Steve Pond's Blog, page 2008
January 18, 2020
Facebook Translation Mistakenly Calls Chinese Leader ‘Mr S—hole’
From the files of “when translating goes wrong”: Facebook apologized on Saturday after its translation option erred in a very big way by repeatedly calling Chinese leader Xi Jinping “Mr. S—hole.”
The vulgar typo was featured in several Facebook posts that were translated from Burmese to English, including a post on Burma/Myanmar state counselor Aung San Suu Kyi’s Facebook page, Several mentions of Xi, who is the head of China’s Communist government and has been visiting Burma in recent days, referred to him as “Mr. S—hole.”
Facebook does not know what led to the error, but said it has been fixed.
Also Read: How Tech Giants Like Amazon and Facebook Became Wall Street Juggernauts in the Last Decade
In addition, a headline in the local news journal Irrawaddy was published as “Dinner honors president s—hole.”
“This issue is not a reflection of the way our products should work and we sincerely apologize for the offense this has caused,” Facebook said in a statement.
Facebook has been blocked in China for several years. The country’s internet is censored by the “Great Firewall,” as it’s facetiously been dubbed, which has stifled free speech online for years through a network of moderators, technical restraints and legislative regulations. The Chinese government blocks access to pornography and news stories that are overly critical of its Communist regime, as well as major sites like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.
A parallel online universe exists in China, with popular social media platforms like WeChat and Weibo, a Twitter-esque communication app, filling the void of their blocked Western analogs.
You can read more about China’s internet censorship here.
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Epix Is Developing Scripted Series From the Elizabethan, Arthurian and Reagan Eras
Epix has put into development a trio of scripted series: one that takes place in King Arthur’s time, another from the Elizabethan era and the third in 1984.
“The Winter King,” a drama series adaptation of Bernard Cornwell’s trilogy of Arthurian novels “The Warlord Chronicles,” hails from Bad Wolf.
“Gibson Station,” from producer/writer/director Edward Burns, is a dramedy set in 1984 that revolves around three 20-something best friends setting out to pursue their dreams and seek out their place in Ronald Reagan’s America.
“A Column of Fire” is based on the novel by international best-selling author Ken Follett. The Elizabethan-era drama follows the romance between Ned Willard and Margery Fitzgerald and is written by Lizzie Mickery and produced by Snowed-In Productions and Sony Pictures Television. Ruth Kenley-Letts and Mickery are executive producers.
And here are three docuseries the premium-cable channel just put into development.
“Fall River”
1979 — Fall River, Massachusetts — hometown of the notorious Lizzie Borden. Three young women were killed in a series of brutal murders. Police alleged a satanic cult was practicing human sacrifice. The cult leader, a man named Carl Drew, was captured and sent to prison for life without parole. Twenty years after the trial, the lead investigator became so haunted by inconsistencies in the stories that he re-investigated his own case after he retired. Evidence surfaced bringing the entire story into question.
This documentary series will tell the shocking true story of a town caught in the grips of the “Satanic Panic,” with new witnesses and evidence that shed light on murders that were thought to have been solved. “Fall River” is produced by Blumhouse Television and Pyramid Productions. James Buddy Day serves as executive producer and director.
“Fiasco”
From the creators of “Slow Burn” comes a new podcast documentary about politics, power and uncertainty. Host Leon Neyfakh will transport listeners into the day-to-day reality of our country’s most pivotal historical events, bringing to life the forgotten twists and turns of the past while shedding light on the present. Season 1 of “Fiasco” will tell the story of the contested 2000 election between Al Gore and George W. Bush, and the extraordinary legal battle that followed in Florida.
“Fiasco” is produced by Neyfakh’s Prologue Projects and Luminary Media, LLC. Neyfakh, Steven Fisher and Andrew Parsons serve as executive producers, along with Ken Druckerman and Banks Tarver for Left/Right Productions, a Red Arrow Studios company.
