By Frazier Moore, Television Writer
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) --Norman Lear, age 94 and a native New Yorker, thought he knew a few things about the obstacles of housing in the Big Apple.
But when he began exploring the subject for "America Divided," Lear said he was "horrified at how little I knew. Someone making a reasonable living with two children can no longer afford to live in New York City."
Not only is rising costs from real-estate gentrification displacing working-class and even middle-class residents, but racial discrimination is a problem despite a fair-housing law that makes it illegal. On his episode, Lear goes undercover to expose real-estate agents who give preferential treatment to him, as a white man, over a black man seeking the same apartment.
Those were the insights Lear helps bring to viewers in his chapter of "American Divided," an eight-story, five-part series that premieres on the Epix channel on Sept. 30.
Lear – along with one of the series' creators, Solly Granatstein – appeared before TV reporters Saturday to represent the seven fellow major figures who explore their own issues of inequality that, in each case, was close to their heart. These correspondents also include Amy Poehler, Zach Galifianakis, Common, Rosario Dawson, Peter Sarsgaard, Jesse Williams and America Ferrera. Additional issues they tackle include inequality in education, health care, labor, criminal justice and the political system.
Granatstein, whose credits include "60 Minutes" and the docuseries "Years of Living Dangerously," said he and his co-producers began with ideas for stories. "Then we targeted individuals who we knew were somehow connected with those issues."
He said more social problems and "substantive A-listers" were in the wings if the series scores a second season.
Lear, a legendary comedy titan, said this was his first experience in the role of a reporter.
What did he learn?
"I learned I'm a great reporter," he replied.
"It's true," Granatstein said.
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More