'The Stringer' leads nominees for Outstanding Investigative Documentary at the News & Doc Emmy Awards for Flashback Friday

Happy Flashback Friday! I'm returning to the News & Doc Emmy Awards with the nominees for Outstanding Investigative Documentary, which The Stringer leads with four nominations, followed by Cover-Up and Syria's Detainee Files tied at two nominations, then Critical Incident: A Death at the Border and Predators tied at one nomination. I'm linking to the trailers in this order, beginning with The Stringer: The Man Who Took The Photo | Official Trailer | Netflix.

A former Saigon photo editor reveals a secret he’s been plagued with for 52 years, setting off a gripping two-year investigation into the truth behind one of the Vietnam War’s most iconic photographs. Acclaimed conflict photographer Gary Knight and a small team of journalists embark on a relentless search to locate and seek justice for a man known only as “the stringer.”

Unfortunately, this trailer is age-restricted and has to be viewed on YouTube or Netflix itself because of nudity — yes, it's that photo!

The Stringer's other nominations are in Outstanding Writing: Documentary, Outstanding Research: Documentary, and Outstanding Direction: Documentary. The number of nominations along with its Vietnam War and journalism subject matter would normally make this my favorite for this category, but this is a tougher category than the numbers alone suggest.

Next, Cover-Up | Official Trailer | Netflix.

Cover-Up is a political thriller that traces the explosive career of Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Seymour Hersh. Urgent and deeply reported, Cover-Up is both a portrait of a relentless journalist and an indictment of institutional violence — revealing a cycle of impunity in the U.S. military and intelligence agencies. Drawing on exclusive access to Hersh’s notes, and interweaving primary documents and archival footage, Cover-Up captures the power and process of investigative journalism.

I'm repeating what I wrote about in 'Songs from the Hole' leads arts and culture documentaries at the News & Doc Emmy Awards.

The voters here are mostly journalists and this is a story about journalism. A lot of them are also based in New York. As I'm fond of writing about awards shows, electorates matter.

Both Cover-Up and The Stinger are documentaries about journalism, so this statement applies to both of them. Also lot of the voters not in New York are based in Washington, D.C. Cover-Up would appeal to them.

In case Cover-Up looks familiar, it was a nominee for Best Documentary at the Critics Choice Documentary Awards where its other nomination was for Best Historical Documentary. Here, its other nomination is for Outstanding Editing: Documentary.

In lieu of an actual trailer for Syria's Detainee Files, I'm embedding 'I’d Scream Louder': After Assad’s Fall, Brothers Return to Saydnaya Prison | FRONTLINE (PBS).

Bashar al-Assad’s regime detained over a million people during the Syrian war. Saydnaya was the regime’s most notorious prison. In this video drawn from the documentary "Syria’s Detainee Files," brothers who were held at Saydnaya describe their experience – and so does a former guard who admits to torturing people there.

Harrowing. Its second nomination is for Outstanding Research: Documentary, where it's competing against The Stringer.

Now for the documentaries with just this one nomination. Watch Critical Incident: Death at the Border | Official Trailer | HBO.

HBO Original Documentary #CriticalIncident: Death At The Border revisits a 2010 case that still resonates today. Premieres December 29 on @hbomax.

This barely made the eligibility deadline. Didn't seem to hurt its chances. Of course, it's another nominee that features a journalist, so it appeals to the News & Doc electorate. It's also timely again because of Trump's immigration crackdown.

The final trailer is ‘Predators' – Trailer (MTV Documentary Films).

To Catch a Predator lured sex offenders to a film set where they were interviewed and arrested while cameras rolled. PREDATORS is a chilling, surprising exploration of the show, and the world it helped create.

This could just as easily have been a nominee for crime and justice or arts and culture as it explores the boundaries among journalism, activism, and sensationalist entertainment. In any event, it's another product of MTV Documentary Films, which I've praised in the past. I can't count it out.

Now for the other categories where The Stringer, Cover-Up, and Syria's Detainee Files earned nominations.

Outstanding Research: Documentary
The American Revolution
Florentine Films | PBS [WETA-TV]
Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time
Lightbox [Proximity Media | National Geographic]
Oklahoma City Bombing: One Day in America
72 Films [National Geographic]
The Strike
UPHSF LLC
The Stringer
Netflix [LinLay Productions | Netflix | VII Foundation | XRM Media]
Syria’s Detainee Files
FRONTLINE | PBS [BBC]
Turning Point: The Vietnam War
Netflix [Luminant Media | Netflix]
The White House Effect
Actual Films | Netflix [Netflix | The Department of Motion Pictures]

Turning Point: The Vietnam War leads this category with five nominations, followed by Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time and The Stringer tied at four, then The Strike with three, Syria's Detainee Files and The White House Effect tied with two, then The American Revolution tied with Oklahoma City Bombing: One Day in America at just this one. That there are so many nominees indicates that this is a very competitive category, so I won't designate a favorite right now. Just the same, I'm noting that The American Revolution earning just this one nomination here suggests to me that it's eligible for the Creative Arts Emmy Awards, so I expect it to be nominated there, too. That happened for The U.S. and the Holocaust, so I've seen it happen before.