“Songs That Changed the World”
Directed by Emmy Award winner Thom Zimny and executive produced by acclaimed singer-songwriter Jackson Browne, this four-part doc series looks into those transcendent moments when music was able to do what no other social force could: speak to our minds, hearts and souls and lead us to higher ground…and in so doing transform us…whether we knew we needed to or not. In addition to Zimny and Browne, Armyan Bernstein (for Beacon Pictures) will executive produce.
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How ‘Manhunt: Deadly Games’ Was Reworked for Spectrum Originals
“Manhunt” comes back for its second season next month on a new network, having moved over from Discovery Channel to Spectrum Originals for its follow up story, subtitled “Deadly Games,” about the hunt for the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics bomber.
Spectrum’s head of originals Katherine Pope spoke to TheWrap on Saturday about the process of reworking the series for its new home, which included adding two extra episodes. “They had written the first episode script and I had seen the [first season], which I thought was really really good. It was a little more straight-ahead than we wanted,” she said during a conversation at the Television Critics Association press tour. “They wanted it to be a little more popcorn.”
She said the biggest difference between the Discovery-led season and their version is that they gave the producers more leeway to tell the characters’ story. “We go home with Kathy Scruggs to where she came from,” she said. “There’s lots of life as opposed to just plot.”
Also Read: 'Manhunt: Deadly Games' EPs Say Their Show Will Do Right by Kathy Scruggs
Andrew Sodroski, the show’s creator, also spoke about the move from Discovery, where they only had the outline for the seconds season.
“We knew what we wanted to do for our next story in the franchise. When Discovery decided to get out of scripted programming Lionsgate really believed in this project and took it over,” he said during the show’s panel here in Pasadena. “What was really exciting about Spectrum was that it was a place where we could take the sort of skeleton of what we had developed at Discovery and take that basic story but really flesh it out and make it more dramatic and more character-centric than Discovery was going to allow us to do.”
And Pope said they’ve already “started talking” about what a third season would look like. “We felt that we really lucked out.”
“Manhunt: Deadly Game” premieres Feb. 3 and stars Cameron Britton as Richard Jewell, the wrongfully accused suspect in the bombing, as well as Jack Huston as the real Atlanta bomber Eric Rudolph. It will come out just a few months after Clint Eastwood’s film version of the story, “Richard Jewell,” which focused more exclusively on Jewell.
Also Read: Spectrum's 'Manhunt: Deadly Games' Gets Premiere Date, Trailer (Video)
Pope said she isn’t worried about fatigue from this story, with the movie coming out so close to their version. “If the movie’s great, it’s good for us. If the movie is bad, it doesn’t matter.”
She added that, though Jewell is one of the main focal points of the story, “you do the entire event and Richard Jewell a disservice” if you only focus on him and not the actual bomber or the search for him.
“People from three very different points of view worked together. It happened. So when you just stop at Richard Jewell it’s like, ‘Oh it didn’t work at all, the institutions they are all broken. No, they actually worked,” she said. “That was why we wanted to focus on the whole story and on Eric Rudolph, who was the actual bomber.”
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Watch Kim Kardashian West Go to ‘War’ to Solve Incarceration Problem in ‘The Justice Project’ Trailer (Video)
Kim Kardashian West has a very un-“Keeping Up With the Kardashians” new unscripted TV project. In Oxygen’s two-hour documentary, “The Justice Project,” Kim K. attempts to rectify some of the most overblown prison sentences in America today.
After hearing the story of Alice Marie Johnson, a great-grandmother sentenced to life in prison as a first-time nonviolent offender, Kardashian West embarked on a road to advocacy as she campaigned for criminal justice reform and helped convince the White House to grant Alice clemency in June 2018, Oxygen’s description reads. This doc follows Kardashian West, as she lends a hand to right injustices and advocate for change by exploring the cases of Dawn Jackson, Alexis Martin, Momolu Stewart and David Sheppard, all of whom she and the legal experts she is working alongside believe have been unfairly sentenced.
