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Right-Winger Surnow Not Scripting THE KENNEDYS, Which Is Now The History Channel’s First Miniseries Drama!!
I am – Hercules!!
Way back in March we learned self-described right-wing writer-producer Joel Surnow, co-creator of Fox News’ “Half-Hour Comedy Hour” (pitched as the conservative answer to “The Daily Show”) and Fox’s “24,” was shopping a 10-hour miniseries about the liberal Kennedy political family.
Variety described Surnow’s premise:
"The Kennedys" will explore "the soiled and crooked steps" the family took to get to the White House.
The History Channel just greenlit the project as an 8-hour miniseries, but now the entire project will be scripted by “24” vet Stephen Kronish, who describes himself as a liberal.
Surnow remains on the project as one of its executive producers.
Said to be budgeted at north of $20 million, “The Kennedys” is described by The Hollywood Reporter as the channel’s first scripted effort, though I suspect the channel’s many documentaries also employ scripts.
Find all of The Hollywood Reporter’s story on the matter here.
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started going the whole "fiction" route. They've been passing off their bullshit as fact for a while now.
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lee harvey oswalds bro. is 100% certain is brother killed kennedy. What many didnt know at the time was that Lee Oswald had a massive nervous and mental breakdown. There were several attempts on kennedys life. the most famous and little known was a man who blow up the kennedy family as they left church.
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I'll buy that for a dollar.
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I don't know why people are shocked since History channel showed Patton and a few other movies on the channel. Plus, its a movie not a real documentary and anyone that pitched that conservative Daily Show deserves to lose their job.
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If so, my apologies...
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...I'll maintain some modicum of respect for the project. Otherwise, I would view it as whitewashing over the Kennedy's spotted past.
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normally, who gives a shit? but the history channel might care.
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was pretty good. It's interesting that you see JFK popping pills nearly the entire time to keep going, and nobody blinked an eye.
JFK was a hardcore cold warrior. Modern application of terms right/left wing really don't apply.
Now if this covers the family at large... I wonder how/if they will address Teddy and Chappaquitic (sp?). Will this be just a 20th C, "The Tudors"? That would be cool... Joe Kennedy's life from middling political beginnings to avaricious Kingmaker. -
but that's how Surnow describes himself.
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Even two party systems are not on a linear political spectrum.
That's why there are so called Democrats like Joe Liberman who can be villainised by those on the so-called-Left and people on the so-called-right like Ron Paul who can find fans on the so-called-left
and detractors on the so-called-right.
Anyone interested might spend a few minutes filling in the "Political Compass" and see where you lie on the Left/Right Authoritarian/Libertarian two dimensional scale. -
Dec 14, 2009 9:39:36 AM CST
Conservative or Liberal, it's not like the Kennedy's were saints
by palooka_boy
an honest portrayal would show a decent amount of corruption
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You're still relevant!
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...Chupacabra hides the Templars' Lost Gold(tm)so it can survive the poxyclipse in 2012? The History Channel long ago became a sad joke to anyone with even a passing interest in history.
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I have done that and was firmly in the left/libertarian quadrant.
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that has plenty of Kennedy dirt.
And J Edgar Hoover dirt. And Jimmy Hoffa dirt. And Howard Hughes dirt. And Mob dirt. And cuban rebels dirt... -
...50 years ago.
In further news: *SNORE* -
JFK's little-discussed time spent as an... ICE ROAD TRUCKER?!?!?Fuck The History Channel.
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He describes himself that way so the right-wingers will tune in. But 24 has always been subversively left-wing. He shows plenty of right-wing individuals as evil vile scum (was Voight's character last year right-wing or left-wing?), his left-wingers eventually get redeemed or shown kinda favorably (Kurtwood Smith last year), and while he shows torture and pain, it's debatable whether he glamorizes it. Would a right-winger shove the brutal and often unsuccessful results of torture in the viewer's face, and then spend whole seasons dissecting the hero's right to do it?
