Truman Capote and the Nonfiction Novel

It is no surprise that Truman Capote's landmark novel, In Cold Blood, is considered a new genre for authors the world over. Never before has a nonfiction novel generated so much public interest and praise. Capote deftly blended the facts of a real situation with the prose of a fiction novel to tell the story of a gruesome murder. Many authors have used this mode of storytelling, known as the nonfiction novel or creative nonfiction, to great success. A lot of these novels achieve bestseller status and for good reason. For many people, a nonfiction novel is like reading a 60 minutes report. A book has that much more staying power when the reader knows it is a true story. But this new kind of writing can lead to a problem that doesn't affect fiction writers. Like this article suggests nonfiction novels can stray into fiction territory. Many people have claimed that Truman made up some of his book, but many more hold to his version as the version of truth. With fiction novels like A Million Little Lies claiming themselves to be nonfiction, it is hard for the public to distinguish between truth and lies. It didn't take long for people to abuse this new genre and it will be interesting to see how it plays itself out in the coming years.

Broadcast News

When watching Broadcast News I was really only struck by one thing, how much work goes into every production. The same goes for The Paper. Every night all the workers get together and put on a half hour play that they wrote the same day. It has to be timed down to the minute, it has to be accurate in its information, and most of all it has to be entertaining for the audience that is going to be watching it. It is no wonder that a majority of film and TV producers say that their job is stressful. And if Broadcast News seems like it was over the top, that maybe it was just a parody of the stresses of a newsroom this interview with Bob Schieffer should change your mind. Mr. Schieffer says that if anything Broadcast News is a documentary because of the great way it portrays the stresses of a news program. So whether you liked the movie or not, you cannot claim that it is inaccurate.

Edward R. Murrow

The advent of the television changed the way Americans gathered their news. The newspaper could be supplemented by a trusted news anchor every night. One of the most trusted names in news and a significant influence on all in the broadcast industry was Edward R. Murrow. The George Clooney directed Good Night and Good Luck details the most important moment of Murrow's career. Murrow ran a TV show called See It Now, a documentary series that influences shows like 60 Minutes today. In the aftermath of WWII America had communist fever and a senator from Wyoming, Senator Joseph McCarthy, was running all over accusing people of communism. Murrow and his crew decided to stand up to him by producing a broadcast that showed McCarthy often contradicted himself. This resulted in a huge controversy and a feud between McCarthy and Murrow broke out. But the truth won out and Murrow's efforts are considered a turning point in television history. The film is a wonderful docudrama that is well-acted, superbly paced and brilliant in its construction. I believe it is a great learning tool for citizens that want to know about a difficult time in our history, as well as teaching them about the dangers of fear mongering and the ability of the press to protect the innocent.

Interview: Journalist's Favorite Movies

  The second professional reporter I interviewed was my very own neighbor Jeannie Stromgren who has “had 30 years of on-air and print writing experience for local, network and national stations and publications.” Jeannie’s first favorite journalism movie is Ace in the Hole. She said that previous newspaper films portrayed the business as “wacky fun”.” Ace in the Hole changed that by showing “unlikeable characters doing shameless things.” Jeannie thinks the film has an importance because “it exposes the unpleasant truth of how a "human interest story" is often milked for newspaper circulation.”

  Jeannie’s second favorite journalism film is Broadcast News. Jeannie has worked at “three television stations” and she was very impressed by how accurate Broadcast News is. The dysfunction of the characters, the hectic busyness of a newsroom and the believability of the situations give the film credibility. Jeannie mentioned how James L. Brooks shadowed an actual TV producer and it shows in the film. Too often Hollywood gets it wrong but Broadcast News “gets it right.”

   Jeannie’s final favorite journalism movie (and one of my personal favorites) is Good Night and Good Luck. The riveting tale of Edward R. Murrow’s takedown of Senator McCarthy’s terror campaign is incredible. Jeannie says that “any journalist worth his salt has heard of Murrow and his groundbreaking work.” Jeannie says that, “George Clooney (of all people!) captures the methodical, smart, relentless way that Murrow pursued the truth behind McCarthy’s witch hunts.” I couldn’t agree more with her final statement that you know you’re watching a good film when you forget that you’re “watching a movie, and instead, become completely absorbed in the story.”

