Journalism: Glory, Agony

The 10 best journalism films show the peaks and collapse of the Fourth Estate. They also help explain two record lows: 60 percent of Americans no longer trust the media while 75 percent believe government corruption is widespread. 

If you're an aspiring journalist, in public relations (or just trying to figure out the industry), watch these films.  Two are currently in the theater while the rest are widely available on DVD, Netflix or Amazon Prime. As a body of work, they show journalism's best and worst, its rise and fall, the glory and the agony. 

Journalism, in one word? Truth. As Knight Newspapers founder Jack Knight taught his reporters: "Get the truth and print it.''

Often, seeking truth involves challenging preconceived notions and skeptically questioning leaders and institutions.

This "Best Journalism films'' list also represents the many institutions the press has challenged (and humbled): the Presidency and all levels of politicians, the legal system,  the Church, big corporations, individuals and the media itself.

Half of the 10 best journalism films star two actors, Robert Redford and Michael Keaton (Keaton and Redford each star in one of the two 2015 releases included here). Together, this group shows the press at its best and what's killing traditional media.

In two of the 10 films (Redford's All the President's Men from 1976 and Keaton's new Spotlight film, which takes place in 2001) reporters and their editors initially can't believe the scale and severity of wrongdoing they've encountered until it's fully investigated and reported. Both films were or will be major award winners.

Unfortunately, one reason faith in most institutions is at an all-time low: Americans are no longer as shocked or surprised by scandals and now seem to expect the worst before all the facts are in.

In Truth, Absence of Malice, Shattered Glass and Broadcast News, we see that the media can't always be totally trusted either. Public confidence in nearly every institution, particularly government and the press itself, are at all-time lows (just four in 10 trust the media today).

Does the media sometimes focus on "getting'' someone they perceive to be a bad guy or corrupt institution? Absolutely, but reporters and editors also pride themselves on being right, accurate and fair (the good guys).

Does bias and filtering sometimes blind people to their own shortcomings? All the time and we see that in these films as well.

The following films are my 10 favorite (along with a few bonuses worth watching) broken up between role model films and "warts and all'' films:

Journalism at its best: Why we become reporters

 

1. All the President's Men (1976).

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92 percent.

All the President's Men is on every "Best Journalism Film'' list for a reason. It tells the one story that most often inspires people to become reporters: how two young reporters cracked the Watergate case, leading to the resignation of Richard Nixon. 

Journalism school enrollment soared in the years after this film showed people all the great and noble reasons people should become reporters. 

Quotes: "Run that baby'' and "Follow the money.'' 

 

2. Spotlight (2015)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93 percent.

This year's Spotlight is frequently compared to All the President's Men because it similarly (and realistically) tells the true story of The Boston Globe investigative journalism team (including Ben Bradlee Jr., son and namesake of The Washington Post editor depicted in All the President's Men).

Both show journalists at their best.

Instead of a White House coverup, the Globe's Spotlight team effectively showed how church leaders covered up the behavior of sinful priests over several decades. The film also shows how everyone, journalists included, can ignore bigger pictures even when all the pieces are before their eyes. Often, it takes an outsider to offer a fresh perspective and connect the dots.

Writers often see things no one else notices then explain them to the rest of us.

The biggest  difference between Spotlight and All the President's Men? Every organization today has the ability to develop its own thought leadership through owned media, allowing the church to fire back effectively, showing every detail the newspaper editors and film producers got wrong. 

Quotes: "We need to focus on the institution. Show me that it came from the top down.'' ... "They don't have the power. We have the power."... "The Church thinks in centuries. Does you paper have the power to take that on?'' 

 

3. The Paper (1994)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88 percent.

Michael Keaton's first newspaper film, The Paper, is more than 20-years-old but effectively shows the newspaper culture, with an all-star ensemble cast tracking the lives of a newspaper editor and his wife through a 24-hour period.

The Paper does a stellar job of showing how "the page 1 high'' of journalism fixates journalists on their work, often taking a serious toll on their family lives. It also shows how journalists have the ability to change the world in a day and occasionally right wrongs inflicted by the mistakes of public servants.

