The Big Lie (podcast)

The Big Lie, a labor podcast about the making of Salt of the Earth (Audible, 2022)

This will be our first review of a podcast, one that dramatizes the attempt to make a film (Salt of the Earth) about a 1950 zinc miners’ strike in New Mexico, a film produced by victims of the Hollywood blacklist, a film that was largely suppressed for many years.

The 1950 strike was supported by Local 890 of the International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers, the left-wing union known as “Mine-Mill” which absorbed the radical heritage of the Western Federation of Miners and the IWW.  Mine-Mill was expelled from the CIO in the post-Taft-Hartley era when the CIO decided to separate itself from unions influenced by Communists.  

The Mexican American workers in Local 890 objected to discriminatory wages and substandard working and living conditions, and they had other grievances.  The union supported equality and dignity for the workers. The strike lasted eight months and the workers won some of their demands, aided by their wives who took over the picket line when a judge issued an injunction against further picketing by the union men.  Some of the mine workers and union leaders would play roles in the Salt of the Earth film, as did a well-known Mexican actress, Rosaura Revueltas, who would be deported on spurious grounds as the film was nearing completion. 

Three victims of the Hollywood blacklist formed an independent production company and decided to make a film in New Mexico dramatizing the 1950 strike.  Herbert Biberman, one of the “Hollywood Ten,” was the director; Michael Wilson wrote the screenplay; Paul Jarrico was the producer.  The podcast The Big Lie is a seven-part audio drama series about the making of Salt of the Earth and the obstacles presented by the Hollywood establishment (including the then-corrupt union “IATSE”), the U.S. Government (including Congress and the FBI), and local police and vigilantes.  The podcast stars Jon Hamm as FBI Agent Jack Bergin (an invented character), who takes the lead role for the government in attempting to thwart the film’s completion.  Other featured actors are Kate Mara, Ana de la Reguera, Giancarlo Esposito and David Strathairn. Hamm noted that “getting to tell this story over audio, in a format that mirrors the way audiences might have actually heard it over the radio in the 1950s, made it all the more authentic.”

While the podcast is “inspired by” real events, its need to be entertaining leads it to overplay story lines about FBI Agent Bergin’s deteriorating marriage, his wife’s adultery and alcoholism, and Bergin’s affair with an insider on the film production team to better spy on their work.  Maybe Bergin would have succeeded in killing off the film had he not been so distracted in his private life.  Whatever, the film (which was attacked by a congressman as a national security threat, “a new weapon for Russia,”) did get made but the conspiracy to limit its U.S. distribution did the most damage.  Was it simple-minded “agitprop?  Not really.  It was a cry for equality and human dignity, and a remarkable feminist statement for its time, without any crude calls for workers to arise and take control of the means of production!

(Mark Twain probably did not say that “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” But whoever did say it would likely agree that the current controversy over the (alleged) anti-Israel documentary film No Other Land bears some similarity to the attempt to suppress Salt of the Earth 70+ years ago.  The New York Times reported on March 15, 2025: “Miami Beach Mayor Seeks to Oust Theater Over Film.”  The city wants to revoke the lease of a non-profit art house cinema for showing a film “that is not consistent with the values of our city and residents.” The film, which recently won the Oscar for documentaries, has not yet acquired a U.S. distributor. The creators of Salt of the Earth were so aggressively harassed over the making, editing, promoting and showing of their film that it has almost no exposure throughout the U.S., but some success in foreign countries, and no damage to our national security resulted…..just a blow to the First Amendment.)

How does one watch the Salt of the Earth film?  It is available for free on “You Tube” or on DVD from libraries.  How does one listen to the podcast The Big Lie?  It is available through audible.com (a subsidiary of Amazon); a 30-day free trial can be obtained in order to listen to “The Big Lie” and then you can cancel your account.  Subscribers to “Amazon Prime” may also have access to Audible’s programs as part of the subscription.

So, what is a podcast?  It is radio on steroids.  It is an audio file, i.e., program, which you listen to on your smartphone, computer, or any other suitable device by selecting it with a podcasting “App.”  You can “follow” a particular podcast series so the  App will send you all future episodes.  You can “subscribe” to those that charge a fee, although many podcasts are free.  And you can fast-forward through the ads, if a podcast is sponsored, and are free to listen to each episode whenever you like.

Talk radio has moved to the “right” (except for public broadcasting) but the podcasting world offers a Tower of Babel (or babble?) of political commentary, as well as programming in arts, culture (high and low), sports, history, and many other fields. There are several million active podcasts at this time, compared with around 15,000 licensed U.S. radio stations (AM, Commercial FM, and Non-Commercial FM).  The cost to become a podcaster is de minimis.  The “scarcity” rationale for licensing and regulation of radio and TV is not applicable to podcasts; an unlimited number of them can co-exist.  Therefore, podcasting is unregulated.  The only relevant rule is Caveat emptor!

As for labor and labor history, podcasts such as the following are available:

Our sister organization, the Illinois Labor History Society, has partnered with The Rick Smith Show, a pro-labor radio show, to produce “Labor History in 2:00,” a daily podcast just two minutes long about a person or event in labor history.

Class Matters is a podcast produced by the Debs-Jones-Douglass Institute.

Labor History Today is a weekly podcast produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.

Labor Radio -Podcast Daily is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network, which brings together radio shows and podcasts from around the world that speak to workers’ issues.

WORK! Exploring the Future of Work, Labor and Employment is produced by the Cornell ILR School.

These podcasts can be accessed by entering their names into the Search tool in any podcast “App”; a search for the words “Labor History” or “Labor Unions” will disclose additional podcasts.

Conclusion:

Should you give The Big Lie a listen?  Yes, if you would like to test the podcast experience.  Yes, if you’d like to experience a re-creation of old-time radio drama. No, if you are a stickler for historical accuracy and are not tolerant of the poetic license used by creators of historical fiction, regardless of its media.  As I recommended in a recent review of a novel about Trotsky, it is a good idea to supplement your consumption of works that are “inspired by” history or are “history written with lightning” (as Pres. Wilson described The Birth of a Nation) with some actual history written by bona fide historians.  In this case, one can read The Suppression of Salt of the Earth:  How Hollywood, Big Labor, and Politicians Blacklisted a Movie in Cold War America, by James J. Lorence (The University of New Mexico Press, 1999), or Salt of the Earth: The Story of a Film, by Herbert Biberman (Harbor Electronic Publishing, 2003). Biberman was not a historian but was the “Hollywood Ten” industry veteran, and blacklist victim, who directed Salt of the Earth.

Reviewed by Keith Danish, the Book Review & Newsletter Editor of the New York Labor History Association.