Interview: Journalist's Favorite Movies

            The first professional reporter I talked to was Alan Burke, a staff reporter over at the Salem News. The first movie Alan listed was His Girl Friday. Mr. Burke said that Friday shows the “atmosphere among reporters in the business.” Of course he made mention that Friday has some terrible morals but he loved the scene where the girl jumps out the window. He loved how she told off the reporters right before she does jump, they deserved every word because for them “misery is a commodity.”

            Mr. Burke’s second movie was All the President’s Men. He didn’t have too much to say about it except that the film showed the process of journalism very well. Mr. Burke made mention of how realistic it was how long they were on the phone during the movie, especially how difficult it is to interview people who don’t want to be interviewed.

            The final movie that Mr. Burke listed was The Sweet Smell of Success. The movie shows how much power a newspaper can have. Burt Lancaster’s character is based off of real life columnist Walter Winchell. Mr. Burke likes the film because of how it shows that truth does a lot of damage. Mr. Burke mentioned that when he was investigating things he found out some weird stuff about people. Revealing those things in a paper could become an issue for the readers. Mr. Burke also made quick mention of The Paper. I thought it was great that every movie he listed was one that I enjoyed when we watched it for this class.

All The President's Men and Good Journalism

All The President's Men is the first film we've seen that actually employs good journalism. The almost superhero journalist duo of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein went to great lengths to uncover one of the greatest presidential scandals in the history of the United States. They did it with determination, skill, and the know-how to uncover the facts they needed. It's good to teach students what they shouldn't do when it comes to journalism, but it is even better to show how they should do it. Watergate can be generally pointed to as the birth of investigative journalism. Something that 60 minutes capitalizes on weekly. How did two men with different personalities and character traits break the biggest story of the decade? All The Preisdent's Men gives the viewer the answer in every scene. The film does a great job of showing the time lapse between the start of the report and the finish. Woodward and Bernstein jump through multiple hoops just to even get approval from their editors. They make more phone calls than I have in my life to the same people over and over again. They get multiple sources to make sure the story is correct and they interview and re-interview witnesses to the crime. In the end the film isn't even about Watergate, it is about impressive journalism by two talented professionals. Every self-respecting journalist aspires to this level of integrity and reporting.

I saw this last night on Jon Stewart. Bill Moyer of PBS discusses good journalism: Part 1, Part 2

Conspiracy Theories and Sensationalism

Network and The Parallax View look to be completely unrelated. One is about a corrupt network who kill a man for lousy ratings instead of getting him help, because he is quite obviously insane. The other is about an American senator's assassination at the hands of a very large and organized secret assassin's company. The ridiculousness of that last statement is a testament to America's love of a good conspiracy. But how are these things related? In the beginning of this year Representative Gabrielle Giffords was shot by a crazed gunman. Fortunately for her and 13 other people, the wounds were not fatal. 6 more were not so lucky. The assailant, Jared Loughner, was quite obviously insane and showed numerous signs of mental illness. It was obvious that he acted alone and carried out the deed in broad daylight in front of numerous witnesses. That didn't stop conspiracy theorists from trying to claim the whole thing didn't happen. What drives people to this edge? When 99% of America believes this is an event that happened, why do 1% hold to a falsehood? Sensationalism is the answer. The greatest of all sensationalists today (and thankfully, recently fired) is Glenn Beck. Dana Milbank, of The Washington Post, explains why Beck lost his job even though he is one of the most popular TV personalities on Fox. The entire time I was watching Howard Beale lose it in Network I kept thinking of Glenn Beck. They both have wildly popular shows and they both cater to an audience that is mad as hell. Like Beale, Beck encourages his audience to do something about it, but Beck caters to conspiracy theories and I believe in many cases, can inadvertently promote them. Beck uses a blackboard to connect all of the crazy ideas he has in his mind, and it worked for a while. He rode the fear wave that comes out of a post 9/11 and post economic-collapse world. But like Howard Beale he eventually became a liability for the controversial things he was saying. I'm just glad Fox didn't take the route that UBS did in Network. Sensationalism can easily lead to conspiracy theories, but that just might be a conspiracy theory of my own.

