The Story of Journalism part 2: Journalism in Movies

One of the biggest scandals in the 20th century was the Watergate. As you have already known about this scandal, it was about a group of burglar broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Washington, D.C., Watergate Office Building. At first, many people only believed it was a regular burglary. But when all the suspects came to the court, they revealed their jobs. One of them said he worked for CIA. And BAM! The rest is history. The Watergate came to the light, thanks to two great journalists, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, from the Washington Post (This is my goal in the future). I know about the Watergate when I watched movie "All The President's Men" in my film class during high school. It has been staying in my head since then. I started explore what happened in the Watergate and how it was exposed. The image of Bob Woodward (played by Robert Redford) and Carl Bernstein (played by Dustin Hoffman) together tried to mend all the pieces of puzzle in the Watergate is more than the image of Marvel superheroes. It is beautiful. “All The President’s Men” is a great movie and a priceless lesson for every journalist in the public affair. It has changed much in journalism since the Watergate era and is not the same anymore. Together, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein looked for evidence, sources, and information without technology. Most importantly, they covered this story by themselves without the help of anyone. Woodward and Bernstein took risks, even their lives, to uncover the truth behind the Watergate scandal, which brought down former President Richard Nixon and his men. In one scene where Woodward met Deep Throat, he told Woodward to "follow the money" when Woodward was stuck in this story. Yes, just follow the money, there would be lead and evident to support the investigation. My journalism professor at Cal State Fullerton, who used to work for The New York Times, usually told us to follow the money when it comes to the stories related to election, council meeting, education, city budget, and many more.

Source: IMDb

Journalism back in the day focused on the fact and the reliability of many different sources, and there was no bias. It created an impact on society where people can trust the news. Back then, journalists focused more on the story they were covering and were passionate about the job. If back then newspapers, televisions, and radios were the ways to help people get information, the internet, and social media have taken over. That creates more opportunities for everyone to access news and find stories to cover. But not all of them are true. It makes news more chaotic and more biased. Many journalists don’t even bother to fact-check their information without knowing if the notification is accurate or if they want to choose a side to write a story. Sometimes, journalists may exaggerate their stories to be more dramatic. All of those make journalism more challenging in delivering the news.

Recently, I did a movie review on Citizen Kane, which is also a movie about journalism but it is the story of a newspaper mogul. Foster Kane. I think the movie is based on the real life mogul, William Randolph Hearst, the man who's behind the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. And he had Hearst castle, which is right now an attraction for the visitors to come.

Source: Rotten Tomatoes

Throughout the movie, I admired the journalism business when it was in its golden age. It could help anyone richer. Every journalist was hunger to news and satisfy the readers with groundbreaking news fresh out from the oven. I think because one is that at that time, there were wars happening and they needed all updates on what was going on, and the other reason is that they didn't have any update on news immediately because there was no phone. They had to wait until the next day to find out. Another thing that I loved watching Citizen Kane is that it had an accurate prediction about the future. It gave me a closer look of a newspaper mogul could have a deep impact on the daily life, especially on politician. Kane reminded me of Rupert Murdoch, the man behind Fox News. Murdoch had hands of Midas in term of media. Everywhere he touched, it turned into gold, which means it benefits someone who needs Murdoch's help and his media empire. From newspapers to television.

In the 2016 Academy Award, Best Picture went to Spotlight. This movie only won two Oscars. Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture. But the true story behind it is definitely something to focus on. Spotlight is the real look of what it means to be a journalist. It is a complicated story that the journalists from The Boston Globe had to cover and dig deeper into because it happened a long time ago. It got involved in the church and the Roman Catholic priests where they harassed children in the Boston area. The story was shocking and unbelievable. The job of the Spotlight team is finding out the truth, gathering all the information around this case, interviewing people who got involved, and bringing this story out of the light. When watching this movie, the viewers can see how hard it is to investigate this case and once again, tell the best qualities of journalism.

Finding sources and information is a difficult job for the Spotlight team. Everything is being covered up by the church and people and things are being pushed into the dead end. The team began to look for information from the past by checking old pieces of news in old newspapers. The scene where some women gathered all the documents, previous articles that related to the case from the archive. The team, later on, tried to make it in one collect the necessary information. It is a good way to find the sources and the leads because the case happened many years ago. Sasha found out an important victim through the archive, who was Phil Saviano, the head of the victims' rights group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). From that, the team is led to widen their search to thirteen priests and expand their investigating.