Next, two categories I covered in 'Katrina: Come Hell and High Water' leads social issue documentaries at the News & Doc Emmy Awards for Flashback Friday, beginning with another of The Stringer's nominations.

I return to 'Sally' leads Science and Technology Documentaries at the News & Doc Emmy Awards for Katrina: Come Hell and High Water's third nomination.

Sally should just be happy to be nominated in this category. 2000 Meters to Andriivka has six nominations, including Best Documentary. Life After has four, also including Best Documentary, as does The Stringer. Katrina: Come Hell and High Water and Vietnam: The War That Changed America both tied Sally with three. Apocalypse in the Tropics and Music Box: It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley have just this one. Out of this field, 2000 Meters to Andriivka is my provisional favorite.

I still think so.

Seeing Music Box: It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley reminds me that it was nominated for Best Music Documentary at the 2025 Critics Choice Documentary Awards. I was disappointed that it failed to earn either an Oscar or GRAMMY nomination, so I'm glad it earned an Emmy nomination, even if I'm very sure it won't win.

Now for Cover-Up's second nomination.

Outstanding Editing: Documentary
Cover-Up
Netflix [Plan B | Netflix | Praxis Films]
Folktales
Loki Films [Fifth Season | Impact Partners | Topic Studios]
Katrina: Come Hell and High Water
Netflix [Netflix | Message Pictures]
Life After
Multitude Films | PBS [ITVS]
Love + War
Little Monster Films [National Geographic]
2000 Meters to Andriivka
FRONTLINE FEATURES | PBS [Associated Press]
Thoughts & Prayers
HBO Documentary Films [Tony Tina]
The White House Effect
Actual Films | Netflix [Netflix | The Department of Motion Pictures]

I think 2000 Meters to Andriivka is the favorite, if only because it's the only nominee also nominated for Best Editing at the Critics Choice Documentary Awards and I suspect 2000 Meters to Andriivka might sweep its categories.

I'm returning to 'Songs from the Hole' leads arts and culture documentaries at the News & Doc Emmy Awards, itself recycled from 'Underdogs' earns four News & Doc Emmy Award nominations, for The Stringer's final nomination.

Outstanding Writing: Documentary
Bring Them Home / Aiskótáhkapiyaaya
Thunderheart Films [WETA-TV]
2000 Meters to Andriivka
FRONTLINE FEATURES | PBS [Associated Press]
Songs From the Hole
Netflix [Cocomotion Pictures | Question Culture | Impact Partners | Artemis Rising Foundation | Netflix]
The Stringer
Netflix [A Netflix Documentary | An XRM MEDIA | VII FOUNDATION Production | LinLay Productions]
Underdogs
Wildstar Films [Maximum Effort | National Geographic]

The trailer alone demonstrated that Underdogs deserved this nomination. Unfortunately, I doubt it will win this award. It's competing against 2000 Meters to Andriivka with six nominations including Best Documentary, Songs from the Hole with four nominations including Outstanding Arts and Culture Documentary, and The Stringer, also with four nominations including Outstanding Investigative Documentary. I expect grit will win over wit.

Songs from the Hole has plenty of grit, but it is facing stiff competition from 2000 Meters to Andriivka, The Stringer, and Underdogs. It might lose to one of the first two.

I still think so.

Follow over the jump for the last three most read posts about the Emmy Awards during the 15th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News.

The return of cursive for Throwback Thursday

Happy Throwback Thursday! TODAY introduces today's topic as NBC’s Emilie Ikeda explains Why States Are Pushing to Save Cursive Handwriting in Schools.

In the age of typing, scrolling and voice-to-text, putting a pen to paper is increasingly rare but states including New Jersey, Georgia, Kentucky and California have recently enacted requirements to incorporate instruction on cursive handwriting. Language experts says the move is backed by science with cursive shown to improve reading, memory and fine motor skills in children. NBC’s Emilie Ikeda reports for TODAY.

Cursive? That's definitely a throwback. I first wrote about it in The collapse of cursive from July 31, 2013. It was one of the top posts of last year, which is why I'm revisiting the topic.

NBC New York focused on one particular state's effort to revive and maintain the script in Bringing back cursive: New law requires teaching in New Jersey schools.

A new law passed in New Jersey by departing Gov. Phil Murphy is reintegrating a cursive program back into schools. Jen Maxfield has the latest.

I described how politicians, mostly Republicans, reacted to the absence of cursive in the Common Core standards in Vox on the decline of cursive by mandating teaching it. Former New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy shows that at least some Democrats are doing this, too.

Another state Ikeda mentioned in her TODAY report was Georgia. WCNC examined the Peach State's efforts when it asked Is cursive making a comeback?

The skill of writing in cursive nearly disappeared during the pandemic, but students at an elementary school in Georgia are proving it's far from forgotten.

I think Lisa Washington won the handwriting contest.

