softheart
01-21-2003, 04:45 PM
TONIGHT'S SUBJECT: Two Towns of Jasper...America in Black and White.
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One morning in 1998 America awoke to the story of a staggering hate crime.
A man beaten and chained to the back of a pickup truck, dragged three
miles
until his body was torn to pieces...simply because he was black. The world
press came and went, often stereotyping Jasper, Texas as a small town full
of redneck haters. Two filmmakers, who had known each other since
childhood, wanted to take a closer look. One filmmaker was white, one
black.
They had talked with each other for years about their belief that the
races have trouble talking to one another, and they had an idea. Whitney
Dow would film the whites of Jasper. Marco Williams would film the blacks.
They stayed in Jasper throughout the year that the three accused murderers
went to trial. The result is an extraordinary documentary that will air on
PBS's P.O.V. broadcast tomorrow at 9 p.m. EST. Jasper, white and black, is
a very different town from what most people might imagine.
We at Nightline were so struck by what Marco and Whitney had done that we
offered our help and hoped to flag it to the Nightline audience. So
tonight
we preview the documentary and talk to the two filmmakers. We weren't the
only one to be struck by the film. Oprah Winfrey is devoting her broadcast
to this subject today. Thursday night we will do a town meeting in Jasper,
Texas. PBS will carry 90 minutes of that Town Meeting live at 9 p.m. EST.
We will then devote our Nightline and UpClose time slots to that Town
Meeting.
Seven years ago, in the wake of the O.J. Simpson trial, Nightline made a
commitment to keep examining the misunderstandings that grow out of
America's diversity. People of different ethnic backgrounds see different
realities. In no place is this sense of separate realities more clear than
in Two Towns of Jasper.
Tuesday, January 21, 2003
Tom Bettag
Executive Producer
Nightline Offices
Washington, D.C.
-----------
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----
One morning in 1998 America awoke to the story of a staggering hate crime.
A man beaten and chained to the back of a pickup truck, dragged three
miles
until his body was torn to pieces...simply because he was black. The world
press came and went, often stereotyping Jasper, Texas as a small town full
of redneck haters. Two filmmakers, who had known each other since
childhood, wanted to take a closer look. One filmmaker was white, one
black.
They had talked with each other for years about their belief that the
races have trouble talking to one another, and they had an idea. Whitney
Dow would film the whites of Jasper. Marco Williams would film the blacks.
They stayed in Jasper throughout the year that the three accused murderers
went to trial. The result is an extraordinary documentary that will air on
PBS's P.O.V. broadcast tomorrow at 9 p.m. EST. Jasper, white and black, is
a very different town from what most people might imagine.
We at Nightline were so struck by what Marco and Whitney had done that we
offered our help and hoped to flag it to the Nightline audience. So
tonight
we preview the documentary and talk to the two filmmakers. We weren't the
only one to be struck by the film. Oprah Winfrey is devoting her broadcast
to this subject today. Thursday night we will do a town meeting in Jasper,
Texas. PBS will carry 90 minutes of that Town Meeting live at 9 p.m. EST.
We will then devote our Nightline and UpClose time slots to that Town
Meeting.
Seven years ago, in the wake of the O.J. Simpson trial, Nightline made a
commitment to keep examining the misunderstandings that grow out of
America's diversity. People of different ethnic backgrounds see different
realities. In no place is this sense of separate realities more clear than
in Two Towns of Jasper.
Tuesday, January 21, 2003
Tom Bettag
Executive Producer
Nightline Offices
Washington, D.C.
-----------
If you have questions or comments regarding this message or a recent
"Nightline" broadcast, please do not hit reply; simply click on this link
to send your message directly to the "Nightline" staff:
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/nightline/Nightline/Nightline_email_form.html
> Or log on to the new "Nightline" Message Board:
http://boards.go.com/cgi/abcnews/request.dll?LIST&room=nightline
Chat with "Nightline" guests and find articles, transcripts and video
excerpts on our Web site at:
http://abcnews.go.com/Sections/Nightline/