“The Justice Project” follows the origins of their individual stories, revealing the devastating circumstances that led them to take the actions that changed their lives forever, it continues. In her crusade to shed light on the criminal justice system and help people who are impacted by incarceration, Kardashian West travels to the prisons, speaks to the families and friends, lobbies public officials, and consults with lawyers as well as her own legal team from #cut50 to develop strategies to facilitate their release. Along the way, the film documents the progress that led to Stewart’s and Sheppard’s releases.
Watch the trailer via the video above.
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“We’re excited about working with Kim Kardashian West to document her journey into prison reform advocacy and using her enormous platform to hold a megaphone to question the inequities surrounding prison sentencing,” Rod Aissa, executive vice president of original programming & development at Oxygen Media and E! Production, said in a statement. “Her energy and influence have made an immediate impact that has stretched all the way to the White House. Her story is entirely unique, and this documentary is the kind of immersive, exclusive storytelling that our viewers have come to expect from Oxygen.”
“I partnered with Oxygen to do the ‘Kim Kardashian West: The Justice Project’ documentary because there are millions of people impacted by this broken justice system, and I wanted to put faces to these numbers and statistics,” Kardashian West, who is also an executive producer, said. “There are a lot of people who deserve a second chance, but many do not have the resources to make it happen. I want to help elevate these cases to a national level to effect change, and this documentary is an honest depiction of me learning about the system and helping bring tangible results to justice reform.”
“Kim Kardashian West: The Justice Project“ is produced by Kardashian West and Bunim Murray Productions with Gil Goldschein, Julie Pizzi, Farnaz Farjam and Vince DiPersio serving as executive producers.
“Kim Kardashian West: The Justice Project” debuts on Sunday, April 5 at 7 p.m. ET/PT on Oxygen.
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‘Manhunt: Deadly Games’ Producers Say Their Show Will Do Right by Kathy Scruggs
When “Manhunt: Deadly Games” premieres next month — dramatizing the investigation into the 1996 Olympic Park bombing as a 10-episode limited series — Clint Eastwood’s “Richard Jewell” will barely be in the rearview, but the producers are surely hoping the reception to their show won’t be as contentious.
Eastwood’s film, which tackled the same events as the Spectrum anthology, came under heavy criticism for its portrayal of former Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Kathy Scruggs, the real-life journalist who reported on the investigation for the paper. In the film, Scruggs is seen trading sex with an FBI agent in exchange for a tip on a story, a portrayal that inspired the AJC to pen a letter calling for a boycott of the film and accusing the filmmakers of “malicious fabrications.”
“That movie had 110 minutes to tell the story, and we had eight hours,” creator and executive producer Andrew Sodroski said at the Television Critics Association press tour on Saturday. “Instead of giving you one or two scenes with Kathy, we get under her skin. We portray her as a fully well-rounded character.”
Also Read: Spectrum's 'Manhunt: Deadly Games' Gets Premiere Date, Trailer (Video)
Carla Gugino takes on the role of Scruggs in the film, following in the footsteps of “Richard Jewell” star Olivia Wilde. She’s part of an ensemble cast which also includes Jack Huston, Cameron Britton, Judith Light, Gethin Anthony and Kelly Jenrette.
“She’s flawed and really complex and really interesting,” Sodroski said. “I feel like we were struggling throughout to give more and more time to her story to really help you understand her world and the toll that these events took on her life.”
“Without enough time to spend with her character, she becomes a culprit,” added director and executive producer Michael Dinner. “And I think we spend more time with her, and I think we understand why she was trying to make it in her world. I think she’s a pretty three-dimensional character.”
