A look at the history and art of the negative campaign ad, how being bilingual changes your brain, the Public Safety Realignment Act and its impact on crime.
Politics or pandering: Are Clinton and Sanders trying too hard to court black voters?
Democratic presidential hopefuls have worked hard to get an edge in Nevada, where polls indicate the race will be tight.
Because of this, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have switched tactics in recent weeks, shifting the tone of their campaigns to focus on voters of color.
Both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton have touted support from African Americans, but some of the people they're teaming up with are people who would not be widely known, were it not for a few highly controversial cases involving the police.
Bernie Sanders recently received an endorsement from Erica Garner, the daughter of the late Eric Garner:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP4Xasc1t7Q
Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton appeared in Chicago with the mother of Sandra Bland:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7KnsYVo8Yk
Take Two assembled a roundtable panel to discuss the recent Democratic push to court black voters.
Guests:
Ange-Marie Hancock, associate professor of political science and gender studies at USC
Jamelle Bouie, chief political correspondent for Slate
Todd Shaw, professor of political science and African-American studies at the University of South Carolina
Presidential attack ads: A history
With just one day until the South Carolina primary and Nevada caucus, presidential candidates on both sides of the political aisle have been shelling out big bucks on TV ads.
Some have kept things positive, touting what a candidate could achieve if elected, but many are produced with one goal in mind: to smear the competition.
Attack ads have long been a part of the American political process.
UCLA political science and communications professor, Lynn Vavreck, joined Take Two for a look back at some of the most effective campaign ads of presidential elections past.
Platform Double-Talk (1952)
Election: Adlai Stevenson vs. Dwight D Eisenhower
Key features: wisecracking cartoons, a double-headed, flip-flopping GOP candidate
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-twQcoPmaU
Vavreck says, don’t let the quaint tone of the ad fool you: in the 50s, cartoons were a very effective way to lampoon the competition in a presidential race.
“It’s tempting to think that because these are cartoons or because they are not quite so biting in today’s context, the early attacks weren’t harsh. There were plenty of harsh attacks, even in the 50s and 60s,” Vavreck says. “Attack ads deliver twice the information as promotional ads because they contrast one candidate’s position against another’s.”
Willie Horton (1988)
Election: George H Bush vs. Michael Dukakis
Key features: Grave voiceover, infamous mugshot of a convicted murderer, escalates quickly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io9KMSSEZ0Y
What the ad lacks in visual stimuli, it more than makes up for in content. The “Horton” ad would go on to change the tone of the 1988 election, handing the race to Bush. Vavreck says that's because this ad set the stage for the “Revolving Door” ad, which also relied heavily on images of imprisoned black males.
“All of the sudden, [we were] talking about race. 'Is the ad priming race?' Mr. Horton is a black man. 'Is there a connection there that the Republicans are trying to draw between crime and race?' It changes the conversation of that election for some time,” Vavreck says.
Speaking about the ad, Bush strategist Lee Atwater said, “By the time we’re finished, they’re going to wonder whether Willie Horton is Dukakis’ running mate.”
Windsurfing (2004)
Election: George W Bush vs. John Kerry
Key features: John Kerry in swim shorts, John Kerry windsurfing, Johann Strauss’ “Blue Danube.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbdzMLk9wHQ
This ad is especially effective because the ad maker found a way to link Bush rival John Kerry to something that most people already thought about him at the time: that he was rich and out of touch. Footage of Kerry windsurfing made this an easy point to drive home.
“So then, you put that music behind it and the boat becomes the dancer, and there you have the ballet,” Vavreck says.
It feels good to be a Clinton (2016)
Election: Primaries
Key features: Throwback to “Damn, it feels good to be a gangsta,” Throwback to “Office Space,” A (much heavier) Hillary Clinton doppelganger
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FECIYlo3KRY
The recent Ted Cruz ad was released a week ahead of the South Carolina and Nevada primaries. Lynn Vavreck says it’s one of the best attack ads she’s seen in a long time.
“[That's] because it goes to the core of what people think about Hillary Clinton. It’s not inventing a myth about her — it is taking the reality and trying to deliver that in a compelling way,” Vavreck says. “When I saw it the first time, I was surprised. It does do what it intends to do.”
Will voters ever tire of political attack ads? UCLA professor Lynn Vavreck says it's not likely.
“When we ask people, ‘what do you think of these attack ads?’ [They say] ‘Oh, I hate them. I wish they would stop.’ But they are effective, and they do shape people’s attitudes and thoughts about candidates.”
PRESS THE BLUE PLAY BUTTON ABOVE TO HEAR THE FULL SEGMENT.