Follow over the jump for how a 13-year-old entry about cursive returned to the top posts during the 15th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News.

Virginia Tech student discovers new "murder muppet" dinosaur for Wayback Wednesday

Change of plans — instead of returning to the News & Doc Emmy Awards for Wayback Wednesday, I'm sharing two videos about a paleontology story, beginning with WSET ABC 13 reporting Virginia Tech student identifies new meat-eating dinosaur species 205+ million years-old.

A fossil that sat untouched for decades is now helping rewrite part of the dinosaur family tree, and the breakthrough is happening at Virginia Tech.

What may look like crushed rock is actually a fossil, one that scientists painstakingly rebuilt piece by piece into one of the earliest meat-eating dinosaurs ever identified.

There's more in 10 News interview: Simba Srivastava, Virginia Tech student who identified new dinosaur from WSLS.

Earlier this year, Srivastava identified the fossil of a meat-eating dinosaur that is thought to be three times older than the T. rex, the only one of its kind that anyone has ever found.
We spoke to Srivastava about his discovery.

That explains the "murder muppet" nickname.

Now for the press release: Student identifies new meat-eating dinosaur three times older than T. rex By Kelly Izlar.

A fossil skull provides new clues about how dinosaurs ascended to their full Jurassic power.

“You want to stick your finger in a dinosaur brain?” asked Simba Srivastava.

Surrounded by cabinets full of ancient bones in the paleobiology lab, the Virginia Tech undergraduate student held out a lumpy, pockmarked fossil.

“This is a uniquely sucky specimen,” said Srivastava. “It's so bad. Like, if you saw a human skull in this way, you'd throw up.”

Nevertheless, the senior geosciences major spent two years unscrambling the ancient creature and determining its place in the story of evolution. His findings, which were published April 15 in Papers in Palaeontology, shed light on how dinosaurs dominated the Jurassic period.

This is the type of work a long-tenured curator or a late-stage professor would do, but geobiologists Sterling Nesbitt and Michelle Stocker tapped Srivastava when he was a first-year student.

“We want undergraduate researchers to experience the whole paleontological research process at Virginia Tech,” said Nesbitt. “Simba grabbed the project by the reins.”

Dino domination

The mangled skull was uncovered twice: In 1982, a crew from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History unearthed it from New Mexico’s Ghost Ranch. Thirty-some years later, Nesbitt dug it out of a drawer and eventually brought it back to Blacksburg. Using computed tomography scanning data, Srivastava isolated the specimen digitally and 3D printed a reconstruction.

The skull belonged to a species of meat-eating dinosaur that’s more than three times as old as Tyrannosaurus Rex (sic).

These creatures lived at the end of the Triassic period, which is about 252 million to 201 million years ago. Back then, dinosaurs weren’t the all-powerful apex predators portrayed by Hollywood. They were vying for resources against the forerunners of crocodiles and mammals.

But that all changed drastically when an extinction seemingly wiped out most of the competition. With that, the Triassic ended, and dinosaurs came into their power.

“Dinosaurs go from being co-stars to the headliner,” Srivastava said.

Clues about how dinosaurs evolved and spread in the succeeding Jurassic period lie buried in the rocks, but well-preserved fossils from the end of the Triassic are rare.

In fact, Srivastava’s squished specimen is the only one of its kind anyone has found so far.

The skull shows that the species had massive cheekbones, a wide braincase, and probably a short, deep snout. It was the first time these characteristics had been seen in early dinosaurs, indicating that they were constantly evolving, according to the study.

Murder muppet’s last stand

The name Srivastava picked for the new species reflects its bizarre proportions and unfortunate condition.

“We landed on Ptychotherates bucculentus, which means ‘folded hunter with full cheeks’ in Latin,” said Srivastava. “One paleo-artist said that it looked like a murder muppet.”

After two years of deep research, the Virginia Tech team was able to determine that the skull belonged to one of the last surviving members of one of the earliest-evolving families of carnivorous dinosaurs called Herrerasauria.

Thanks to this fossil, the group made another, somewhat surprising discovery.

Ptychotherates was found in rocks that may date to right before the great extinction at the end of the Triassic period — and no other members of their family was ever seen again, possibly suggesting that this dinosaur group went extinct as a result of that mass extinction.

“This forces us to reconsider the impact of the end-Triassic extinction as something that wiped out not just the competitors to dinosaurs, but some long-standing dinosaur lineages themselves,” Srivastava said.

And finally, because no herrerasaurians have been found anywhere else this late in the Triassic, the area that is today the American Southwest may have been where they survived the longest and made their last stand.

Srivastava’s folded hunter is their only spokesperson.

“This specimen, it fits in my hands, but it is the only proof that any of these dinosaurs lived this long, lived in these latitudes, the only proof that they evolved to have this skull shape,” said Srivastava. “All these billions of individuals that existed through time are spoken for by this one specimen.”