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All the cable channels are filled with ghost shows.
Ghost shows make you smarter.
And aliens.
Kennedy's, ghosts and aliens.
A Kennedy seance. Kennedy probes.
Who cares about history. We want alien ghosts, alien Kennedy ghosts.
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greatest JFK portrayal in the history of cinema
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I don't think anyone really knew what kind of power struggle LBJ had to put up with after JFK was killed. Plus The History Channel already had a feature about the Kennedy's rise to power. But I guess the masses like movies as opposed to documentary's.
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I do agree that 24 can appear to be "left wing," but I think that's only if you don't examining the characters and their arcs fully. Voight's arc wasn't about "evil right winger." It was about the dangers of private military and why the government must thus run the military. Conversely, Smith's arc was about the politician learning that the principled mercenary (Jack Bauer) is not the same as the unprincipled mercenary (Voight). In other words, Smith's character was used to demonstrate an error in reasoning many liberal politicians make.
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24 would've been ripped apart by FOX News as left-wing propaganda for Season 2 (the entire season is a note on why you shouldn't freak out and lose track of your ideals and sense in a Post 9/11 landscape and features Jack trying to stop an unnecessary war in the Middle East) and Season 5 (Evil Nixon/Bush-esque White President who helps supply terrorists with weapons).
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If you watch Season 7, you can see the writers are consciously making Bauer look more irrational in his torture and supposedly right-wing methods. In the confrontation wtih Smith, Smith almost convinces him that he's wrong before his death. By the end of the season, Jack has figured out that torture was wrong for 'people who took an oath' to do. The real arc was the two came to a mutual understanding of each other's side and how they got there.
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If you notice on the Zapruder film, when Kennedy is initially shot in the throat, he slouches over, but doesn't fall all the way over. This is what left his head exposed for the fatal shot.The reason why he didn't fall all the way over was because he was wearing a back brace. Legend has it that he was wearing the back brace after injuring his back while slipping in the pool area chasing after some pretty young thing. Here's an article discussing the brace (but not the rumored dalliance): http://tiny.cc/7KOfp
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the right wing, and the ultra-right wing.
I think it's hilarious that there are some folks who think 24 is "left-wing".
What you really mean is that it's to *your* left. :) -
if 24 was set in a hippie commune, it'd be boring. But a story about a group of oil businessmen orchestrating a plan to set off a nuclear bomb in LA in order to go to war to get the Middle Eastern oil is American Left-Wing.
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I'd actually agree with you that that season could be seen as a left-wing-ish plot. It's also the season where Jack was tortured, but didn't do a lot of torture himself, you know?
But I think the change came in Season 4, when even Jack Bauer started pronouncing it "nu-cu-ler" and he became a one man torture lovin machine. That's when they went firmly into right-wing territory. -
Bring it on Kinda-History-Channel. I can't wait for the scene where JFK is banging Monroe and Dickenson at the same time. wait a minute.
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Joe Kennedy wasn't a saint by any measure and while JFK and RFK did a hell of a lot of good, they and their brothers and offspring don't have enough closets for their respective skeletons. There is a LOT of material there, not just for a mini-series, but like five to nine seasons of a prime-time drama. It would be nice to have an even handed approach that doesn't try to demonize or canonize them.
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And how conservatives CRIED THEIR BEADY LITTLE EYES OUT about the queen of the dirty lib'ruls slandering St. Ronnie? So now we get a hatchet job on Camelot from dittohead prime. Great. Next we'll see Al Franken star as Joe Lieberman or Ann Coulter in the Nancy Pelosi story. What I want to see is the full muck-raking conspiracy treatment of the Bush family, from trading with Nazis to Iran-Contra and allegations about Reagan's assassination... THAT would be some quality TV, while also serving to raise red-state blood pressure across the country. -
Dec 14, 2009 2:55:24 PM CST
24 is watched by alot of conservatives, including Limbaugh
by billboefett
who gets early preview copies of episodes. Rush has also visited the set. I'm sure the show is populated by leftists, centrists, and rightists.