A case against Walmart that could improve LGBT rights in the workplace
Over a thousand current and former employees have filed suit against the retail giant Walmart over health benefits for same sex couples.
Before 2014, Walmart denied healthcare coverage to employees with same-sex spouses even in states where gay marriage was legalized.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 extends protections to employees against discrimination based on sex, but not sexual orientation.
Some legal experts speculate that regardless of the outcome, the suit will create a precedent for increasing LGBT protections in the workplace.
Josh Eidelson is a Bloomberg Businessweek reporter who covers politics, policy, and labor.
To listen to the whole interview, click on the blue player above
Can Apple unlock one iPhone without threatening the security of all its devices?
The fight between Apple and the government over access to the iPhone of San Bernardino mass shooter Syed Rizwan Farook has dominated headlines.
The FBI wants to access to the data on Farook's phone but cannot access it without a passcode. A judge ordered Apple to help the feds, Apple said no and, now, the DOJ has entered the fray, filing a motion Friday for Apple to comply, arguing that the company is "not above the law."
The one question that calls for clarification is whether it is actually feasible for Apple to do what the FBI wants, and help unlock one phone without endangering the security of all phones? Apple has said it's not but Feds have pushed back on that point.
Peter Bright is Technology Editor for Ars Technica and talks to Host Alex Cohen about the technology involved in unlocking one phone for the FBI.
Mark Burton on Oscar nominated 'Shaun the Sheep Movie' - a stop-action film with no dialogue
This week on Take Two, we've been hearing from the nominees in this year's Best Animated Feature film category at the Oscars.
These days, most animated films rely in part on the voices of big celebrities to bring in audiences, but one of the nominated films doesn't have that star power... because it has NO dialogue.
Shaun the Sheep Movie is about a very smart sheep who lives on a farm in rural England.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQvwiOWpj7o
Shaun and his farm buddies play a trick on the farmer - a shenanigan which accidentally leads them on a wild adventure to the big city.
The film's co-director, Mark Burton, joined the show to discuss the ups and downs of making a full-length stop-motion feature with no dialogue.
Interview highlights below:
On making a film with no dialogue:
"...It was quite a big idea, let's be honest, to make a family movie with no dialogue and we knew it was going to be a challenge. But I think it was good, it made us think about the story in a very different way. We had to tell a story that had emotional ideas to it but was quite simple but hopefully quite profound."
Why Sheep?:
"It's about the storytelling, and we learned a lot of this from the great Nick Park. If you watch Wallace and Gromet, you'll cut to a reaction shot of Gromet, when Wallace has done something stupid you know exactly what Gromet is thinking but he's barely moving...We reach into their heads and so obviously you need to convey some ideas, but you know sometimes less is more..."
To hear the full interview, press the blue play button above.
Study: California's prison realignment act had little to no impact on crime
As crime rates started to tick up last year in Los Angeles, some law enforcement officers pointed the finger at re-alignment.
The controversial Public Safety Realignment Act, passed five years ago that - in an effort to reduce California's prison population. The realignment shifted responsibility for low-level offenders from the state to the county level.
In the first three years after that change was made, officials reported that nearly 25-thousand inmates were released in L.A. County alone.
But now a large-scale study by researchers from major California universities found that the downsizing had no impact on major crime.
Charis Kubrin and Carroll Serron are professors of criminology at UC Irvine, together they edited the report, which takes up an entire issue of The Annals of the American Academy of Political & Social Science published today.
Serron and Kubrin joined the show to discuss.
Click on blue player above to hear the interview
To hear the full interview, press the blue play button above.
Bringing the nation's littlest people into focus: Preschoolers
Over the course of his two terms in office, President Obama has had some success, and some failure, pressing for reforms in areas such as immigration, the economy and gun control.
But as he nears the end of his Presidency, he's also trying to gain traction on initiatives that bring the nation's littlest people into focus: Preschoolers.
The President has requested $19.5 billion dollars from Congress in his latest budget - all for early education and care programs.
These funds would expand Head Start --the federally funded preschool program for children in poverty-- as well as open up more money for states to continue building their own preschool and childcare programs.
All of this builds on other policies designed with early year education in mind.
To learn more, we spoke with Deborah Stipek, a professor in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University.
She says that there are several reasons why Obama may have made preschool a priority when other presidents haven't.
To hear the full interview, press the blue play button above.
How being a bilingual speaker changes the brain
The benefits of being bilingual are easy to conjure up here in Los Angeles.
More than half of residents in L.A. County speak a language other than English at home. Being able to speak more languages, or even just one other language, means the ability to communicate with lots more people.
But what about the impact of being bilingual on your brain?
There are some new findings on the topic that science writer (and bilingual speaker) Lizzie Wade has been looking into.