I can relate to Simba Srivastava. I've mentioned several times that I studied the fossil mollusks of the tar pits (Rancho La Brea) in Los Angeles. Those specimens sat in drawers at the George C. Page Museum (La Brea Tar Pits) for nearly a decade before I read about them in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology and saw an opportunity, which I seized. I approached my advisor, who told me there would be a talk about the invertebrate fossils at the tar pits the next week. I attended the talk, spoke to the collections manager afterwards, and got a tour of the working area of the museum. I felt like a kid in a candy store; I'd wanted to be there ever since the museum opened. I then met with the assistant curator and began work within the month. I ended up working there for four years, becoming Student-In-Residence before completing my M.S. thesis and moving to Michigan. While I was there, I realized that there was a century of research waiting with the specimens already in the collection. That's true of every major research museum; there are hundreds, if not thousands, of discoveries waiting to be found sitting in drawers and on shelves. Srivastava and his advisor/co-author Sterling J. Nesbitt made one of them.

By the way, not only did Srivastava and Nesbitt describe and name a new genus and species, they proposed a new clade of dinosaurs, Morphoraptora within Herrerasauria, which is already in the Wikipedia article. Wikipedia has had its issues, but rapid and accurate reporting of scientific discoveries is not one of them.

One of last year's top posts is about science and technology at Virginia Tech, so follow over the jump for a brief retrospective about it.

PopCultureDetective asks 'Who Framed Public Transit in LA?'

I saw Judge Doom and the Red Car pop up in my most read posts for the day on Sunday, which reminded me that I had newer videos on the topic in my blogging ideas list. The most recent is PopCultureDetective asking Who Framed Public Transit in LA?

The movie “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” references a real-life conspiracy by automotive companies to destroy public transit in Los Angeles and elsewhere.

This video provides the answer to one of the questions in Environmental Science version of my worksheet for The End of Suburbia.

6. How did the auto companies contribute to the demise of streetcars and the rise of cars and roads as the primary transportation system?

Here's what I wrote back in 2014 from the Disney Wikia.

Cloverleaf is based on the real-life National City Lines, a front company controlled by major American automotive and oil companies such as General Motors, which acquired streetcar and electric rail lines across the United States and replaced them with bus lines in order to monopolize the sales of buses. In the early 1950s, the opening of several new freeways in the Los Angeles area led to declining ridership, which led Pacific Electric to shut down several of its rail lines. While Pacific Electric never fell into the hands of NCL, Pacific Electric's rail service was sold off in 1953 to Metropolitan Coach Lines, a company which, like NCL, wanted to convert all rail service to bus service as quickly as possible. More lines shut down in 1954 and 1955, as freeways such as Interstate 5 neared completion.

Too bad I've stopped showing The End of Suburbia to my students now that I'm showing Treasures of the Earth: Power. Of course, I never completely retire any of my material; the students can still watch The End of Suburbia on their own time for extra credit.

Treehouse Detective added another element in 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' is based on a true story.


 Yes, the serious part of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? was originally meant to be a sequel to Chinatown. That's wild, but I first found out about that trivia and more when I watched The Complicated History of Who Framed Roger Rabbit by Yesterworld Entertainment.

A Deep Dive Documentary into the History of ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’. From the original version that was cancelled, the production problems of the one that came to be, and the fascinating production stories of one of the most ambitious films ever made.

Based on Yesterworld Mark's telling, it sounds like the movie was better than the book.

That's a wrap for today. Stay tuned to see if I return to the News & Doc Emmy Awards for Wayback Wednesday.

Howtown asks 'What do other animals think of human music?'

I wrote, "I have some science involving animals and music penciled in...Stay tuned." Watch Howtown asking What do other animals think of human music?

Do animals actually like music — or are humans just projecting? In this episode of Howtown, we investigate the science of animals and music through experiments with cotton-top tamarins, orangutans, rats, mice, parrots, dogs, cats, and a wild fox who seemed captivated by a banjo.

We look at what animal behavior research, neuroscience, and music cognition can tell us about rhythm, pitch, melody, consonance, dissonance, emotion, reward, pattern recognition, and why human brains find music so powerful. Along the way, we explore studies on cotton-top tamarins preferring silence to human music, orangutans choosing silence over different music genres, rats conditioned to prefer Miles Davis, mice exposed to Beethoven during development, dogs howling along to favorite songs, and Snowball the cockatoo dancing to the beat.

Featuring conversations with researchers and musicians including Aniruddh Patel, Pralle Kriengwatana, David Teie, Suzanne MacDonald, and Andy Thorn, this episode asks: can animals hear music the way we do? Can they recognize rhythm or melody? Do they feel emotion from music? And what does animal music research reveal about the evolution of music in humans?

That's really cool, especially the stories told by David Teie about being inspired by Metallica into composing music for animals and Andy Thorn about playing banjo and attracting foxes. The former convinced me that saying "kitty, kitty, kitty" in a high-pitched voice actually works and isn't just an extension of "baby voice" for pets.

David Teie, pronounced "tay" instead of "tie," makes a cameo in Fact Quickie asking Do Dogs and Cats Like It if You Leave the TV or Music on for Them?