Ace In The Hole

Ace in the Hole is a fantastic film about one journalist's determination to extend a story as far as it can go. He does this with the purpose of getting back on top of the newspaper game. Unfortunately his actions cause the death of the protagonist of his article. I believe that director Billy Wilder was saying something about the power of media influence in this film. That the media can significantly influence the outcome of a story. For Kirk Douglas in Ace in the Hole, it was the creation of a media firestorm that resulted in a tent city. I know that the media has a great potential for doing good, alerting the public to an important situation, but I wanted to see if there was any case where media overexposure worked badly. A recent story that came to mind for me was the issue of Obama's birth certificate. It was proven long ago that Obama had a birth certificate, he was born in the U.S. and he has every right to be the president since he was elected democratically. But, even so, many people cried out for his birth certificate, especially Donald Trump. Every news channel picked up the controversy, but there was no controversy. It was already proven that Obama had it, but the firestorm forced him to release a long form birth certificate anyways. Should the media have covered what many consider a non-story? I feel like this overexposure may have actually led more people into believing there was no birth certificate. I know that this is not as dramatic as a man's death like in Ace in the Hole, but it shows how overexposed some things can get. It is a tricky area for networks to balance what is important and what is too frivolous to really matter.

The Sweet Smell of J.J. Hunsecker

What is it about success that drives people to depravity? They make it seem like the only way to get it, is to sink to depths so low only the strongest, sickest man could climb out. Sidney Falco is a man willing to do that. J.J. Hunsecker is the man who has been there and found his way to the top. There is a very interesting dynamic between these two men. Sidney is a stray dog; cunning and vicious but without a place to lay his head. Hunsecker is the big dog, graciously allowing Sidney's clients into his much-read column. Sidney claims that he is in it for success, he wants to make it big. His actions show otherwise. When confronted by an important client of his about being a bad press agent, Sidney tells his own client off. All after ranting about how low he is on the totem pole. Sidney shows in the film that he is more cunning than this. He wouldn't just give up a client that easily. Later on in the film, Sidney uses his considerable wit to lure another promising client. But when the client finally decides he wants Sidney as a press agent, Sidney runs off because J.J. called him, telling the client to find another man. This is very self destructive behavior for a man wanting success. Sidney is as pretty as a movie star, but he prefers to play second fiddle. Sidney doesn't want success, he wants J.J. He needs approval from him, he likes playing the pet. Like J.J. needs his sister's love so Sidney needs J.J.'s. Sidney should have seen it coming, he should have known that J.J. cared nothing for him, but he was too tempted by the success of other people to achieve his own.

Citizen Kane/ His Girl Friday

After watching Citizen Kane (a movie I have already seen and appreciate) and His Girl Friday (a movie I have never seen but now love) I was struck by a similar theme in these two very different movies: the lack of journalistic integrity. These films are both amazing movies but anyone looking to find any journalistic principles in either would need to find another film. Citizen Kane is more subtle about it. In the beginning of the film we have an idealistic Charles Foster Kane taking control of a newspaper that doesn't look like it is doing very well. He gets it set up, fires some of the old employees and brings in some new ones, and writes down a Declaration of Principles for his paper: "1. I will provide the people of this city with a daily paper that will tell all the news honestly. 2. I will also provide them with a fighting and tireless champion of their rights as citizens and as human beings." This is a good start to running a newspaper, keeping yourself in check with self-made principles. but the audience knows that this won't last long. I could focus on different parts of the movie where Kane loses track of his principles but the most important one comes during his rising political career. Kane uses his control over many U.S. newspapers to build him up and put his rival down. I think it is safe to say that things he said about his rival may or may not have been true. A media magnet running for office has happened before on the world stage. Italy's prime minister owns the equivalent of all the major U.S. networks, which means he can control the flow of information. Kane's ability to sway public opinion with his newspapers would be too enticing to pass up if he was ever elected.

If Kane is considered subtle, then the lack of journalistic principles in His Girl Friday is as unsubtle as anyone can possibly get. I think the most obvious crime is the use of bribery. Main character Hildy drops some money and asks a prison guard if it was his. She did this because before she wasn't allowed in to interview a convicted criminal. She does this in full view of several other prison guards who take no notice whatsoever. If a journalist was caught bribing their way into a jail, it wouldn't be long before they were actually in jail. Bribery is just the tip of the scale in His Girl Friday. Multiple counts of slander directly to elected officials faces occur very frequently. It was so bad that when the movie released journalists of the time wanted ti taken back because of the way they were portrayed.

These are both great films but any professional journalist would be ashamed at the way they were portrayed, even if it is a comedic light.

Her's a blogger has a 'Citizen Kane Award' for newspapers that go against journalistic principles in regards to climate change.

Randy Cohen discusses ethics in His Girl Friday and reporting for the Times.

-Chris O'Connell