Quote: "I've gotta get the quote.'' ... "They talk. You write. We print.''

 

4. Up Close and Personal. 

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 29 percent. 

Robert Redford's second journalism film, Up Close and Personal, is a highly fictionalized and re-written version of the story of NBC's Jessica Savitch. The most romantic of the great journalism films, it was widely panned by cynical critics but I like it anyway. 

It nevertheless shows the dynamic between mentor and gifted pupil as well as the glorious and dirtier (and phonier) sides of TV news and the all-too-common romances that begin in newsrooms. Another theme: The need for glory (being a star) can get in the way of the greater need for truth.

Quotes: "We are only as good as the stories we tell''... "She eats the sense.''

Journalism: Warts and All

 

1. Citizen Kane (1941)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100 percent. 

Considered one of the greatest films of all time, Citizen Kane loosely tells the story of newspaper baron William Randolph Hearst and his empire that changed journalism, ginning up  interest in rooting out corruption and fueling anger to get America into the Spanish-American War.

Want to see the best and worst of what a newspaper can do? Watch Citizen Kane, which stretches from the end of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century as mass media emerged. Want to know how those efforts can engulf a life? Or how power and pride corrupts? Watch this film.

Quotes: "Rose-bud''  ... "I run a couple of newspapers. What do you do?''

 

2. Broadcast News (1987)

 Rotten Tomatoes Score: 98 percent.

The corporatization of the news is center stage in Broadcast News. For decades, the news was aired as a public service but then the networks began focusing on making news content profitable, cost effective and more entertaining.

Broadcast News shows how business wormed its way into a calling that (sometimes self righteously) considered itself sacred.

Decades before NBC anchor Brian Williams was forced to step aside for lying to inflate his pedigree, we see a "pretty boy'' anchor faking tears and needing the help of better-educated producers to appear to know what he's talking about. 

Quote: "He personifies everything you've been fighting against. And I'm in love with you. How do you like that? I buried the lead.'' 

 

3. The Insider

(1999) Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96 percent 

The media vs. Big Tobacco and the power of 60 Minutes are at the center of The Insider starring Al Pacino and Russel Crowe. And what happens when it's ultimately two corporations, CBS and the tobacco companies, battling each other?

Do giant corporations pull the strings and kill stories? The Insider shows an all-out war pitting powerful corporations and the people who get in the way, either intentionally or unintentionally.

Quotes: "I'm Lowell Bergmann, I'm from 60 Minutes. You know, you take the 60 Minutes out of that sentence, nobody returns your phone call.'' ... "I don't plan to spend the end of my days wandering in the wilderness of National Public Radio.''

 

4.  Absence of Malice  (1981)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 86 percent

My first journalism instructor at Michigan State University was former Detroit News Executive Editor Bill Giles, who taught us one lesson repeatedly: "Don't Get Used.''

Journalists, unfortunately, get used all the time. But they hate being used or manipulated and strive to be correct. 

Absence of Malice shows how newspapers and public officials use each other as well as the power of the press to ruin individuals.  Written by former Detroit Free Press Editor Kurt Luedtke, the story demonstrates how the press needs to be accurate (but not necessarily tell a true story) to be absent of any malice and legally protected.

Paul Newman and Sally Field go to battle and become lovers in a mystery story involving the Mob, the government and the power and shortcomings of the press, lawyers and the law. And of course, the film shows what happens when lines are crossed and little people get crushed in the process. 

Quotes: "We have no knowledge the story is false, therefore we're absent malice. We've been both reasonable and prudent. Therefore we're not negligent. We can say what we like about him. He can't do us harm. Democracy is served.'' ... True? "No. But it's accurate.''

 

5. Truth (2015)  

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 58 percent.

It's hard to watch Truth without crying as we see the fall of Dan Rather producer Mary Mapes (and journalism, in general), told from her point of view yet we still see what's changed since Broadcast News debuted more than a quarter century ago. Even with the best of intentions, journalists still make huge mistakes.