Not only the victim, the team also approached lawyers and attorneys. Robby and Sasha met an attorney representing victims of sexual abuse, Eric MacLeish, to talk about the case. From the law’s perspective, the lawyer will explain the circumstance of the victims and how the lawyer sees this case. That is a good story. The reporters should see from other point of views in order to have a clearest picture of what they are about to write.

The Spotlight team expanded the investigation when they learn through Richard Sipe, a former priest who worked to rehab sexually abusive priests, that Sipe's discoveries indicate that there are about 90 abusive priests in Boston, which was shocking news. This information told that this is the church, where to worship God and deliver the words of God; yet, they smeared and did that unforgivable sin. Through their research, the team developed a list of 87 names and began to find victims. Each source is important and necessary because they are the string attaching all the stories together.

Source: IMDb

Even though, the Spotlight team always showed their toughness in front of every situation. But when they talked to the victims of abuse, they could feel their pain and what they had been through at that dark time. No one deserved to be treated like that. In one scene where Sasha talked to Joe Crowley in the restaurant, Crowley told that the priest “molested” him. Sasha told Crowley to be more specific because this is the newspaper and people need to know what happen. There is something in Crowley’s voice that he was afraid of telling the story or he hesitated because it was the pain that Crowley had been through. Sasha showed her empathy and understood Crowley. A pain in which he could never recover.

In another scene where Phil Saviano, the head of the victims' rights group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), came to The Boston Globe to talk to the Spotlight team. He said the harassment was not only about the physical, but also about the spiritual. He indicated that the church hid behind the place of worshiping God in order to do bad things and lied to people. Saviano got mad because he gave the Boston Globe a lead and they turned him down What Saviano said begins from the experience he had been through and he understood many people knew but ignored it. When victims like him tried to speak out, others tried to shut them off. It can relate to today’s situation where many victims of sexual harassment came up but majorities did not believe in them. The Spotlight team after hearing the story of Saviano felt empathy and needed to investigate to the end to help other victims.

Empathy is very important when standing in the side of the victims. The pain is too big. The reporters may not understand that pain but at least what they can do is sympathize with them and create trust between both and help the victim.

The Spotlight team understood their mission, and knew that if they did not publish this, the lies would still stay low. Despite what might happen to them or the difficulties that they might face, the team still worked really hard to deliver the story to the audience. For example, during the investigation, the 9/11 event happened tragically and everyone was only focusing on the event. The investigation on the harassment was put on hold. The team understood it but they would not let this case be forgotten. By any chance, it should be published. The community, the country, the society need to know what happened. They deserved to know the truth and they needed to be aware of all the dangers. In the scene where Robby did not want to publish the story yet because the story was only from Law, Mike Rezendes said that it was the time and it could be anyone. What he meant was that if this piece of the story did not come out on time, there would be more victims suffering the same thing.

In 2022, She Said is one of the best movies that I watched that year. The story related to the recent event of Harvey Weinstein and the toxic Hollywood. Many women were raped and sexually harassed by Weinstein but they couldn't speak up because there was an empire ready to destroy their lives. Not only that, if women didn't satisfy Weinstein, he would use his connection to ruin their careers. It was unbearable. Two journalists from the New York Times, Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor, brought the story out to the light. They interviewed everyone who was the victim of Weinstein and even the people who helped him to cover. They understood that they could face many dangers but they had no other choice. If they didn't do it, the dark secret would have been forever stayed in the dark. Because of the investigating report, the whole MeToo, Time's Up, and Never Again broke out everywhere. The victims of sexual harassment began to speak up all the people who did those horrendous things to them. The last scene of She Said is the most powerful scene ever. All the important editors at the New York Times gathered around in front of the computer screen and hit Publish. And just like that, the story had begun.

Source: IMDb

Journalism in movie is always a theme that movie directors would like to explore. It doesn't need to be based on a true story. It could be a love story like It Happened One Night, where Clark Gable, a journalist, fell in love with Claudette Colbert, a rich girl who ran away. A Philadelphia Story, where Katherine Hepburn had to stand at the crossroad of three men, her fiance, her ex-husband, and a journalist, played by Jimmy Stewart. It had a story to tell and I hope there will be more journalism movie in the future. See you in the next post.