Ever wonder if your pets enjoy them some TV or music? Well, it turns out the answer is incredibly fascinating.

A survey of about 2000 British dog owners conducted in early 2017 found that around 40% of dog owners admitted to leaving the radio on when they left the house so that their dog wouldn’t be lonely, while another 32% admitted that they did the same thing, just with the TV. In yet another British study, this time in 2015, it was found that 38% of those respondents left the radio on and 22% the TV. Whichever study you look at there, this practice is shockingly common, at least in Britain. But do your pets like this?

Starting with our canine counterparts, while the research we have thus far isn’t exactly robust, it would appear that, at least in the case of music, yes, in some cases dogs do respond to this in a positive way. For example, consider the results of research conducted in 2002 by psychologist Deborah Wells from Queen’s University in Belfast. In a nutshell, Wells’ study involved randomly playing music through some speakers for a group of about 50 dogs at a re-homing shelter in the UK and noting what, if any, effect it had on the them. After a baseline reaction was found by observing the behaviour of the dogs when no music at all was playing, researchers then played one of three CDs- for those unfamiliar, a kind of round shiny object people used to store music and other data on, often used for playing music in their hitched up covered wagons. Each CD contained a curated playlist limited to a specific genre, in this case, pop, classical and heavy metal. Finally, a fourth CD contained the sounds of a human conversation.

The answer is that dogs do, but cats don't much care.

Speaking of cats, one of last year's top posts is about cats, so follow over the jump for a brief retrospective about it.

Social Security's top ten U.S. baby names of 2025 for Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day! As I've done most Mother's Days since 2018, I'm highlighting the most popular baby names of the previous year from the Social Security Administration. Watch Top 10 Baby Names of 2025 – Official List.

Looking for the most popular baby names of 2025? We’ve got the official list. As the source for baby names in the U.S., we’re sharing the Top 10 baby names of 2025, based on real data from Social Security. Whether you’re naming a baby or just curious about trends, this list has you covered.

Here's the press release.

Olivia and Liam were America's most popular baby names for 2025 – the seventh consecutive year both names have held the top spot. The baby names are drawn from Social Security card applications submitted at birth, making SSA the nation’s authoritative source for baby naming trends.

Last year, America’s most popular baby names remained consistent with years past, with minimal shifts in the top 10 rankings. Charlotte climbed to second place among girls, ending Emma’s six-year run in the runner-up slot. A top-10 fixture for years, Ava dropped from the list entirely – replaced by Eliana, which debuted at number 10. On the boys’ side, the top four names – Liam, Noah, Oliver, and Theodore – held their places.

Here are the top 10 boys’ and girls’ names for 2025:

Social Security releases the list of the 1,000 most popular baby names each year in honor of Mother’s Day. The full list is available at www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames.

“Happy Mother’s Day to all the exceptional mothers who inspire us and guide future generations,” said Social Security Commissioner Frank J. Bisignano. “As Mother’s Day draws closer, I find myself reflecting on the unwavering care, courage, and commitment my own mother instilled in my siblings and me as the glue that held our family together.”

This Year’s Fastest-Rising Names: Fire and Brightness

Beyond the top 10, 2025’s fastest movers tell their own story. The boys’ name Kasai, meaning “fire” in Japanese and Swahili, surged 1,108 positions to enter the top 1,000 for the first time, landing at 639. For girls, Klarity, a contemporary spelling of “clarity” evoking brightness and light, led all risers.

Here are the five boys’ and girls’ names that increased the most in popularity in 2025:

Ailanny, the third fastest rising girls name last year, should look familiar.

Not only did Ailany come in first on this list, variants Aylani and Ailani came in second and tenth.

It's just another variant of the same name. Also, the third fastest rising boy's name, Eziah, looks like a variant on last year's fifth fastest rising name, Azaiah, both of which appear to be alternative spellings of Isaiah. The trends continue.

That's a wrap for today's holiday. I plan on returning to baby names for Father's Day. In the meantime, I have some science involving animals and music penciled in for tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Company Man, Bright Sun Films, and Business Insider ask 'The Decline of Spirit Airlines...What Happened??'

Sunday, I wrote, "I now have Spirit Airlines going bankrupt, again, and shutting down operations on my to-do list." Fortunately, it only took Company Man a week to produce and upload The Decline of Spirit Airlines...What Happened??

The controversial airline has shut down. This video outlines five of the biggest reasons behind its collapse.

Here is Company Man Mike's list of reasons for its failure.


I'm going to take Company Man's suggestion and embed Spirit Airlines - Why They're Hated to elaborate on his first point, negative reputation.

Spirit Airlines is among the most disliked companies out there. This video profiles the company while attempting to identify the reasons behind all the hatred.

Its bad reputation is the reason why the only times I've mentioned Spirit Airlines on this blog was when they were the butt of jokes on SNL, Jimmy Kimmel, and SNL again, the first two for rescue attempts and the final time for its failure. Sorry, no Daily Show. Since Company Man likes lists, here's the one he created for this video.


