Tonight: Dr. Tiller documentary on MSNBC
Tonight on MSNBC:
Documentary hints at forces behind murder of abortion doctor
Preview
Monday, October 25, 2010
By Aaron Barnhart, McClatchy Newspapers
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- One of the more chilling scenes in "The Assassination of Dr. Tiller" is captured in grainy courtroom video from March 2009.
There is Dr. George Tiller, the Wichita, Kan., physician, on trial for 19 misdemeanors related to his controversial late-term abortion practice.
And there, in the back of the courtroom, seated next to the leader of anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, is Scott Roeder, the Kansas City man who -- two months after Dr. Tiller was cleared on all 19 charges -- walked into the doctor's church and shot him.
'The Assassination
of Dr. Tiller'
When: 9 p.m. tonight, MSNBC.
The first documentary film since Mr. Roeder's sentencing to 50 years without parole comes from MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow, whose show at 9 p.m. today will be pre-empted for the premiere of "The Assassination of Dr. Tiller."
Ms. Maddow, who co-created and narrated the film, said she did it to shed new light on the contentious case.
"Our motto here is, 'We're trying to increase the amount of useful information in the world,'" she said in a phone interview last week.
But like Dr. Tiller himself, that explanation is more complicated than first appears.
The film, 43 minutes long with commercial breaks, begins as a straightforward true-crime account, a specialty of one of the film's in-house production units, MSNBC Films.
An usher at Wichita's Reformation Lutheran Church, Gary Hoepner, recounts the morning of May 31, 2009, when he saw Mr. Roeder raise the gun to Dr. Tiller's head and pull the trigger. Wichita homicide chief Ken Landwehr, Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston and a member of Mr. Roeder's defense team, Mark Rudy, describe Mr. Roeder's prosecution and conviction.
Then the film rewinds to tell the story of the two men and what led them to that fateful day: how Dr. Tiller became an abortion provider, locked horns with Operation Rescue, was shot in both arms by Shelley Shannon in 1993 and defied every attempt to shut down his practice.
How Mr. Roeder committed to the anti-abortion cause after becoming a born-again Christian, walked away from his wife and child, began to consort with extremists and came to believe that "nothing was being done" to stop Dr. Tiller -- feelings that exploded after the doctor's acquittal.
Among the footage that the film's lead producer, Toby Oppenheimer, uncovered is an interview with Dr. Tiller about the earlier attempt on his life. In the interview, which according to MSNBC has never been broadcast, Dr. Tiller declares, "There was never any question in my mind that I was not going to go to work the next day. I was going to work, hell or high water."
But the film deviates often from the true-crime genre to make statements about the relationship between politics and violence.
Ms. Maddow describes "a growing sense of paranoia and anxiety" surrounding Dr. Tiller as the protests escalated. Several of his colleagues, including doctors Susan Robinson and Shelly Sella, discuss the "climate" around the clinic, as do three former patients of Dr. Tiller's who agreed to be interviewed on camera.
Operation Rescue's Newman and Randall Terry, who helped lead the protests in the 1990s, and Mark Gietzen, chairman of the Kansas Coalition for Life, agreed to be interviewed by MSNBC.
According to a press release issued last week, Mr. Newman agreed to participate, despite reservations about Ms. Maddow's pro-abortion rights views, so that he could tell "the story of the tens of thousands of innocent babies killed by abortion during [Dr.] Tiller's long and checkered abortion career."
But that's not all Mr. Newman has to say in the film. He's shown describing at length a citywide leaflet campaign Operation Rescue undertook that linked Dr. Tiller with his "collaborators," including area businesses such as cab companies. His account is sandwiched between quotes from Dr. Tiller's friends and associates, who call the campaign intimidating and say it led to fears for their own safety as well as the safety of Dr. Tiller and his family.
"I don't think they could wake up a day and feel secure in the knowledge that nothing was going to happen to them," says Paul Ryding, who was at church the morning Dr. Tiller was shot.
Dr. Robinson, another doctor at the clinic, describes Mr. Roeder as a "rather dull guy" who was merely "reacting to an atmosphere of hatred." She's echoed by her colleague Dr. Sella, who says that "if the climate had not been like that ... Scott Mr. Roeder would not have killed Dr. Tiller."
In an interview, Ms. Maddow, a Rhodes Scholar and progressive political activist, elaborated on what "useful information" she hoped her film would provide.
"Because we think of this as a debate over abortion or a fight over abortion, something has been lost," Ms. Maddow said. "Some folks think that extremely radical political tactics are necessary because of their strongly held views on abortion. There are consequences for that. And those consequences have very little to do with abortion and everything to do with our tolerance for violence and extremism."
