Meryl Streep stars as 'Washington Post' publisher Kay Graham and Tom Hanks is editor Ben Bradlee in 'The Post,' director Steven Spielberg's drama about the Pentagon Papers. Fox
I didn’t expect to cry.
The story on the screen at AMC Avenue 16 theater No. 5 was familiar. I have worked beside brave journalists and courageous publishers standing up to government gone astray for almost 40 years, so nothing in the film "The Post" was new to me.
In 1971, the Supreme Court in New York Times Co. v. the United States, which came to include the Washington Post and The Times, ruled in favor of the newspapers’ right to publish unfettered by the government.
It is a case I have lectured about in training and classrooms in the United States and abroad for decades.
Yet, there I sat, tears rolling down my face when the Post’s publisher, Katharine Graham, depicted by Meryl Streep, ordered the presses to run with a story that could bring civil and criminal prosecution from the Nixon administration. And I cried again when she re-confirmed that decision to Executive Editor Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks) as press workers waited on deadline.
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The court case involved stories based upon documents — known as the Pentagon Papers, obtained by the newspapers from Daniel Ellsberg — that had been classified as top secret. The newspapers’ reports revealed that administrations going back 30 years had lied to the public about the Vietnam War, all while sending brave soldiers and sailors to their death.
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 against the Nixon administration, which had claimed it had the right to stop publication if the White House determined the story would hurt national defense.
Last year, actress Meryl Streep went viral when she delivered a speech about the importance of protecting the press. A speech that also criticized Donald Trump for mocking a disabled reporter. Buzz60
Justice Hugo Black concurred with the majority opinion, saying the First Amendment was very clear in establishing press freedoms: “The Government's power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the Government. The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people. Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government.”
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Those events are more than history to working American journalists; they are what we do. That is why I'm inviting 12 FLORIDA TODAY Insiders to join me to watch the movie this week. We'll talk about it afterward. I’ll buy the tickets and some popcorn.
If you are an Insider, visit floridatoday/insider to sign up. (Note: If you are a subscriber, you are an Insider. If you are not a subscriber, visit floridatoday/subscribe to sign up).
In the late 1990s, with far less at stake thanks to the Supreme Court’s 1971 decision in the Pentagon Papers case depicted in the film, as executive editor of the Herald-Dispatch in Huntington, West Virginia, we made the call to go to press with a story based in part on secret government documents that had been leaked to us.
It was our belief that the Clinton administration was willing to sacrifice two locals who were being held in dungeon-like conditions on the island-nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Rather than possibly upset its Caribbean trade-agreement talks, the administration classified as secret an investigation by its own State Department that showed the couple to be innocent. It did nothing to free them before our reporting.
The couple was charged with capital murder and could be hanged or simply die from the conditions. Our story, “Prisoners in Paradise,” also involved one of the first libel lawsuits – eventually dropped because what we reported was true – based on reporting published on the Internet.
Our reporter, Mark Truby, was saved from threatened arrest on the island when Sen. Jay Rockefeller arranged to have the U.S. Counsel in Barbados fly into St. Vincent to get Truby out.
Our reporting and subsequent media pressure forced a trial for the couple, who had been languishing in dreadful prison conditions. Truby returned to cover the trial. A St. Vincent court quickly freed the couple when the government had to admit it lacked evidence against them. When the verdict came in, and the couple was freed, their family and others came down to the newspaper building to celebrate.
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And, so, there I was sitting now in Theater No. 5, crying as I watched the Hollywood-version of a story that I knew so well, thinking of colleagues who risked so much to fight for the right to report the truth, even when it was unpopular, even when we knew we would face legal action and even when our personal reputations were at stake.
Meryl Streep has the most Golden Globe nominations of any actor in history Time
Whether you join me at the movies or go on your own, I hope you’ll see the film. When you do, I hope you’ll think about current and ongoing attacks on the American news industry by our government.
There is no place in government at any level for this, whether through court action, campaigns to discredit legitimate news reporting by screaming “fake news” or threats to manipulate broadcast licenses of unfriendly stations.
It all seems so reminiscent of the Nixon era. Now that’s something to cry about.
Gabordi is executive editor at FLORIDA TODAY and TCPalm. His direct dial number is 321-242-3607 and cell phone is 850-591-2229. He is @bgabordi on Twitter and /bgabordi on Facebook. You can also find him on LinkedIn. His email address is bgabordi@floridatoday.com.
President-elect Donald Trump went after Meryl Streep after her Golden Globe speech Sunday. Here are the major industry accolades Streep, deemed by Trump to be a “Hillary flunky who lost big,” has actually won across her 42-year career. Time