She joined Take Two to discuss her recent piece in WIRED, "Being Bilingual Changes the Architecture of Your Brain."
To hear the full interview, click the link above.
Biologists fascinated by three-legged bobcat
It was an exciting moment when a Parks Service camera in the Santa Monica mountains captured a wild bobcat bounding about.
But this wasn't any ordinary bobcat. Researchers quickly determined was that this animal only has three legs.
National Parks Service staff managed to breifly capture the bobcat, put a tracking device one her and release her back into the mountains. And they gave her a name: B-337.
Now for those of us who may never get close enough to see a bobcat in the wild, the Parks Service shot some video of B-337. In the clip you see a sleek cat bound off, clearly uninhibitted by its lack of a leg.
Take Two's Deepa Fernandes spoke with Joanne Moriarty, a biologist at the National Park Service. She studies bobcats around Los Angeles.
On how they spotted B-337
We first spotted her one a remote camera last summer. the first photo we weren't sure if what we were seeing was true, that she only had three legs. But then a little bit later we got another photo of her where it was very clear that she did. Since we were going to be trapping in her area anyway we were hoping to capture her in one of our traps so that we could take a closer look at her.
On B-337's kitten and what makes it special.
We actually captured the kitten that she raised. His name in 336. We don't know if it's coincidental or if there is something going on here. He does appear to only have one ear. It appears his hearing isn't affected at all; he has the actual functioning parts of the ear, he just doesn't have the outside parts of it.
To hear the full audio click the blue player above
To see the full video of the Bobcat, click here
Oscar-nominated live-action shorts: "Stutterer"
In the Oscar nominated live action short Stutterer, a young man named Greenwood lives with the titular speech impediment.
In his head, the words come out just fine ... he just can't say them out loud.
There's his dad and a girlfriend he only communicates with online.
That's until she tells Greenwood she'd like to meet. In person.
Stutterer is set in London and was written and directed by Benjamin Cleary.
Take Two's A Martinez sat down with the director, along with producers Shan Christopher Oglive and Serena Armitige.
To hear the full conversation, click the blue player above
Harper Lee, 'To Kill a Mockingbird' author, has died at 89
Harper Lee, the novelist who wrote about racial injustice through the eyes of a child in "To Kill a Mockingbird," has died. She was 89.
HarperCollins spokeswoman Tina Andreadis confirmed the author's death to The Associated Press on Friday.
From AP:
"To Kill a Mockingbird," published in 1960, is the story of a girl nicknamed Scout growing up in a Depression-era Southern town. A black man has been wrongly accused of raping a white woman, and Scout's father, the resolute lawyer Atticus Finch, defends him despite threats and the scorn of many.
The book was a huge success, ultimately winning the Pulitzer Prize and being turned into an Oscar-winning film starring Gregory Peck as Finch. Last week it was revealed that Oscar-winning screenwriter Aaron Sorkin would adapt the book for Broadway.
Lee became more mysterious as her book became more famous. Here's more from AP:
At first, she dutifully promoted her work. She spoke frequently to the press, wrote about herself and gave speeches, once to a class of cadets at West Point.
But she began declining interviews in the late 1960s and, until late in her life, firmly avoided making any public comment at all about her novel or her career. Other than a few magazine pieces for Vogue and McCalls in the 1960s and a review of a 19th century Alabama history book in 1983, she published no other book until stunning the world in 2015 by permitting "Go Set a Watchman" to be released.
"Watchman" was written before "Mockingbird," but was set 20 years later, using the same location and many of the same characters. Readers and reviewers were disheartened to find an Atticus who seemed nothing like the hero of the earlier book. The man who defied the status quo in "Mockingbird" was now part of the mob in "Watchman," denouncing the Supreme Court's ruling that school segregation was unconstitutional and denouncing blacks as unfit to enjoy full equality.
Take Two's Deepa Fernandes spoke with David Kipen, creator of the "Libros Schmibros" lending library in Boyle Heights, about Lee's legacy.
On how Harper Lee got her career jump-started thanks to a specific present
I would say that she was gutsy woman who needed that kind of determination to get her career jump started. She had a couple of friends who literally gave her as a Christmas present the money she would have made as a travel agent. They said "Harper we know you want to write. Next year is our present to you."
On Lee's unexpected connection to Los Angeles
Gregory Peck who played Attics Finch in the movie, (he and Lee) grew to be friends. The LA public library was, rightfully so, a very dear cause to Mr. Peck. In 2005, after he died, as a favor to his widow, he arm-twisted Harper Lee to come out to Los Angeles and to appear at a dinner in recognition of and as a fundraiser for the L.A. Public library.