However, many libs I know "hate" the show because of Jack's torturing. I guess they would prefer the Rendition policies that Clinton originated and Obama is reconsidering where we just ship off the prisoners to Egypt and let them do their own special tortures on them, out of sight, so out of mind, right? -
Everything must be "right wing" to you, because there's NOTHING on your left, right?
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I asked my political driver to "make the right turn left", but instead he turned around and looked at me and said "say what??" So I tried some campaign reform on my direction: "Turn left, right over here". He accused me of voting for Nader but also watching South Park, and kicked me out. BS man.
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Just not as much as is on your left, right?
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Dec 14, 2009 3:07:38 PM CST
They did slander Reagan. But no one talks about the Kennedys:
by greatone3
1) Bugging Martin Luther King's telephone;2) Ordering the assasination of a foreign leader;3) Cozying up to known members of organized crime; 4) Having numerous affairs on their wives; 5) Using the FBI and CIA to gather information on their political enemies. Could go on.
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and AICN is asleep at the wheel again. Kraken looks awesome.
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Maybe not if one of us tilts our head upside down?
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But then all my compass readings will be off, and I'll be all authoritarian and shit, instead of libertarian. :(
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"No one ever talks about the Kennedy's having numerous affairs on their wives"
Are you kidding? That's possibly THE number one talked about thing in the Kennedy's family history!
I nominate your statement for funniest AICN line of the year. But don't hold your breath, you're up against some stiff competition from Media Messiah. -
Granted, folks do not often bring up the MLK telephone thing, but it was probably because RFK changed his worldview and became chummy with MLK. Number 2, if you are describing the assassination of Thieu, then you are incorrect, as that assassination has been discussed in pretty much any documentary on Nam from "Hearts and Minds" down the line. Three, organized crime? Guess you missed that "Rat Pack" movie and the many books on the Rat Pack, JFK, and Sam Giacana. Four, the affairs? Really? Fucking is almost always brought up when you bring up the Kennedys. And Lastly, using J. Edgar and various spooks to come up with dirt. Again, that was before JFK vowed to smash the CIA into a "a thousand pieces", the Bay of Pigs being a hell of learning curve, and before Bobby buried his McCarthy-palling, MLK-investigating, cold warrior past, and became an opponent of the Vietnam War and a proponent of civil-rights. Kennedy handle the Cuban Missile Crisis like a champ, and saved us from nuclear annihilation. I seem to recall it was Reagan whose "Evil Empire" rhetoric pushed us closer to the brink. The same Reagan who provided aid to Saddam before and after he gassed the Kurds. The same Reagan who sold weapons for hostages(having forgotten what happens "if you give a mouse a cookie"). then using the proceeds to fund some the more grotesque latter Cold War atrocities in Nicaragua. The samn Reagan with his "welfare queens" and "states' rights). That fucker defamed himself and everything the US stands for. But hey, let's continue to obsess over Chappuquidicl. Lord knows Nixon did, in between racist tirades.
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24 has many left-wing fans. Clinton, Streisand, a couple of senators came up to Kiefer and said 'We don't like torture but love when you do it." And I'd agree that Season 4 is right-wing propaganda (the episode with Amnesty Global is horrific; I can't watch it anymore). However, Season 5 is a similar plot to Season 2, though, with corrupt white officials including the Nixon-esque President trying to smuggle nerve gas into the country to "prove the existence of WMDs in the Middle East". But then, Season Six you have Karen Hayes and Tom Lennox fighting with Karen actually saying something like "Do you think I'm an idiot because you see me as some BLEEDING HEART LIBERAL!?!". And then Season Seven, you have the sympathetic Larry Moss and fan favorite Bill Buchanon openly refusing to torture, while the only people similar to Jack like Hodges (who gives a 'We're not so different' speech that basically lays out that Jack's torture is villain-like) and Tony as villians. I honestly think whether the show is left-wing or right-wing has more to do with whatever the most thrilling plot is. Especially since Surnow left and most of the writing staff is liberal now.