Fees and cost cutting tie into the first list's second point about tough competition, but the advertising alone would have made the company into a joke. Who needs late night comedians to make fun of you when your ad agency does the work for them?

I often write that no bankrupt company's story is complete without both Company Man and Bright Sun Films making videos about them. It turns out Jake Williams of Bright Sun Films already uploaded Bankrupt - Spirit Airlines last year.

 

Formed from a humble air carrier operation in 1990, Spirit Airlines has gone onto pioneer the ultra low cost budget carrier model in America, becoming known (perhaps infamously) as the cheapest airline in the skies. However, times have changed and their business model is now looking like a liability rather than an asset. Join me today as we find how this notable airline went from billions in revenue, to bankruptcy in just a few years.

It's always a good day when I learn something new and, between Jake and Company Man Mike, I learned that Spirit Airlines began as a Michigan company, they flew Airbus planes, that the company began their expansion by taking advantage of other air carriers' troubles because conflict in the Middle East caused high oil prices, and the last flight originated in Detroit, where the company began. That makes today a very good day!

Both Company Man Mike and Jake Williams looked back. Business Insider looked ahead in The Rise And Fall Of Spirit Airlines.

For 34 years, Spirit Airlines made waves with its rock-bottom fares, racy advertising, and bright yellow planes. At its peak, it was the largest ultra-low-cost carrier in the US, selling flights to Florida for $39. But in May 2026, Spirit shut down completely. It canceled 9,000 flights and left staff with little information. So what happened to the low-cost behemoth? And what does its sudden closure mean for cheap airfare in America?

Other than more professional production values and journalists on-screen, Business Insider added little to the story of Spirit Airlines' rise, but it added quite a bit to the fall and everything to the impact. Donald "Hoover Harding Cleveland" Trump causing Spirit's troubles by attacking Iran, raising oil prices, then offering to bail out the airline serves as an example of everything Trump touches dies. This time, it didn't even take a week! As for the grassroots effort to buy the airline, backed by its laid-off employees, I wish it luck, but would be pleasantly very surprised should it succeed. In the meantime, expect higher air fares on the routes Spirit flew.

That's a wrap for what is effectively a business obituary. Stay tuned for Mother's Day.

'Katrina: Come Hell and High Water' leads social issue documentaries at the News & Doc Emmy Awards for Flashback Friday

Slight change of plans from yesterday, when I wrote, "I'll probably examine Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time tomorrow." I decided to highlight the other nominee about Hurricane Katrina, Katrina: Come Hell and High Water, which leads the nominees for Outstanding Social Issue Documentary with three nominations, including Outstanding Direction: Documentary and Outstanding Editing: Documentary in addition to Outstanding Social Issue Documentary. It's followed by The Ride Ahead with two nominations, then Born Poor, Enigma, and Searching for Amani with just this one category nomination. I'm sharing the trailers in that order, beginning with Katrina: Come Hell and High Water | Official Trailer | Netflix.

This is the story of a brutal coastal hurricane turned cataclysmic through human error and neglect. Over the course of a gripping and emotional three episodes, the people of New Orleans recount their past, extoll their present and lean into the future of what they and their beloved city survived and have become 20 years later. The series sets the stage for a tragedy - whose man-made elements expose the systemic governmental neglect that led to the city being defenseless in the face of the storm - and Katrina’s devastating impact that changed New Orleans irreparably. Detailed, harrowing and triumphant first-person accounts and never before seen archive illustrate the magnitude of Katrina, the aftermath of the levees breaking and the bungled recovery.

Katrina was a foreseeable disaster. I remember listening to an NPR story a year or more before Katrina hit explaining how New Orleans' levees were only built to withstand a category three hurricane, so they would fail under a category four or five storm, and describing what would likely happen if — when — one struck. It did. It also mentioned in passing that, while being poor is hard, New Orleans was probably the easiest city to be poor in. Katrina took that away. I've been recommending Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time to my students. Now I can recommend Katrina: Come Hell and High Water to them, too. Welcome to blogging as professional development.

Next, The Ride Ahead | Official Trailer | POV on PBS.

What does adulthood look like when the world isn’t built for your body?

In THE RIDE AHEAD, Samuel Habib is ready for independence as he turns 21—but every rite of passage is complicated by ableist systems and physical barriers. Facing seizures, inaccessible housing, and degrading encounters, he sets out to find community and answers.

With humor, honesty, and a deep commitment to disability justice, Samuel travels across the U.S. to meet activists and role models who help him reimagine what freedom, adulthood, and love can look like.

A coming-of-age story rooted in interdependence, dignity, and the power of community.

As soon as I read the video description, I thought of Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution. Sure enough, the trailer advertises that the co-director of Crip Camp is involved, as is Judith Heumann, who won Most Compelling Living Subject of a Documentary at the Critics Choice Documentary Awards. The trailer also features some of the animation in the movie, which shows me it deserves its second nomination for Outstanding Graphic Design: Documentary.