Also Read: 'Richard Jewell': Reporter Kathy Scruggs' Editor Pushes Back on Writer Billy Ray's Criticisms
Wilde has defended her portrayal of Scruggs in Eastwood’s movie by saying that she had no say in “how the film was ultimately crafted,” but did have any reason to believe Scruggs did trade sex for tips during her career. Scruggs died in 2001.
“The perspective of the fictional dramatization of the story, as I understood it, was that Kathy, and the FBI agent who leaked false information to her, were in a pre-existing romantic relationship, not a transactional exchange of sex for information,” Wilde said at the time.
“All the characters got caught up in the frenzy that kind of emanated from this event,” Dinner said of Scruggs and the investigators who wrongly and publicly accused security guard Richard Jewell of orchestrating the bombing. “It’s a story about heroes and victims in a way.”
Also Read: Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff 'Appalled' by 'Richard Jewell' Portrayal of Reporter, Journalism
“It’s really an interesting problem because even though the story happened 20 years ago, we’re still dealing with them in the headlines,” Sodroski said. “The story really is a story about fake news … a psychopathic narcissist who takes advantage of our division for his own gain. That’s the world we’re living in right now.”
“Manhunt: Deadly Games” premieres Feb. 3 on Spectrum’s On Demand platform.
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Meet BYUtv, the 20-Year-Old TV Network You’ve Probably Never Heard Of
For every Fox, Amazon and HBO that comes to the twice-yearly Television Critics Association press tour, you’re just as likely to see a Rooster Teeth, Curiosity Stream and, for the past couple of press tours, BYUtv. That’s right, the Utah-based college, Brigham Young University, has its own TV network. In fact, BYUtv has existed since 2000.
The TCA is as much a vehicle for networks to tout their upcoming shows, as it is for little-seen channels like BYUtv to get out the word out about what they are.
The network offers more than 1,700 hours of programming, with an emphasis on faith-based and “uplifting” content aimed at getting parents and their children to watch together. The channel is available in more than 50 million homes through Dish Network, DirecTV and 146 other cable providers, as well as over-the-air in Salt Lake City (where it originated) and via streaming. And, of course, BYUtv is the main home of BYUtv athletics. But over the last year, it’s aimed to branch out into a more fully-fledged original content hub.
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“Over the past two years, we have made tremendous strides from a full network rebrand, to a pivot in our family entertainment co-viewing space, to more than tripling our content creation in this area,” BYUtv’s director of content, Andra Johnson Duke, said on Saturday, while introducing BYUtv’s latest series, “Wayne Brady’s Comedy IQ.”
“As a growing network, BYU’s focus is to provide purposeful and uplifting content that parents and children can enjoy — as our tagline states — together,” Duke continued. “We’re always looking for that idea or programming that not only entertains but has a strong inspirational core.”
BYUtv began as a commercial-free channel but last year unveiled their family and kids-focused rebrand, which also added commercials for the first time.
BYUtv’s original programming slate includes the scripted adventure comedy “Dwight in Shining Armor,” in which the Middle Ages meets Middle America; the sketch comedy series “Studio C,”; and “RelativeRace,” the first family history-based competitive reality show that follows four teams as they meet relatives linked by DNA for the first time in a race throughout the United States.
The new Wayne Brady series debuts in April and sees the newly-crowned “Masked Singer” winner lead a comedy boot camp for children.
So, welcome to the party BYUtv… even though it looks like you’ve been here awhile.
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Alex Jones Crashes DC Women’s March, Chants ‘Down With Trump!’ With a Bullhorn
Digital shock jock Alex Jones made an unlikely appearance at the Women’s March in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, donning a pink beanie while walking around shouting “Down With Trump!” from a megaphone.
A brief clip of Jones at the march was shared by the New York Post’s Jon Levine on Twitter, which you can check out below. Jones is seen repeatedly pumping his fist and yelling the phrase before eventually jumping around with a few poncho-wearing marchers.
