March 3rd, 2011

The Story of Citizens United v. FEC is a new video by Annie Leonard (of the Story of Stuff fame) about how corporations have gained undue influence in American democracy. She looks at it historically and also looks at the 2010 Supreme Court case of the (ironically named) Citizens United v. FEC. As a result of this decision, corporations were given the same rights as people in terms of making unlimited campaign contributions. Unsurprisingly, the 2010 mid-term elections saw tons of corporate money and a lot of anti-regulation, anti-union candidates got in.

Like the Story of Stuff, this information is presented fairly simply, with an explanatory cartoon. Thus, I think it could be comprehensible to many English language learners. They also offer captions and an annotated script so students can read along. The video isn’t too long, either, at just over 8 minutes. Another nice thing about it is that, despite the fairly bleak picture, the tone remains mostly positive.