March 10, 2009
GM ends support for Ken Burns
GM’s financial troubles have impacted its relationships with Tiger Woods, the Super Bowl, and now Ken Burns.
The cash crunch ends a 22-year relationship between GM and Burns, a graduate of Ann Arbor’s Pioneer High School and award-winning filmmaker who has created documentaries for public television about the nation’s wars, jazz and baseball, among others. Under a 10-year deal that started in 1999, GM paid for 35 percent of each film’s budget and funded educational outreach programs tied to each documentary.
While exact figures were not available, GM has spent millions underwriting Burns’ films. The last film made under the deal is “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea,” a six-part series that airs this fall.
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Wow–who knew that GM underwrote all of those great documentaries? My cynical stick must be broken, because this has me dumbfounded.