Alex Jones crashes DC #WomensMarch pic.twitter.com/SLCLr1dlw1
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) January 18, 2020
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The “InfoWars” head honcho was unable to share the video himself on Twitter because he’s been banned since 2018 for “abusive behavior.” Jones was later kicked off Facebook last year.
Jones was likely yelling “Down With Trump!” and trolling many of the marchers who are not huge fans of the president. Trump appeared on Jones’ show in 2015, and Jones has sung the president’s praises several times since then. His tune changed a bit during an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience last year, with Jones saying “I don’t dislike Donald Trump” but that he hates how the president “became my identity.”
Thousands turned out for the D.C. march on Saturday, with many women explicitly saying their opposition to President Trump spurred them to join the rally. “No one is less mad now,” one marcher, who also attended the first march in 2017, told The Washington Post. “We might be a bit more tired, but we are certainly no less angry and our opinions haven’t changed.”
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Spectrum’s ‘Manhunt: Deadly Games’ Gets Premiere Date, Trailer (Video)
Spectrum unveiled the premiere date and trailer for “Manhunt” Season 2, which is subtitled “Deadly Games” and covers the search for the 1996 Atlanta Summers Olympics bomber. That’s the hysteria that originally and incorrectly fingered security guard Richard Jewell.
Jack Huston and Carla Gugino are set to star opposite Cameron Britton, who plays Jewell. (Huston’s character, Eric Rudolph, is really the guy the feds want.)
The series will debut on Feb. 3. Watch the first trailer in the video above.
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Jewell is the security guard who discovered a bomb at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta and put his life on the line to save hundreds of people. Jewell became an international hero — until, in a Kafkaesque trial-by-media, he was falsely accused of planting the bomb himself.
In “Manhunt: Deadly Games,” Jewell will take on both the media and the FBI, fighting to clear his name and hold the most powerful voices in the country accountable to the truth.
Writer and creator Andrew Sodroski will executive produce Season 2 of “Manhunt” with John Goldwyn and Michael Dinner.
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January 17, 2020
‘Parasite,’ ‘Jojo Rabbit’ Win Top Awards From American Cinema Editors
“Parasite” and “Jojo Rabbit” have won the top feature-film awards at the American Cinema Editors’ 70th Annual ACE Eddie Awards, which were handed out on Friday night in Beverly Hills.
Both winners are nominated for the film-editing Oscar, along with “Ford v Ferrari,” “The Irishman” and “Joker.” Although those three films are more typical editing winners, “Parasite” beat them all in the Best Edited Feature Film (Drama) category, while “Jojo Rabbit” topped “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” for Best Edited Feature Film (Comedy).
The win for “Parasite” was only the second ACE Eddie win in history for a non-English film. In 2007, “Babel” (which, unlike “Parasite,” included portions in English) tied with “The Departed” for the award.
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Over the last 10 years, six of the ACE Eddie winners for dramatic film have gone on to win the Oscar for Best Film Editing, but only two have won Best Picture.
“Toy Story 4” won the prize for animated film, while “Apollo 11” and “What’s My Name: Muhammad Ali” won in the feature and non-theatrical documentary categories, respectively.
Television awards went to episodes of “Better Things,” “Fleabag,” “Killing Eve,” “Game of Thrones,” “Chernobyl” and “VICE Investigates.”
Also at the ceremony, producer Lauren Shuler Donner received the ACE Golden Eddie Award, while editors Alan Heim and Tina Hirsch received Career Achievement Awards and Cathy Repola was given the ACE Heritage Award.
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The show took place at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills.
