“DEMOCRACY dies in darkness.”
That is the slogan of The Washington Post, a leading newspaper in the United States published out of Washington D.C., and the subject of Steven Spielberg’s latest film The Post.
For history buffs, the film tackles one of the lingering mental and emotional wounds of American society—the Vietnam War. A stinging loss by the United States, the Vietnam War continues to haunt the American consciousness and has been the painful subject of countless of films, books, TV shows and speeches. It is a war in which all military involvement by the US in foreign shores is now measured against.
And in this film, it provides the backdrop for Spielberg’s opus on journalism and the continuing need for a free and unfettered press.
Not one to expound on how and why he is attracted to a certain film project, the famed director, in an interview with The Guardian, cited the main reason for making The Post: “The level of urgency to make the movie was because of the current climate of [the Trump] administration, bombarding the press and labeling the truth as fake if it suited them.” He added that he felt particularly offended at factual events or information, which could be proven, being labeled as fake. “I deeply resented the hashtag ‘alternative facts,’ because I’m a believer in only one truth, which is the objective truth.”
(Spoilers from hereon!) In the film, Katharine Graham (Meryl Streep) is trying to take her family-owned newspaper public. By opening up The Washington Post to outside investors, Graham would be guaranteeing her paper’s survival with a fresh infusion of capital, and keep its editorial staff employed for at least five more years. But everyone thinks she is out of her depth, being at the helm of this “local paper.” She is, after all, just a socialite and homemaker who is suddenly saddled with running a company after her husband kills himself.
The other protagonist in this film is the legendary Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks), The Post’s executive editor, who is grappling with a dearth of good ledes from his staff. (His biggest headache at the beginning of the film is the banning of the paper’s White House correspondent from the wedding of Patricia Nixon, daughter of then-President Richard Nixon. Yes, back then, political reporters, not lifestyle writers, covered the weddings of politicians and their children.)
Bradlee gets antsy. Being a seasoned journalist, he senses The New York Times (NYT) publishing a scoop soon because one of its leading reporters has been MIA, which could only mean he’s working on something important.
And it comes to pass: on the day most newspapers in the US publish a story about the wedding of Patricia Nixon, NYT publishes the first of a series of explosive pieces based on an internal study made by the Department of Defense on the extent of the US’s involvement in Vietnam from 1945-1967. The study, dubbed The Pentagon Papers, also traces the apparent flawed decision-making process that kept the US in the war, despite policy-makers knowing fully well their government wouldn’t win it.
After Attorney General John Mitchell successfully gets an injunction against the NYT, preventing it from further publishing more pieces based on the study, The Washington Post gets the chance to pursue it after they get access to the document. The film thereafter delves into a conflict and struggle between Graham, a personal friend of Defense Secretary Robert McNamara who had commissioned the study; the newspaper’s lawyers, and Bradlee in publishing excerpts from the study. Graham’s lawyers press her to be practical: publishing the study could jeopardize the newspaper’s public offering. But Bradlee pushes the ideals of journalism: printing the truth in the face of an administration trying to muzzle the press. (In one of the film’s quiet moments between Bradlee and Graham, each one accusing the other about their cozy relationships with White House personalities, Bradlee makes the decision to stop being a friend to them and renew his commitment to be the objective journalist the times need.)
In the end, Graham finds the strength to do what is right, supports her editorial staff and green lights the publication of the critical study. The effort leads them to the Supreme Court, pitting the federal government against the media, and the latter wins.
(Justice Hugo Black, in that landmark 6-3 decision that reinforced the press’s right from prior restraint, said: “In the First Amendment, the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the governors.”)
Spielberg also tries to make a commentary on women’s rights and feminism. In many portions of the film, Graham is constantly shown being surrounded by men who are condescending toward her, thus reinforcing her own feelings of inferiority in making decisions. Prior to Graham, no woman had ever held the top post of a newspaper. But after their appearance at the Supreme Court, Graham is seen going down its steps, amid a phalanx of admiring women. (In real life, there were no such crowds outside the steps of the Supreme Court, only Graham and Bradlee walking out with huge smiles on their faces. But that scene is Spielberg just being Spielberg.)
It’s difficult to watch The Post without tearing up and being completely overwhelmed by feelings of dissent, rebelliousness, and renewed passion and commitment to truth and objectivity.
Having been a journalist for close to 30 years, I couldn’t help but think of how our industry has undergone tumultuous changes and faced numerous challenges, especially here in the Philippines. That the film is shown just at the time the nation is commemorating the 32nd anniversary of the Edsa People Power Revolution, which gave back press freedom to our country, is ironic. (A high-ranking government official recently branded the Edsa Revolt as a product of “fake news.”)
Comparisons to the days then, and to what new struggles our industry is now undergoing, can’t be helped. The film helped me recall, when I was just starting my career, how reporters had a dogged persistence to work their own stories, how editors inspired and motivated us to turn in a good investigative pieces or just excellent news stories every day, and newspaper owners or publishers never lost their nerve and would publish critical news and opinion pieces, regardless of who may get hurt.
The Post is a film about how a local newspaper finally found its voice and became one of the world leaders in excellent political reporting. It’s a timely reminder for those of us in the profession—that when we fail to raise vital issues that matter in our life as a nation, we not only become pawns for fleeting personalities with less-than-noble causes, but also help extinguish the flames of democracy and the ideals on which our Constitution was founded.