A title appearing at the end of the film notes that a federal grand jury is looking into whether Mr. Roeder's crime "is part of a broader conspiracy."
source
Documentary hints at forces behind murder of abortion doctor
Preview
Monday, October 25, 2010
By Aaron Barnhart, McClatchy Newspapers
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- One of the more chilling scenes in "The Assassination of Dr. Tiller" is captured in grainy courtroom video from March 2009.
There is Dr. George Tiller, the Wichita, Kan., physician, on trial for 19 misdemeanors related to his controversial late-term abortion practice.
And there, in the back of the courtroom, seated next to the leader of anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, is Scott Roeder, the Kansas City man who -- two months after Dr. Tiller was cleared on all 19 charges -- walked into the doctor's church and shot him.
'The Assassination
of Dr. Tiller'
When: 9 p.m. tonight, MSNBC.
The first documentary film since Mr. Roeder's sentencing to 50 years without parole comes from MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow, whose show at 9 p.m. today will be pre-empted for the premiere of "The Assassination of Dr. Tiller."
Ms. Maddow, who co-created and narrated the film, said she did it to shed new light on the contentious case.
"Our motto here is, 'We're trying to increase the amount of useful information in the world,'" she said in a phone interview last week.
But like Dr. Tiller himself, that explanation is more complicated than first appears.
The film, 43 minutes long with commercial breaks, begins as a straightforward true-crime account, a specialty of one of the film's in-house production units, MSNBC Films.
An usher at Wichita's Reformation Lutheran Church, Gary Hoepner, recounts the morning of May 31, 2009, when he saw Mr. Roeder raise the gun to Dr. Tiller's head and pull the trigger. Wichita homicide chief Ken Landwehr, Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston and a member of Mr. Roeder's defense team, Mark Rudy, describe Mr. Roeder's prosecution and conviction.
Then the film rewinds to tell the story of the two men and what led them to that fateful day: how Dr. Tiller became an abortion provider, locked horns with Operation Rescue, was shot in both arms by Shelley Shannon in 1993 and defied every attempt to shut down his practice.
How Mr. Roeder committed to the anti-abortion cause after becoming a born-again Christian, walked away from his wife and child, began to consort with extremists and came to believe that "nothing was being done" to stop Dr. Tiller -- feelings that exploded after the doctor's acquittal.
Among the footage that the film's lead producer, Toby Oppenheimer, uncovered is an interview with Dr. Tiller about the earlier attempt on his life. In the interview, which according to MSNBC has never been broadcast, Dr. Tiller declares, "There was never any question in my mind that I was not going to go to work the next day. I was going to work, hell or high water."
But the film deviates often from the true-crime genre to make statements about the relationship between politics and violence.
Ms. Maddow describes "a growing sense of paranoia and anxiety" surrounding Dr. Tiller as the protests escalated. Several of his colleagues, including doctors Susan Robinson and Shelly Sella, discuss the "climate" around the clinic, as do three former patients of Dr. Tiller's who agreed to be interviewed on camera.
Operation Rescue's Newman and Randall Terry, who helped lead the protests in the 1990s, and Mark Gietzen, chairman of the Kansas Coalition for Life, agreed to be interviewed by MSNBC.
According to a press release issued last week, Mr. Newman agreed to participate, despite reservations about Ms. Maddow's pro-abortion rights views, so that he could tell "the story of the tens of thousands of innocent babies killed by abortion during [Dr.] Tiller's long and checkered abortion career."
But that's not all Mr. Newman has to say in the film. He's shown describing at length a citywide leaflet campaign Operation Rescue undertook that linked Dr. Tiller with his "collaborators," including area businesses such as cab companies. His account is sandwiched between quotes from Dr. Tiller's friends and associates, who call the campaign intimidating and say it led to fears for their own safety as well as the safety of Dr. Tiller and his family.
"I don't think they could wake up a day and feel secure in the knowledge that nothing was going to happen to them," says Paul Ryding, who was at church the morning Dr. Tiller was shot.
Dr. Robinson, another doctor at the clinic, describes Mr. Roeder as a "rather dull guy" who was merely "reacting to an atmosphere of hatred." She's echoed by her colleague Dr. Sella, who says that "if the climate had not been like that ... Scott Mr. Roeder would not have killed Dr. Tiller."
In an interview, Ms. Maddow, a Rhodes Scholar and progressive political activist, elaborated on what "useful information" she hoped her film would provide.
"Because we think of this as a debate over abortion or a fight over abortion, something has been lost," Ms. Maddow said. "Some folks think that extremely radical political tactics are necessary because of their strongly held views on abortion. There are consequences for that. And those consequences have very little to do with abortion and everything to do with our tolerance for violence and extremism."
A title appearing at the end of the film notes that a federal grand jury is looking into whether Mr. Roeder's crime "is part of a broader conspiracy."
source