Spin

Satellite interviews are part of the furniture of news and current affairs programmes. If you've ever felt concern about the degree of collusion between the politicos and the media, this documentary will set your jaw dropping. In a brief intro, Springer describes how he used an ordinary satellite tuner to record some 100 hours of TV satellite link time, capturing the studio-to-interviewee feeds in their entirety, rather than just the familiar on-air Q&A routines we see every day. What follows, distilled to 76 minutes, is a catalogue of off-hand revelations, unwitting gaffes, blind prejudice and unalloyed hucksterism: the off-guard moments of Bush, Clinton and Perot during 1992's presidential election campaign. Some of this stuff is amazing. CNN talk-show host Larry King boasts how he's changed the world, between talking about sleeping pills with Bush; Perot mentions the time he took Michael Jackson out on his speed boat; moral majority hatemonger Pat Robertson is a smiling mound of brazen homophobia. Springer avoids authorial comment. He doesn't need it: most of these guys have just hanged themselves thrice over before our very eyes. Unreservedly recommended.