Norman Lear

Norman Lear

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The creator of such shows as "All in the Family," "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman," and "The Jeffersons,"
Norman Lear is a pioneer of a more candid, socially realistic genre of television programming and a champion of democratic values.

Mr. lear founded People for the American Way to defend core First Amendment freedoms, and the Business Enterprise Trust to celebrate businesses that advance the public good while achieving financial success.

Blog Entries by Norman Lear

Where Is My Troop Train?

Posted April 7, 2008 | 04:24 PM (EST)


In the last 20-minutes of a flight that brought me home from half way around the world the other day, I read about a movie called Stop-Loss and knew I had to see it as soon as I could. Not because it seemed to be an anti-war film. As related...

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Archie Bunker vs. the Attorney General

148 Comments | Posted December 15, 2007 | 03:24 PM (EST)


I woke up this morning and over coffee and my daily newspaper saw the front page story, DELAY IS SOUGHT BY JUSTICE DEPARTMENT ON CIA INQUIRY, read a quote by our new Attorney General, Michael Mukasey, and immediately thought:

"Of course! I know where I heard that reasoning before. In...

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Looking For Ourselves 66 Years Later

64 Comments | Posted December 7, 2007 | 12:52 PM (EST)


Sunday, December 7, 1941, a dozen of us 18-19 year olds at the start of our lives, were rehearsing a freshman production of a relatively silly play, Uncle Stanley Slept Here, on the Esplanade behind Emerson College at 130 Beacon Street, Boston, under the direction of a large-hatted, soprano-voiced, Noel...

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Where is the Outrage During the Presidential Debates?

171 Comments | Posted November 11, 2007 | 09:29 PM (EST)


So two front page stories in my Sunday paper grab my attention:

"Broken Supply Channels Sent Arms For Iraq Astray." "...billions of dollars in arms handed over to shoestring commands without oversight."

"Death of a Spy Satellite Program; How Lofty Plans and Unrealistic Bids Wasted Billions."

And as...

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On Norman Mailer's Passing: When the Curtain Rises

40 Comments | Posted November 11, 2007 | 12:55 PM (EST)


Just now, Sunday morning, I finished reading, in the New York Times, Charles McGrath's excellent review of Mailer's life -- and I choose "review" rather than obituary deliberately -- because Mailer was as much a piece of extraordinary theater as he was "towering writer." As I read McGrath's review,...

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Pete Seeger: a True American Hero

Posted April 26, 2007 | 08:25 PM (EST)


I met Pete Seeger almost a year ago after seeing an early copy of the film, Pete Seeger: The Power of Song. Wishing to be helpful to the film, I drove up to Beacon, NY to meet Pete and his wife Toshi at their log cabin house they...

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Bullshit Trouble in River City

Posted April 22, 2007 | 02:58 PM (EST)


The media and press today suffer fools and the foolish. Word of John Edwards' $400 haircut might constitute a shock anywhere in the $2.25 per haircut American outback, some of which happily still exists. But college-educated, well-traveled journalists -- at least to any city in their state that's got themselves...

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Imus and the Unending Coarsening of our Culture

Posted April 12, 2007 | 01:29 PM (EST)


I wrote the below before reading Marty Kaplan's post at 8:40 PM Wednesday night. He said it all and far more brilliantly, so those of you have read Kaplan, think of this as a lame P.S. (Why send it along, then, you might ask. Hey, I have nothing against...

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Conditions on the Ground

Posted March 20, 2007 | 10:55 AM (EST)


"White House officials on Monday said the political pressure to leave Iraq would abate when conditions on the ground appeared more positive." -- New York Times, today

If I hear the expression "conditions on the ground" one more time...

I'm having difficulty with just about everyone I depend...

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It Will Take the Left to Right This Ship

Posted March 8, 2007 | 10:01 PM (EST)


There is an element missing in the Democrat/Liberal/Progressive, you name it, response to the mind bending breakdown of everything -- the current administration, tearing at the seams; American leadership's inability to win a war against insurgents, despite its unquestionably superior might; it's utter failure to properly care for the injured...

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The Media Spotlight

Posted February 23, 2007 | 10:36 AM (EST)


So here is a thread, yesterday, in the distressed fabric of that day:

Several calls from national newspapers, weekly news publications and one monthly, all looking for a quote as to what I (Anna Nicole is no longer with us, you see) think and/or have to say (they are...

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In the Language of Today

Posted January 28, 2007 | 07:44 PM (EST)


Excerpt from Crooks and Liars:

"...certain parallels between Iraq and Vietnam are uncanny," says Fred Barnes, in the WEEKLY STANDARD. "A new general, David Petraeus, is taking over in Iraq with a credible new strategy, counterinsurgency. Four decades ago, General Creighton Abrams became the American commander in Vietnam, also...

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I Must Confess

Posted January 25, 2007 | 01:59 PM (EST)


First lesson: You must read the Huffington Post at least daily. Preferably, for your own sense of truthiness and stableness, several times a day. Re the Mastergate/Norman Lear/Larry Gelbart mix and mash, I'd have cleared this up for so many of you days ago had I been taking my...

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And I Said to Myself

Posted January 14, 2007 | 08:59 PM (EST)


Any century is lucky if it has a clown or two. The last century had one in Ed Wynn. Not a comic, a clown. THE ED WYNN SHOW, starring this genius, this clown, a must see in the earliest days of black and white television, had one detractor, a television...

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My Born Again Idea

Posted December 8, 2006 | 04:24 PM (EST)


"So who are you backing for president on your side -- Hillary, Edwards, Obama, Vilsack -- who?" If I've been asked that question once since the midterms, I've been asked it -- well, once. Maybe twice. But I know it'll come up again and again, so I've given it...

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Letter to God

Posted December 16, 2005 | 12:30 AM (EST)


From: Norman Lear, Earth -- To: The Creator, Deity, Supreme Being, Et al

Dear God,

You are in the news so much lately, I figure you must be thinking a lot about what’s going on down here. Not that I need the news to remind me of you, I think...

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Intelligent Resign

Posted October 21, 2005 | 05:56 PM (EST)


With a world full of blogs can we ever be sure who said that clever thing first? In this case I'd swear it was my son-in-law -- and a regular doctor, to boot! -- who said to me today: "Given her religious persuasion, Harriet Miers should have no problem sighting...

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What Would Jesus Do...with Tom Delay?

Posted September 29, 2005 | 01:10 PM (EST)


My reaction to the news that Tom DeLay had been indicted was to feel a deep sense of -- YES! The Hammer had been halted. Perhaps, like other potentially lethal tools, to be put away. Then, perhaps because there is so much Jesus-speak in the public square these days, I...

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MAH NISHTANA. . .

Posted August 25, 2005 | 03:17 AM (EST)


So let’s imagine a young Christian man, say twenty-six years of age, living in South America where the 700 Club on cable television has been an important part of his lifetime religious diet.

The day before yesterday he hears his leading man of God, the Reverend Pat Robertson, suggest that...

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An American Mother Loses Her Son

Posted August 11, 2005 | 07:14 PM (EST)


Read more at HuffingtonPost.com

An American mother loses her son in a war, travels to Crawford, Texas to park herself in proximity to her President and dead son’s Commander In Chief, seeking the opportunity to meet with him and share her feelings. What...

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