'Born Poor' & Now Grown, They're Trying to Shake Poverty's Impact | Documentary Prologue | FRONTLINE is the first of the nominees with only this one category nomination in alphabetical order.

Meet Brittany, Johnny and Kaylie, whose journeys — filmed across 14 years — are at the heart of the new documentary "Born Poor." Watch the prologue now.

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The 90-minute documentary "Born Poor" premieres Tues., Oct. 7, 2025 on @frontline's YouTube channel, in the PBS App, at pbs.org/frontline and on PBS stations. The film follows these three kids from three families across three chapters of their lives — from childhood through the teen years to young adulthood — and offers a powerful, personal and longitudinal look at the realities of growing up in poverty in the U.S.

“Born Poor” is a FRONTLINE production with True Vision Productions. The director is Jezza Neumann. The producers are Jezza Neumann and Lauren Mucciolo. The senior producer is Frank Koughan. The editor-in-chief and executive producer of FRONTLINE is Raney Aronson-Rath.

This looked familiar, but I probably am misremembering FRONTLINE's "Two American Families: 1991-2024," nominated in this category last year. FRONTLINE does good work examining poverty and society.

Next, Enigma | Official Trailer | HBO, which could as easily been nominated for Outstanding Arts and Culture Documentary.



“You are free to choose your destiny.”
I think this might have done well at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards; it looks like their kind of documentary.

Today's last video is TRAILER: Searching for Amani.

A thirteen-year-old aspiring journalist investigates his father’s mysterious murder within the boundaries of one of Kenya’s largest wildlife conservancies. As a ravaging drought encroaches, his quest to find the killer shifts and an activist is born as the collateral damage of a warming world is revealed.

Looks like I found another movie I can recommend to my students. Again, welcome to blogging as professional development, even if I'm only planning on teaching one more semester, which begins Monday.

Now to examine the other nominations for Katrina: Come Hell and High Water and The Ride Ahead.

Outstanding Editing: Documentary
Cover-Up
Netflix [Plan B | Netflix | Praxis Films]
Folktales
Loki Films [Fifth Season | Impact Partners | Topic Studios]
Katrina: Come Hell and High Water
Netflix [Netflix | Message Pictures]
Life After
Multitude Films | PBS [ITVS]
Love + War
Little Monster Films [National Geographic]
2000 Meters to Andriivka
FRONTLINE FEATURES | PBS [Associated Press]
Thoughts & Prayers
HBO Documentary Films [Tony Tina]
The White House Effect
Actual Films | Netflix [Netflix | The Department of Motion Pictures]

I think 2000 Meters to Andriivka is the favorite, if only because it's the only nominee also nominated for Best Editing at the Critics Choice Documentary Awards and I suspect 2000 Meters to Andriivka might sweep its categories.

I return to 'Sally' leads Science and Technology Documentaries at the News & Doc Emmy Awards for Katrina: Come Hell and High Water's third nomination.

Sally should just be happy to be nominated in this category. 2000 Meters to Andriivka has six nominations, including Best Documentary. Life After has four, also including Best Documentary, as does The Stringer. Katrina: Come Hell and High Water and Vietnam: The War That Changed America both tied Sally with three. Apocalypse in the Tropics and Music Box: It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley have just this one. Out of this field, 2000 Meters to Andriivka is my provisional favorite.

I still think so.

Now for The Ride Ahead's second nomination from 'Underdogs' earns four News & Doc Emmy Award nominations.

Outstanding Graphic Design: Documentary
Antidote/Kill List
FRONTLINE FEATURES | PBS [Passion Pictures | Bellingcat]
The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets
Texas Crew Productions [Peacock Original | New York Post Entertainment | G Unit Film & Television, Inc.]
The Ride Ahead
LikeRightNow Films
Titanic: The Digital Resurrection
Atlantic Productions [National Geographic]
Underdogs
Wildstar Films [Maximum Effort | National Geographic]
In Waves and War
Studio AKA [Netflix | Actual Films]

This is likely to be Underdogs' best shot to win, but it faces a tough competitor in Titanic: The Digital Resurrection. Either way, National Geographic would win.

The Ride Ahead's animation looks impressive and fun and it advances the narrative well, so I wouldn't count it out.

I found an entry about Hurricane Katrina among the most read during the 15th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News, so I'm featuring it and another from the back catalog at the intersection of entertainment, climate change and extreme weather over the jump.

'Prime Minister' leads nominees for Outstanding Politics and Government Documentary at the News & Doc Emmy Awards

Happy Throwback Thursday! As I wrote yesterday, I'm resuming my series on the News & Doc Emmy Awards. Today's topic is Outstanding Politics and Government Documentary. One nominee stands out, Prime Minister with two nominations as the preview image shows, Best Documentary and Outstanding Politics and Government Documentary. The rest of the field has only the one nomination for Outstanding Politics and Government Documentary. On that basis, I'm declaring Prime Minister the favorite. Watch Prime Minister | Official Trailer | HBO.

