Boogieman: The Lee Atwater Story (originally aired on Sep 30 ’08)

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Many of us know Karl Rove as Bush’s Brain. But we don’t hear as much about Karl Rove’s mentor, the late Lee Atwater. Credited with helping elect W’s father against Democrat Michael Dukakis in 1988, Atwater legitimized the Republican playbook of negative campaigning, coded racism, working the rumor mill, and worse, to get candidates elected. Starting at a very young age in his home state of South Carolina, Atwater began his ascent into the Republican Party by leading the College Republicans where he started practicing his approach to election campaigning. His audacity and success led him to be a Ronald Reagan aide, and then chief campaign strategist for George H W Bush, and finally, Chair of the Republican National Committee. His reputation earned him various unflattering nicknames, including “happy hatchet man,” “political assassin,” the GOP’s “Darth Vader,” and “the most evil man in America.” In the end, Atwater’s deeds seem to catch up with him. In 1990, at the age of 39, he was diagnosed with brain cancer, and before he finally died a year later, he apologized to many of his political victims. Now, a new documentary chronicles the brief life and political career of Lee Atwater and the legacy he has left for the Republican Party. Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story, is produced and directed by Stefan Forbes. It provides a unique window into the life of the “godfather of the modern negative political campaign.”

GUEST: Stefan Forbes, producer and director of Boogieman: The Lee Atwater Story.

“April 4th, 1968: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Death and How it Changed America” (originally aired on May 7 ’08)

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GUEST: Michael Eric Dyson, Professor of Sociology at Georgetown University and author of several books including “April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Death and How it Changed America”

More than forty years ago, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. stood atop a balcony at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4th 1968, when an assassin’s bullet struck and killed him. The civil rights leader had been invited to the city in support of striking black sanitation workers ahead of his plans for a poor people’s march on Washington D.C. The night before his assassination, Dr. King addressed a rally with his now famous and prophetic “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” speech. The assassination of the practitioner and promoter of non-violent resistance was followed by rioting nationwide. Dr. King and the manner in which his death changed America is the subject of Michael Eric Dyson’s latest book, “April 4th, 1968.” Michael Eric Dyson is a Professor of Sociology at Georgetown University, and in this latest book, he paints a picture of a preacher stalked by the specter of death but who never once resigned from the movement that placed him within the assassin’s scope. In the forty years since Dr. King’s death, Dyson also assesses the current state of black America and the leaders, from Jesse Jackson to Barack Obama, who have followed in his wake.

For more information, visit www.michaelericdyson.com.