Reasons to Hate 'Page One'
"The Times newsroom, like most corporate nerve centers, is a labyrinth of intrigue, gossip, back-biting, rumor, false piety, rampant ambition, betrayal and deception. Those who play this game well are repugnant. They are also usually the people who run the place."
—This is a pretty brutal take-down of the documentary Page One, written by Chris Hedges, and to be fair, the film really has it coming. It is also a pretty nasty and appropriate attack on Bill Keller, who was indeed a war cheerleader. (Never forget!) In the film, the main characters—David Carr, Brian Stelter and Captain Eye Candy, Tim Arango—come off great and are shown to their best. The film itself, as a documentary, is a disaster-piece, in part for some of the more political reasons brought up here.
Hoo boy thank you for this, especially:
Careerists pay lip service to the stated ideals of the institution, which are couched in lofty rhetoric about balance, impartiality and neutrality, but astutely grasp the actual guiding principle of the paper, which is: Do not significantly alienate the corporate and political power elite on whom the institution depends for access and money. Those who master this duplicitous game do well. Those who cling tenaciously to a desire to tell the truth, even at a cost to themselves and the institution, become a management problem.
#journalism!
#greekdrama
Okay, but how is the documentary? In the non-political, interesting sense?
David Carr was on Bill Maher's show recently. I've never seen him on talky-talk shows, so I could be wrong when I say he looked fucking trashed – like a cautionary tale about green room booze.
'Page One' was a good movie if you take it for what it is. If you take it for what it was not, it's not a great movie.
The same could be said of lots of things.
I wanted to get to the part you quoted but I couldn't get through all of the parts where a person on the Internet pats himself on the back for being a person on the Internet.
Even when Chris Hedges is right, he's so downbeat about absolutely everything, it's like reading the drumbeat of Doom. Henny Penny the sky is falling 24/7/365. There's not enough valium in the world to keep me reading him on a regular basis.
Even when Chris Hedges is right, he's so downbeat about absolutely everything, it's like reading the drumbeat of Doom. Henny Penny the sky is falling 24/7/365. There's not enough valium in the world to keep me reading him on a regular basis.
I do find it odd that the only serious attacks on this picture come from Chris Hedges and the Times’s own review (by Kinsley).