“World leaders have rarely been captured with as much intimacy” - @variety

A rare and unfiltered portrait, #PrimeMinisterHBO chronicles the unexpected journey of Dame Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s 40th Prime Minister. Premieres September 30 on @hbomax.

I found Jacinda Ardern inspirational while she was Prime Minister during the pandemic, and I felt that way again watching this trailer.

Now for the nominees with just one nomination in roughly alphabetical order, beginning with Bodyguard of Lies | Official Trailer | Paramount+.

Bodyguard of Lies is the first unvarnished documentary on the Afghanistan War, exposing the falsehoods told to Americans and the secrets kept. The film reveals the staggering cost of deception: thousands of lives lost, trillions spent, and a truth buried for decades.

Watching that reminded me of what I wrote in Colbert and Meyers take closer looks at the Taliban taking over Afghanistan.

I expressed what a waste of time, money, and lives the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan was ten years ago in We could have had the Moon, instead we get Afghanistan. Seeing this collapse a decade later demonstrates that I wasn't disgusted enough at the squandering of blood and treasure in "the Graveyard of Empires" at the time.

It was even worse than I thought and the people in charge knew it.

Speaking of Afghanistan and "worse than I thought," I'm moving HOLLYWOODGATE - Official Trailer (2024) up to examine the aftermath.

Unprecedented and audacious, HOLLYWOODGATE is the riveting result of the year director Ibrahim Nash'at spent with the Taliban in the wake of the United States withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. Risking his life in the war-torn nation, Nash'at is on the ground with the Taliban when they enter an American base loaded with a portion of the roughly $7 billion worth of U.S. armaments left behind. Driving towards an astonishing and chilling end, Nash'at tracks Taliban leaders as they attempt to transform from a fundamentalist militia into a modern military regime, employing Hollywood-style propaganda to achieve their goals.

That's depressing.

I moved The Dark Money Game | Official Trailer | HBO to get the two Afghanistan nominees together.

Money Changes Everything.

#TheDarkMoneyGame: Ohio Confidential & Wealth of the Wicked by Academy Award Winner Alex Gibney premieres Tuesday, April 15 and Wednesday, April 16 at 9pm on @hbomax.

That's two nominated documentaries from Alex Gibney. The man is a powerhouse.

I close with The Making of a Japanese - Trailer (2023).

Which are the distinct attributes sculpting the Japanese identity? What makes you Japanese? In order to figure out the answers, the British Japanese filmmaker closely follows 1st and 6th graders for one year at a public elementary school in Tokyo, as well as their teachers, unveiling how teachers and students interact and shape one another. The outbreak of the pandemic and its restrictions constitute just another controlling measure. The kids in Japan are after all forged by their homeland's culture through a strictly defined education process which is in pursuit, with unwavering focus, of the appropriate equilibrium between individual progress and harmony of the society as a whole. Offering a unique hybrid perspective, the filmmaker critically examines a culture that is equally familiar to her as it is foreign, while she peruses the school environment in terms of an industrial production plant, in which the raw materials for processing are the students.

One of the points I make when I cover shows about government is that public education is government, too. I'm glad to see the News & Doc Emmy selection committee recognize this.

Now for Prime Minister's second category.


2000 Meters to Andriivka leads with six nominations, Turning Point: The Vietnam War follows with five nominations, Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time, Life After, and Love + War tie at four nominations, and Black Snow and Union tie at this one nomination. I had 2000 Meters to Andriivka penciled in to win this category because of its awards history, especially its wins at the DGA and WGA Awards, but seeing it lead this category, if not all nominees, in nominations inks that prediction in.

I'll probably examine Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time tomorrow. In the meantime, follow over the jump as I continue my retrospective of top posts about the Emmy Awards during the 15th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News.

'Andor' earns a Hugo nomination for Revenge of the Sixth on Wayback Wednesday

Today's celebration of Revenge of the Sixth, the dark side of Star Wars Day, hearkens back to 'The Mehdi Hasan Show' examines the politics of ‘Andor’ for Revenge of the Sixth and 'Andor' vs. 'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' and 'Severance' for Best Science Fiction Television Series at the Saturn Awards. Star Wars News on Instagram reported, "Andor Season 2 has been nominated for the 2026 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation – Long Form! It’s the only TV series nominated in a category that otherwise features only movies." Here are the rest of the nominees in this category.


Andor isn't likely to win, as it's not also nominated for the The Ray Bradbury Nebula Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation. Instead, I think the three Hugo nominees also nominated for the equivalent Nebula Award, KPop Demon Hunters, Sinners, and Superman, are most likely to win. Of the three, I think Sinners is the favorite.

Andor can take some consolation from Andor wins the BAFTA for Special, Visual & Graphic Effects | BAFTA TV Craft Awards.

Andor wins the BAFTA for Special, Visual & Graphic Effects at the BAFTA TV Craft Awards with Samsung OLED.

Presented by Chris Chung.

Congratulations!

Follow over the jump for the nominees for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form and Best Game or Interactive Work plus a retrospective of the top entertainment entries from the back catalog, excluding those about the Emmy Awards.