I had a chance to watch "The Post," Steven Spielberg's 2017 film version of the Washington Post's publication of the Department of Defense's study of the Vietnam War that became known collectively as "The Pentagon Papers."
The movie isn't perfect - it omitted details I thought should have been included - but it got many of the details right and is worth viewing. (I'm typically several years behind in my movie viewing, mostly because I don't care much for Hollywood's productions of the past 25 years. But that's me.)
"The Post" reminds us a lot was at stake for news-reporting in the U.S at the time, and the fight being waged involved the First Amendment and Freedom of the Press.
It was a fight that culminated in a U.S. Supreme Court decision clearing the way for legal publication of the documents. One justice wrote, a free press is intended to "serve the governed, not the government." Chew on that for a minute.
The movie also reminds us that Katharine Graham, publisher of the Washington Post at the time, had more courage and personal integrity in the early 1970s than most business leaders, male and female, have today.
Graham defied a court-order halting the New York Times from publishing additional reports based on the Pentagon Papers and authorized The Post to print its own reports using the prohibited documents. Newspapers across the country subsequently followed her lead.
The movie reminds us that lies, deceptions and falsehoods from the White House and the Pentagon are not new, but have been with our country for a long time.
During the days depicted in "The Post" successive White House administrations and the Pentagon misrepresented the truths about the Vietnam War but also deceived the public about the war in Laos.
Beginning in 2001 and continuing for 20 years successive administrations and the Pentagon lied to us about our progress in Afghanistan, and we all know how that episode ended. (Read "The Afghanistan Papers" by Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post, you should.)
Makes one wonder about the reliability of what the Pentagon and the White House are telling us about Ukraine or the Nord Stream pipeline.
(Do you believe the pipeline's destruction was an accident or the work of Ukrainian special forces or do you think reporter Seymour Hersh accurately established that the Biden White House ordered US operatives to destroy the pipeline as part of our proxy war with Russia?)
Sadly, those who question or challenge the official version of things today are labeled cranks, conspiracy theorists, and worse. They are banned from popular social-media platforms and "canceled" from their jobs.
Much of corporate media today appears to be in bed with one of our national political parties, all but ignoring that party's missteps, while finding only flaws with our second national political party.
How and why did much of the national media ignore the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio for more than a week? To be clear, much of the media ignored the story until 1.1 million pounds of vinyl chloride, a toxic chemical, were set afire within the boundaries of the small town.
I try to be optimistic, but I doubt news-reporting will ever return to the days of quality and integrity, the days depicted in "The Post." I hope I am wrong about that.
In the meantime it is so very important for each of us to question, question, and question those we elect to public office and those who serve in the shadows - the people who take us to war and kill others on our behalf.
-- Thank you for reading. Please post a comment here or email me at kbotterman@gmail.com.