The best thing about online journalism is that it can fixed and updated instantly but it can be fact-checked for accuracy just as quickly by adversaries.

Rather tells Mapes how 60 Minutes showed networks that news could be profitable and how the pressure to be right gave way to the need to make money. We also see clearly how news organizations no longer have anything close to a monopoly.

Bloggers and millions of citizen journalists and social media commenters can instantly "fact check'' and unravel the work of journalists, destroying the old monopoly power and prestige journalists once enjoyed.

The old adage that you can't fight someone who buys ink by the barrel has become far less relevant in an age where anyone can print their story - and immediate reaction - online and even debate right where the story lives.

Quote: "CBS wants to appoint an independent panel to look at how the story was put together and I'm gonna announce it tomorrow. I'm going to apologize for the story, on air.''

 

6. Shattered Glass (2003)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91 percent

Shattered Glass spotlights the rapid rise of New Republic reporter Stephen Glass, who boldly told stem-winding stories no one else had. The problem? They weren't true and Glass' career and credibility shattered.

The film also accurately depicts "fact checking" (itself under fire today) and the absolute need of journalists and sources to trust and count on each other. For centuries, newspapers all had their own "point of view'' but during the Mass Media era of media consolidation (much of the 20th century), news outlets (often monopolies) strived to be fair and at least try to be down the middle.

Since the splintering of mass media in the Internet era, media outlets have widely shifted back to including more of their own point of view, fueling the Red State/Blue State divide and making each side challenge and question the reliability and credibility of the other. In the process, trust has dropped rapidly.

Glass, showing his ability to make a case (even if it didn't happen to be true) left journalism for Law School. 

Quotes: "Did you ever lie to me?''... "I didn't do anything wrong!"

Bonus: Three more journalism films and one good PR film definitely worth watching 

 

Continental Divide (1981)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 78 percent

Relationships, conflict and culture clash are at the heart of good journalism and are showcased well in this John Belushi film that tells the story of tough Chicago columnist Ernie Souchak (based loosely on Mike Royko) going after corrupt politicians then hiding in the Rockies to do a feature story. He falls for his opposite, a mountain woman researcher.

Quote: "To live in Chicago, you have to learn that you only survive by understanding your opponent.'' 

 

Good Night, and Good Luck (2005)  

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93 percent.

While it sometimes seems a little too preachy,  Good Night and Good Luck takes place in the 1950s, showing the power and heroism of Edward R. Murrow, who challenged McCarthyism as well as tobacco and other powers of his era. CBS became the "Tiffany Network'' in part because of the high standards Murrow set on both radio and TV.

Quote: "We will not walk in fear, one of another.''

 

Frost/Nixon (2008)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92 percent

A single presentation or media interview can make or or break a career and Frost/Nixon shows the famous David Frost post-Watergate interviews of Richard Nixon, which could have launched a Nixon comeback or served as a trial for his pardoned crimes depending on which warrior came off stronger.

In the end, the power of persona prevails and one "takeaway moment'' that is better remembered than the rest changes everything. That is frequently the case with media stories and this film shows why solid interviews and good conversations will always matter.

Quote: "... that was before I really understood the reductive power of the close-up, because David had succeeded on that final day, in getting for a fleeting moment what no investigative journalist, no state prosecutor, no judiciary committee or political enemy had managed to get; Richard Nixon's face swollen and ravaged by loneliness, self-loathing and defeat. The rest of the project and its failings would not only be forgotten, they would totally cease to exist."

 

Thank you for Smoking (2006)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 86 percent. 

Thank you for Smoking is also a journalism story except it's told from the point of view of a lobbyist for big tobacco, who teaches his son how he keeps protecting his clients and winning cases in the court of public opinion with the help of media and the film industry.

The film (even better than the book) teaches much about the highs and lows of public relations people who seek to smooth out and shine up the rough edges of the truth.

Quotes: "I talk.''... "Write whatever you want... If you argue correctly, you're never wrong.''