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never left wing. they get called "liberals".
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The issue is not whether it has been cited, but whether their sins are given equal footing when discussing their legacies. They're clearly not, otherwise they wouldn't be so glorified. Particularly the fact that his being a weak-kneed pussy screwed up the Bay of Pigs and allowed Castro and his murderous tyranny to reign.As for Reagan, if the things you cited were what was in the movie, then it wouldn't have caused the ruckus. Btw, Reasan's standing up to the Soviets is part of what finally caused them to collapse; Saddam (wrongly and monstrously) gassed Halabja because of their affiliations with Iran, and our emnity with Iran were the only reasons we were assisting Iraq; selling arms to Iran was wrong, but his funding of the Contras to defeat the communists in Nicaragua was correct, and his back dealings with Iran wouldn't have been necessary but for the commie-loving assholes in Congress (*cough* Democrats *cough*).
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Dec 14, 2009 3:55:45 PM CST
Oh......................................not IAN KENNEDY?
by quin the eskimo
Snick!
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The Soviet Union collapsing economy caused the Soviet Union to collapse. And the funding of the Contras was incorrect, as the Sandanistas were not a a threat to the United States. If anything, the Reagan Administration funded terrorism, ie. the Contras' mass murdering of civilians and through the mining of Nicaraguan waters. It seems to me you are the communist sympathizer, being as the Reagan Administration's by-proxy tactics were quite similar that of those behind the Iron Curtain. And, as for your labeling JFK a "pussy", all I have say is Marilyn Monroe, Cuban Missile Crisis, and PT-109, bitch. Reagan the crackpot is thankfully dead, no matter how conservatives fellate his corpse back to life.
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Try to fellate his corpse back to life. To which I say, "Just say no."
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Why was the Soviet economy collapsing? Because of the ARMS RACE that Reagan initiated and shitbags like you protested. Shitbags like you also took Reagan to task at the time for daring to say the Soviets could be defeated. Liberal groupthink at the time said the Soviets were here for good and instead of opposing them we should learn to live with them. Of course once we beat the Soviets, the same Liberals said "of course they collapsed, we could see it coming from a mile away!!" Liberals, consistently wrong throughout history.
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By pissing on the legacy of Ronald Reagan, a pathetic excuse for a president and a human being. Loser will continuing fellating his dead dick and lving out your fantasies of a just Cold War. And factually, you are rather fucked, considering the Arms Race you speak of had been going on for several decades, and nearly brough the world to the brink, which the act of truly "intelligent" minds like yourself.
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the soviet union fell. i thought communism was the answer bahaha
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So wrong about the Iraq War, about torturing their fellow man, about the whole civil rights thing. Yeah, liberals, always getting it wrong. While Ronald Reagan roasts in hell, you can just keep telling yourself that.
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Liberals were wrong about the Iraq war
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Where's the Reagan hate coming from? Disagree with his policies, fine (although I think that's really hard to do in most circumstances), but why rip him personally? By all accounts, nothing in his personal life that should be raising your hackles. Fine, not the warmest person or best parent, but hardly Joan Crawford.As for your substantive points, Reagan arming the Contras was to stop the attempt at communism gaining another foothold. Did some eggs break? Yes. But the omlette tastes good. Don't blame the people fighting to retain their freedom; blame those trying to take it away from them.As for JFK, he did do a good job with the CMC, although if he wasn't so doped up on pain killers when he met Kruschev, he wouldn't have been perceived as such a whimp, which is why the missles were sent there. While JFK was heroic in saving his fellow crewmembers, it is argued that it was his negligence that caused the disaster in the first place. And I don't see how bedding down Monroe (not that hard to do if you had wealth/fame), a woman with a lot of mental health issues, is not something to neccesarily to be bragged about.