The winners:
Best Edited Feature Film (Drama): “Parasite,” Jinmo Yang
Best Edited Feature Film (Comedy): “Jojo Rabbit,” Tom Eagles
Best Edited Animated Feature Film: “Toy Story 4,” Axel Geddes, ACE
Best Edited Documentary (Feature): “Apollo 11,” Todd Douglas Miller
Best Edited Documentary (Non Theatrical): “What’s My Name: Muhammad Ali,” Jake Pushinsky, ACE
Best Edited Comedy Series for Commercial Television: “Better Things”: “Easter,” Janet Weinberg, ACE
Best Edited Comedy Series for Non-Commercial Television: “Fleabag”: “Episode 2.1,” Gary Dollner, ACE
Best Edited Drama Series for Commercial Television: “Killing Eve”: “Desperate Times,” Dan Crinnion
Best Edited Drama Series for Non-Commercial Television: “Game of Thrones”: “The Long Night,” Tim Porter, ACE
Best Edited Miniseries or Motion Picture for Television: “Chernobyl”: “Vichnaya Pamyat,” Jinx Godfrey & Simon Smith
Best Edited Non-Scripted Series: “VICE Investigates”: “Amazon on Fire,” Cameron Dennis, Kelly Kendrick, Joe Matoske, Ryo Ikegami
Anne V. Coates Award for Student Editing: Chase Johnson – California State University, Fullerton
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Nancy Pelosi Tells Bill Maher Politics Means ‘You Have to Be Ready to Throw a Punch – for the Children’
In an interview on the first new episode of “Real Time” in 2020, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told Bill Maher part of being effective in politics means being willing to metaphorically “take a punch” and “throw a punch — for the children.”
The amusing line came near the end of a wide-ranging conversation with Maher about the current state of America, the constitutional urgency of the Donald Trump impeachment, and what she’d like to tell Trump himself about the whole thing.
After coming out to a standing ovation, Pelosi and Maher bantered for a bit, before she explained her thoughts on how the House of Representatives has approached impeachment, for instance going forward with only two articles. “The fact is that we knew we had a solid case for the impeachment,” Pelosi said. “The facts were clear, the constitution required it and we wanted to make our case and go forward.”
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Pelosi said she knew that “there were plenty of other, shall we say ‘information’ to come forward,” but she believed it wasn’t necessary to wait for that additional information to proceed. “It would have been further incriminating but not necessary,” she said. “And it wouldn’t in any way weaken the case.”
Maher noted that Pelosi, for most of 2019, seemed “rather reluctant to do it,” to which Pelosi said that Trump “gave us no choice,” and joked that he “was self impeaching almost every single day.”
Maher joked at one point that Trump might be watching their conversation, since he’s recently been mentioned in some of Trump’s weird, rambling political rally speeches. He then asked Pelosi what she’d like to tell Trump if he was in fact watching.
“If I knew the president is listening, I’d want him to know that he is impeached forever, and he is impeached forever because he used the office of the president to try to influence a foreign country for his personal and political benefit,” she replied. “And in doing so, he undermined our national security. He was disloyal to his oath of office to protect the constitution, and he placed in jeopardy the integrity of our elections.”
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Three times, Maher attempted to engage Pelosi in a discussion of factional and ideological disagreements within the Democratic Party, but each time the speaker demurred.
First, early on Maher said “it was only a year ago that you were fighting just to be the Speaker of the House. We could be having Speaker Seth Moulton right now.”
But Pelosi shut the line of questioning down. “I wasn’t fighting, I thought the press made more of it, but let them have their fun.”
Later, during a discussion of the attack ads Republicans have fielded against Pelosi, Maher told her “what I found disturbing is that very often democrats did not defend you.” But once again, Pelosi evaded the matter deftly, cutting Maher off and telling him “Oh no, don’t worry about that. But here’s what I do worry about [is that] our country, in its greatness, can absorb one term of the present occupant of the white house.”
“What we have to do,” she continued, “is to elect a new President of the United States.”
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Maher tried one more time near the end of their discussion when he told Pelosi “I feel like the Democratic party is very often the victim of their own purity tests.”
“Oh don’t worry about that in terms of ‘they,'” Pelosi said. “Because I’m in the arena, you go in there, and you have to be ready to take a punch, and you have to be ready to throw a punch — for the children.”
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