stymied by platform?
Political party platforms can be complicated things, or at least they can cause complications for candidates seeking public office. Candidates either can choose to ignore some or all of the planks in that platform, or they can embrace them tightly, shouting their virtues at every campaign stop along the way. Texas Republican candidates want to […]
Learning the ropes in a new medium
Oh, man. That flat wore me out. Did I run a marathon? Hardly. Mow all the lawns on my street? Not even close. No. What wore me out was — are you ready for this? — recording some videos for Panhandle PBS. I am learning my way through a new medium. It’s not exactly TV. […]
They rode for freedom
The Freedom Riders defined courage in ways not yet seen in this country. It was 1961. A group of civil-rights activists boarded buses for the Deep South. They demanded change in laws that basically since the founding of the Republic had sanctioned discrimination against African-Americans. They dared the federal government to enact laws to change […]
Get ready for PBS preview of ‘The Roosevelts’
You know it’s big when a broadcast network devotes a full hour of programming to a preview of a big documentary series. This one is big. Real big. Hugely big. Stupendously big. I’ll stop there. Ken Burns’s has put together another masterful PBS documentary, titled “The Roosevelts.” The preview airs June 17 at 7 p.m. […]
Ike stayed home at No. 10
The nation has paid a lot of attention during the past week to an event that occurred 70 years on the French coastline along the English Channel. We looked back at the D-Day, the Normandy invasion, which we’ve done every decade it seems since that fateful amphibious assault. PBS devoted lots of coverage to it, […]
Immigration splits Texas GOP
Those of us who are old enough to remember these things can recall when the Democratic Party was the fractious bunch and Republicans were seen as unified in thought and spirit. No more. The roles seem to be reversed. Perhaps nothing better describes the split among Republicans than the argument the GOP is having over […]
A Public View 