Tribute to Mandela with Danny Schechter the Author who knew him well and more

This week Making Sense pays tribute to the life of Nelson Mandela. We have on the journalist/author/producer who perhaps knew him best out of anyone in the media, Danny Schechter who had a 40 year relationship with Mandela and a 50 year relationship with the ANC or African National Congress.

Danny Schechter has produced and directed six documentary films about Nelson Mandela, including Free Last (1990); Mandela in America (1990), with producer Anant Singh; Countdown to Freedom: The Ten Days that Changed South Africa on the 1994 elections; Prisoners of Hope with Barbara Kopple on the reunion on Robben Island (1995); A Hero for All (1998); and served as a contributing director on Viva Madiba, marking Nelson Mandela’s ninetieth birthday.

Danny was the only American documentary filmmaker Mandela trusted to be part of his team in the United States and in South Africa, time and again, for the last several decades since his release and his election as South Africa’s president.

Danny has just completed a five-hour TV series, Inside Mandela: The Long Walk to Freedom: The Making and Meaning of Nelson Mandela’s story. 

We also cover other top stories of the week and end with our trademark hall of fame and shame for those politicians and prominent individuals who made great sense or shameful nonsense respectively.