If the fourth estate is on the ropes—beaten
and bloodied by the economic realities that come with delivering news
in the social media (and ad block) era—then the movies, especially big,
bright, fictional Oscar-bait movies, haven’t found out yet. Part of this
is a fear of “bloggers,” part of this is a clear sympathy for
portraying (mostly male) journalists as heroes, brave people bucking the
system across the board.
There are the occasional outliers—Shattered Glass (the story of fabulist former-New Republic associate editor Stephen Glass, starring Hayden Christensen)—but beyond the depths of television and documentaries, like the fifth season of The Wire (where Tom McCarthy, the director of Spotlight, played the resident fabulist journalist), and Laura Poitras’ gripping documentary on Edward Snowden, Citizenfour, pop culture is invested in portraying ink-stained wretches as noble fighters for the truth.
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/123300/spotlight-celebrates-journalists-who-exposed-clergy-sex-abuse
There are the occasional outliers—Shattered Glass (the story of fabulist former-New Republic associate editor Stephen Glass, starring Hayden Christensen)—but beyond the depths of television and documentaries, like the fifth season of The Wire (where Tom McCarthy, the director of Spotlight, played the resident fabulist journalist), and Laura Poitras’ gripping documentary on Edward Snowden, Citizenfour, pop culture is invested in portraying ink-stained wretches as noble fighters for the truth.
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/123300/spotlight-celebrates-journalists-who-exposed-clergy-sex-abuse