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Wow dude, that was like 30 years ago, what a waste of emotion
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Reagan continued the conflict and pumped a lot more money into it. Bush Sr withdrew and allowed the civil war and Taliban to take power eventually as a trade off for the collapsing Soviet Union's withdrew of support for pro-communist Afghan elements.
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great president HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
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HAHAHAHAHAHAHA SO SMRT
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IM A DOUCHEBAG NOW
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Am I rite
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All I'm saying. With fresh razor bumps.
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The idea I view human lives as broken eggs is the day I become a shitbag. Also, the Sandanistas were not Communist. If they were, they would not have allowed themselves to be voted out of office.
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Chemicals, I'm am reasonably certain that the Soviet economy was in decline prior to the presidency of Reagan. Reagan's policies certainly hastened the end, but he didn't end the Soviet scourge by himself. And it didn't hurt that a "reformer" (or what passed for a reformer in the soviet system) was in charge of the USSR.
Not diminishing RR's contributions to history, but we should give credit where it is due. -
The Sandanistas were socialist, marxist, and left-wing nationalists. But at least they weren't communists! Douche.
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Then why are you seemingly siding with communist/quasi-communist/fascist governments? There is no question about the evil of the Soviet Union, Cuba, and Iraq, and how their leaders spread misery and death to their peoples. We have always acted in a manner to end the terror those regimes spread (Iraq being a brief exception, and only to fight a greater evil in Iran). Sure, our methods haven't always been the best, but these situations have to be viewed through utilitarian scopes, as overthrow does not occur without people dying.
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Unfortunately, the US govt has supported its share of evil doers when it served the political, economic or security interests of the US. From Saddam to the Shaw of Iran to various regimes in Latin America, the US has not always broken the chains of oppression. Sometimes we provided them.
I'm not bashing the Home Team for the hell of it. I want us to do better. -
You'd think they never get to air their views.
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I mean, god forbid any show with a conservative viewpoint (aside from 24) ever make it to the airwaves! Conservatives and republicans should always be the evil villian, the stupid hillbilly or the naive moron on TV. Law and Order SVU is the best...practically provides Richard Belzer a soapbox to expound his personal liberal views on a weekly basis! Thank goodness for networks like NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox (entertainment not news), PBS, The History Channel, NPR and other quality channels for their one-sided viewpoint!
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...a Democrat in the 50s/60s was nowhere near as left wing as the party is today. In fact, if Jack or Bobby were to be in politics today, they would be considered somewhat moderately conservative. Maybe not enough to switch to Republican, but they certainly weren't the pipe-smoking hippies liberals would like to believe they were.
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More about how incredibly wonderful and dreamy the Kennedys were.
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Where's the talkback for the Golden Globes?
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Dec 15, 2009 12:54:03 PM CST
The conservative demonization in Hollywood in the fault of...
by borishumphrey
...the conservatives in Hollywood. Almost all the studio suits are conservative, yet they keep approving movies and TV that demean the conservative agenda. Forget being gay in Hollywood; it's way more shocking to be a conservative 'talent' (not a suit). Yet, people as wide and varied as Bruce Willis and Adam Sandler are conservatives.
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Dec 15, 2009 5:49:41 PM CST
First MTV with reality shows, now History with scripted drama...
by mrmysteryguest
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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cos how good can this be if its written and made by liberals who still love all things kennedy?
the kennedy family r a bunch of drunk scumbags -
They sold us out on Afghanistan and Health Care Reform, so it's time to boot their asses into oblivion. They were the lesser of two evils (the Republicants being the worst) and now it's painfully obvious that we need to restart the system by whatever means necessary. The shit is broke. WAY broke. And We The People deserve better.
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